---
name: "vmexec-run"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "vmexec"
version: "0.8.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/vmexec-run"
---

# vmexec-run(1)

Run a command in a new virtual machine

## NAME

vmexec-run - Run a command in a new virtual machine

## SYNOPSIS

**vmexec run** \[**-d**\|**--detach**\] \[**--rm**\] \[**--vmid**\] \[**--disable-kvm**\] \[**-m**\|**--memory**\] \[**-e**\|**--env**\] \[**-w**\|**--workdir**\] \[**-v**\|**--volume**\] \[**--pmem**\] \[**-p**\|**--publish**\] \[**-s**\|**--ssh-timeout**\] \[**-i**\|**--interactive**\] \[**-t**\|**--tty**\] \[**--show-vm-window**\] \[**--pull**\] \[**-h**\|**--help**\] \<*IMAGE\_SOURCE*\> \[*ARGS*\]

## DESCRIPTION

Run a command in a new virtual machine

## OPTIONS

- **-d**, **--detach**

  Run virtual machine in background and print virtual machine ID

- **--rm**

  Remove virtual machine runtime data after exit

- **--vmid** *\<VMID\>*

  Virtual machine identifier

  If not provided, a random identifier will be generated.

- **--disable-kvm**

  Run virtual machine with TCG instead of KVM

  This would be mostly useful in environments where KVM is not available. It will be a lot slower but might be acceptable in some contexts.

- **-m**, **--memory** *\<MEMORY\>*

  Memory limit for the virtual machine in GBs

  Must be an integer of at least 1.

  If not provided, all available host memory is used. This mimics the behavior of a normal process outside a virtual machine.

- **-e**, **--env** *\<ENV\>*

  Set environment variables for the process inside the virtual machine

  Can be provided multiple times.

  Expected format: KEY=VALUE

- **-w**, **--workdir** *\<WORKDIR\>*

  Working directory inside the virtual machine

  The default working directory for running binaries within a virtual machine is dependent on the image. Most commonly, it'll be /root.

- **-v**, **--volume** *\<VOLUMES\>*

  Bind mount a volume into the virtual machine

  The source may be a directory or a single file.

  Can be provided multiple times.

  Expected format: source:dest\[:ro\]

  \`ro\` can optionally be provided to mark the mount as read-only.

  Example: $PWD/src:/mnt:ro

- **--pmem** *\<PMEMS\>*

  Mount a virtio-pmem device file into the virtual machine

  You might want to do this to bypass the guest page cache. This is important if you're overprovisioning your host (i.e. giving VMs more combined memory than the host actually has) and have a write-heavy workload. For more info, see: https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/system/devices/virtio-pmem.html

  Can be provided multiple times.

  Specified as an absolute path inside the VM where the device will be mounted as an ext4 filesystem, and the maximum size in gigabytes. On the host, this will show up as a file inside the VM's state dir.

  Expected format: dest:\<size\>

  Example: /var/lib:20

- **-p**, **--publish** *\<PUBLISHED\_PORTS\>*

  Publish a port on the virtual machine to the host

  Can be provided multiple times.

  Expected format: \[\[hostip:\]\[hostport\]:\]vmport

  \`hostip\` is optional and if not provided, the port will be bound on all host IPs.

  \`hostport\` is optional and if not provided, the same value of \`vmport\` will be used for the host port.

  Currently only IPv4 is supported for \`hostip\`.

- **-s**, **--ssh-timeout** *\<SSH\_TIMEOUT\>* \[default: 20\]

  SSH connection timeout

  Try for this long (in seconds) to connect to the virtual machine's SSH server.

- **-i**, **--interactive** *\<INTERACTIVE\>* \[default: auto\]

  Make STDIN available to the virtual machine's process

  If 'auto', this will try to read from stdin if it is available, and do nothing when stdin is not available. If 'always', this will try to read from stdin and abort when stdin is not available.\

  *Possible values:*

  - •

    always: Forward stdin and fail if it can't be opened

  - •

    never: Don't forward stdin

  - •

    auto: Forward stdin if it can be opened, otherwise carry on without it

- **-t**, **--tty** *\<TTY\>* \[default: auto\]

  Allocate a pseudo-TTY for the virtual machine

  If 'auto', this will be enabled in case vmexec is run from an interactive terminal.\

  *Possible values:*

  - •

    always: Allocate a pseudo-TTY

  - •

    never: Don't allocate a pseudo-TTY

  - •

    auto: Allocate a pseudo-TTY if stdout is a terminal

- **--show-vm-window**

  Show a QEMU window with the virtual machine running in it

  This is mostly useful for debugging boot failures.

- **--pull** *\<PULL\>* \[default: missing\]

  When to pull a new image\

  *Possible values:*

  - •

    missing: Use the newest local image and only download one if there is none

  - •

    never: Use the newest local image and fail if there is none

  - •

    newer: Check for a newer image and download it if there is one

- **-h**, **--help**

  Print help (see a summary with '-h')

- \<*IMAGE\_SOURCE*\>

  Either an operating system (e.g. archlinux) or a path to an image

  Possible OS types: archlinux

- \[*ARGS*\]

  Arguments to run in the virtual machine