---
name: "guestfs-release-notes-1.52"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "libguestfs"
version: "1.60.1-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/guestfs-release-notes-1.52"
---

# guestfs-release-notes-1.52(1)

libguestfs Release Notes

## NAME

guestfs-release-notes - libguestfs Release Notes

## RELEASE NOTES FOR LIBGUESTFS 1.52

These are the release notes for libguestfs stable release 1.52. This describes the major changes since 1.50.

Libguestfs 1.52.0 was released on **5 January 2024**.

### Language bindings

The Python bindings now use `"bytes"` (instead of `"str"`) for the event callback message, since it may contain arbitrary 8 bit data (thanks Yonatan Shtarkman).

Also in the Python bindings, fix a rare crash, and avoid memory leaks in event callbacks (thanks Yonatan Shtarkman, Laszlo Ersek, Eric Blake).

Support for OCaml 5, and OCaml ≥ 4.07 is now the minimum (thanks Guillaume Munch-Maccagnoni, Jerry James, Josh Berdine, Jürgen Hötzel, Vincent Laviron).

The OCaml bindings now release the runtime lock around calls to `"guestfs_close"`, since that call might be long-running (for example it might have to shut down the appliance and synch disks).

### Inspection

Support OpencloudOS (cunshunxia@tencent).

### API

SELinux relabelling now runs in parallel, meaning it's a lot quicker (Andrey Drobyshev).

Add support for lzma and zstd compression methods in tar APIs (like `"guestfs_tar_in"`) (Zixun LI).

`"guestfs_pvs_full"` previously didn't always return the correct device names.  This has now been fixed.

`"guestfs_btrfs_filesystem_balance"` fixed so it now works with more modern btrfs tools (Jürgen Hötzel).

### Tools

The [**guestfish**(1)](/guestfish/1.md) *--key* option now recognizes LVM names like */dev/mapper/rhel\_bootp--73--75--123-root* (Laszlo Ersek).

guestfish *--key* option also supports a new *--key all:...* selector to try the same key on all devices.

In [**guestmount**(1)](/guestmount/1.md) avoid calling `fclose(NULL)` on error paths, which might have caused a crash on some platforms.

### Build changes

The `"RELEASES"` file (which listed release dates) has been removed and replaced with a simple `"RELEASE_DATE"` macro in *./configure*.  This should simplify builds.

Optionally [**passt**(1)](/passt/1.md) may be used for networking (Laszlo Ersek).

[**dhcpcd**(8)](/dhcpcd/8.md) is now used in preference to dh-client on Red Hat platforms.

Old Ruby `"MiniTest"` and `"Test::Unit"` dependencies replaced with new `"Minitest"`.

Fix compatibility issues with libxml2 2.12.

### Internals

On x86-64 we now use the more modern q35 machine type when running the appliance.  This should perform slightly better and has more development attention from the qemu community.  The change should be invisible to libguestfs users.

Fix a segmentation fault when `"TERM"` environment variable was set to `"dumb"` (Daisuke HATAYAMA).

Avoid a warning on modern Fedora which does not have */selinux* (Andrey Drobyshev).

Fix build on OpenSUSE LEAP 15 or other distros with a [**file**(1)](/file/1.md) command which did not understand the *-S* option (thanks Olaf Hering).

### Bugs fixed

- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/2247057

  Remove dependency on dhcp-client in libguestfs

- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/2184967

  RFE: support passt for appliance networking, as QEMU userspace networking backend

- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/2168578

  use q35 machine type for libguestfs appliance

- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1910039

  virt-dib doesn't work with newer diskimage-builder version on RHEL8

## SEE ALSO

**guestfs-examples**(1), [**guestfs-faq**(1)](/guestfs-faq/1.md), [**guestfs-performance**(1)](/guestfs-performance/1.md), [**guestfs-recipes**(1)](/guestfs-recipes/1.md), [**guestfs-testing**(1)](/guestfs-testing/1.md), [**guestfs**(3)](/guestfs/3.md), [**guestfish**(1)](/guestfish/1.md), http://libguestfs.org/

## AUTHORS

- Andrey Drobyshev

  - cunshunxia

  - Emilio Herrera

  - grimst

  - HATAYAMA Daisuke

  - Jan Kuparinen

  - Jürgen Hötzel

  - Laszlo Ersek

  - Pavel Borecki

  - Richard W.M. Jones

  - Temuri Doghonadze

  - Tian Shixiong

  - Yuri Chornoivan

  - Zixun LI

  ## COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2009-2025 Red Hat Inc.

## LICENSE

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.

## BUGS

To get a list of bugs against libguestfs, use this link: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools

To report a new bug against libguestfs, use this link: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter\_bug.cgi?component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization+Tools

When reporting a bug, please supply:

- •

  The version of libguestfs.

- •

  Where you got libguestfs (eg. which Linux distro, compiled from source, etc)

- •

  Describe the bug accurately and give a way to reproduce it.

- •

  Run [**libguestfs-test-tool**(1)](/libguestfs-test-tool/1.md) and paste the **complete, unedited** output into the bug report.