Libvirt

---

title: "Libvirt" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["free-software-programmed-in-c", "free-virtualization-software", "hardware-virtualization", "linux-apis", "virtualization-software-for-linux", "software-that-uses-meson", "red-hat-software"] description: "Management tool" topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libvirt" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Management tool ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]

Field	Value
name	libvirt
logo	Libvirt logo.svg
screenshot
developer	Red Hat
released
latest release version
latest release date
programming language	C
operating system	Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, macOS
genre	Library
license	GNU Lesser General Public License
logo_size	250px
::

| name = libvirt | logo = Libvirt logo.svg | screenshot = | caption = | collapsible = | author = | developer = Red Hat | released = | discontinued = | latest release version = | latest release date = | latest preview version = | latest preview date = | status = | programming language = C | operating system = Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, macOS | platform = | size = | language = | genre = Library | license = GNU Lesser General Public License | logo_size = 250px | frequently updated =

libvirt is an open-source API, daemon and management tool for managing platform virtualization. It can be used to manage KVM, Xen, VMware ESXi, QEMU and other virtualization technologies. These APIs are widely used in the orchestration layer of hypervisors in the development of a cloud-based solution.

Internals

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Libvirt_support.svg" caption="libvirt supports several [[Hypervisor]]s and is supported by several management solutions"] ::

libvirt is a C library with bindings in other languages, notably in Python, Perl, OCaml, Ruby, Java, JavaScript (via Node.js) and PHP. libvirt for these programming languages is composed of wrappers around another class/package called libvirtmod. libvirtmod's implementation is closely associated with its counterpart in C/C++ in syntax and functionality.

Supported Hypervisors

• LXC – lightweight Linux container system
• OpenVZ – lightweight Linux container system
• Kernel-based Virtual Machine/QEMU (KVM) – open-source hypervisor for Linux and SmartOS
• Xen – bare-metal hypervisor
• User-mode Linux (UML) – paravirtualized kernel
• VirtualBox – hypervisor by Oracle (formerly by Sun) for Windows, Linux, macOS, and Solaris
• VMware ESXi and GSX – hypervisors for Intel hardware
• VMware Workstation and Player – hypervisors for Windows and Linux
• Hyper-V – hypervisor for Windows by Microsoft
• PowerVM – hypervisor by IBM for AIX, Linux and IBM i
• Bhyve – hypervisor for FreeBSD 10+ (support added with libvirt 1.2.2)

User Interfaces

Various virtualization programs and platforms use libvirt. Virtual Machine Manager, GNOME Boxes and others provide graphical interfaces. The most popular command line interface is virsh, and higher level tools such as oVirt.

Corporate

Development of libvirt is backed by Red Hat, with significant contributions by other organisations and individuals. libvirt is available on most Linux distributions; remote servers are also accessible from Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows clients.

References

Books

• {{cite book | last1 = Warnke | first1 = Robert | last2 = Ritzau | first2 = Thomas | title = qemu-kvm & libvirt | language = de | publisher = Books on Demand | location = Norderstedt, Germany | isbn = 978-3-8370-0876-0}}

References

1. (2017-06-16). "0.0.1: Dec 19 2005".
2. "libvirt home page description".
3. "Python bindings".
4. "Perl bindings".
5. "OCaml bindings".
6. "Ruby bindings".
7. "Java bindings".
8. (9 January 2017). "Node.js module".
9. "PHP bindings".
10. (15 August 2011). "The Observation Deck » KVM on illumos".
11. "bhyve - FreeBSD Wiki".
12. "oVirt Virtualization Management Platform".
13. "Innovation Without Disruption: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 Now Available".
14. "Windows availability".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::