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qemu-img — Create and manipulate Quick Emulator Virtual HDD images. More information: <https://qemu.readthedocs

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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createcommandqemu-imgandquickmanipulatecliemulator

Problem

How to use the qemu-img command: Create and manipulate Quick Emulator Virtual HDD images. More information: <https://qemu.readthedocs.io/en/master/tools/qemu-img.html>.

Solution

qemu-img — Create and manipulate Quick Emulator Virtual HDD images. More information: <https://qemu.readthedocs.io/en/master/tools/qemu-img.html>.

Create disk image with a specific size (in gigabytes):

qemu-img create {{path/to/image_file.img}} {{gigabytes}}G

Show information about a disk image:

qemu-img info {{path/to/image_file.img}}

Increase or decrease image size:

qemu-img resize {{path/to/image_file.img}} {{gigabytes}}G

Dump the allocation state of every sector of the specified disk image:

qemu-img map {{path/to/image_file.img}}

Convert a VMware .vmdk disk image to a KVM .qcow2 disk image and display [p]rogress:

qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O qcow2 -p {{path/to/image_file.vmdk}} {{path/to/image_file.qcow2}}

[c]reate an internal snapshot of a KVM .qcow2 disk image:

qemu-img snapshot -c {{snapshot_tag_name}} {{path/to/image_file.qcow2}}

[a]pply an internal snapshot to a KVM .qcow2 disk image:

qemu-img snapshot -a {{snapshot_tag_name}} {{path/to/image_file.qcow2}}

Code Snippets

Create disk image with a specific size (in gigabytes)

qemu-img create {{path/to/image_file.img}} {{gigabytes}}G

Show information about a disk image

qemu-img info {{path/to/image_file.img}}

Increase or decrease image size

qemu-img resize {{path/to/image_file.img}} {{gigabytes}}G

Dump the allocation state of every sector of the specified disk image

qemu-img map {{path/to/image_file.img}}

Convert a VMware `.vmdk` disk image to a KVM `.qcow2` disk image and display [p]rogress

qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O qcow2 -p {{path/to/image_file.vmdk}} {{path/to/image_file.qcow2}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/qemu-img

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