#Vista Tools

Vista Tools is a small program inside a guest that runs commands and moves files when Vista asks. Agents use it through run_command and the file tools; without it they can still work through the screen.

It runs in Linux and macOS guests. Windows isn't supported: the vsock channel it listens on needs a driver there.

#Installing

Every machine sees Vista Tools on a read-only share. Install once per machine.

#Linux

sudo mount -t virtiofs vistatools /mnt && sudo /mnt/install.sh

The installer:

copies vistatools to /usr/local/bin (a static binary: no dependencies, any distribution);
loads the vmw_vsock_virtio_transport kernel module;
starts it now and at every boot — as a systemd service, an OpenRC service, or, on a system with neither, in the background until the next reboot;
adds /mnt/vista to /etc/fstab, so shared folders mount at every boot.

#macOS

Open /Volumes/My Shared Files/Vista Tools/install.command. It asks for your password once, copies vistatools to /usr/local/bin, and installs a LaunchDaemon (io.wess.vista.tools) that keeps it running.

#Checking it

From Vista's side, guest_info answers with the guest's OS, kernel, hostname and user. Inside the guest:

systemctl status vistatools          # systemd
rc-service vistatools status         # OpenRC (Alpine)
sudo launchctl print system/io.wess.vista.tools   # macOS

#Updating

Run the installer again; it replaces the binary and restarts the service.

#How it works

vistatools listens on virtio-vsock port 7000. vsock is a socket between a virtual machine and its host that doesn't go through the network: nothing on your network, or in another machine, can reach it. Only the vistamachine process running that machine can connect.

Each connection carries one JSON request and one JSON answer; the protocol is in Protocols.

It runs as root. Commands run as the guest's console user unless the request asks for root:

in Linux, the first regular account (uid 1000 and up) with a login shell;
in macOS, whoever owns the console (is logged in at the screen);
root, when there's no such user.

Commands run in their own process group, so a timeout kills everything they started. Output is kept up to 1 MB per stream. Files move as base64, up to 64 MB per request; upload_file and download_file chunk bigger files.

#Removing

# Linux, systemd
sudo systemctl disable --now vistatools && sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/vistatools.service
# Linux, OpenRC
sudo rc-service vistatools stop && sudo rc-update del vistatools && sudo rm /etc/init.d/vistatools
# then
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/vistatools

# macOS
sudo launchctl bootout system/io.wess.vista.tools
sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/io.wess.vista.tools.plist /usr/local/bin/vistatools

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