Manage and run multiple BasiliskII VMs.

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README.md

`basiliskiivm`

by Morgan T. Aldridge morgant@makkintosshu.com

OVERVIEW

basiliskiivm is a utility I tossed together to package up BasiliskII emulator (see Emaculation's wiki for further details) preferences & disk images into a single .BasiliskIIVM directory for each configuration to make it easier to manage, move, launch, and maintain multiple VMs. Think of it as the equivalent to VirtuaBox's VBoxManage, VMware Fusion's vmrun, or Parallels Desktop's prlctl.

USAGE

If you have already have a .BasiliskIIVM generated, you can launch it by running basiliskiivm start <vm_name>.BasiliskIIVM (replacing "<vm_name>" with the name of your BasiliskII VM name).

You can check whether a VM is already/still running by running basiliskiivm status <vm_name>.BasiliskIIVM. While there is a stop command, it currently just reminds you to safely shut the OS down using Special > Shutdown.

You can create snapshots of a VM by running basiliskiivm snapshot <vm_name>.BasiliskIIVM. This currently just creates date-stamped copies of all the disks in the VM, so it's not particularly efficient. You can view all snapshots by running basiliskiivm snapshots <vm_name>.BasiliskIIVM.

While not yet implemented, you will be able to package your existing BasiliskII configuration (for example, one you've configured & tested with BasiliskIIGUI) into a .BasiliskIIVM directory by running basiliskiivm package <vm_name>.BasiliskIIVM. This will take your ~/.basilisk_ii_prefs file, the ROM file, and disk images that are specified in it, and move them into the specified .BasiliskIIVM directory.

Run basiliskiivm -h for further usage instructions.

`.BasiliskIIVM` Structure

Each .BasiliskIIVM directory contains all the configuration settings & data (including disk images) needed to run BasiliskII. This makes it very easy to move, backup, or run multiple individual VMs. Each directory contains:

The BasiliskII .basilisk_ii_prefs preferences/configuration file.
A .basiliskii.pid file which exists & contains the PID of the active instance, when running.
The ROM file.
Any number of disk images.
If there are any snapshots, a Snapshots directory containing one folder per snapshot (named in the 'YYYYmmdd-HHMMSS' format). Inside each individual snapshot folder will be a copy of all the disk images at the time of the snapshot.

LICENSE

TBD