vgrnt

Gem Version

vgrnt is a partial reimplementation of a few vagrant operations that I found to be unbearably slow. For example:

time vagrant ssh -- '/bin/true'
#    real  0m1.969s

time vgrnt ssh -- '/bin/true'
#    real  0m0.538s

It achieves this by naively reimplementing these commands, without requiring superfluous gems (not even vagrant) or parsing the Vagrantfile. Given how ashamed I am of such ugly hacks, the name vgrnt was chosen to be deliberately unpronouncable. If you must use it, probably best to keep it to yourself.

vgrnt ssh

Same as vagrant ssh but faster. Will read .vgrnt-sshconfig file for SSH options, or try to guess the options by shelling out to VBoxManage.

vgrnt ssh
vgrnt ssh vm-name   # supports multi-vm environments
vgrnt ssh -- ls /tmp  # extra ssh args after --

vgrnt ssh-config

Runs vgrnt ssh-config > .vgrnt-sshconfig. Use this if vgrnt ssh doesn't seem to work, because you have a non-standard setup.

vgrnt ssh-config
# =>    creates .vgrnt-sshconfig; will get picked up by 'vgrnt ssh'

vgrnt ssh-config vm-name  # supports multi-vm environments

vgrnt vboxmanage

Simplifies calling VBoxManage on the already created VM. Injects the VM ID (eg 0398e43a-d35f-4c84-bc81-6807f5d11262) in the right spot. 

vgrnt vboxmanage showvminfo --details
# =>    equivalent to: VBoxManage showvminfo 0398e43a-d35f-4c84-bc81-6807f5d11262 --details

vgrnt vboxmanage vm-name showvminfo   # supports multi-vm environments

Certain VBoxManage subcommands have irregular syntax, so you need to specify where to inject the VM_ID token:

vgrnt vboxmanage metrics query VM_ID 
# =>    VBoxManage metrics query 0398e43a-d35f-4c84-bc81-6807f5d11262

TODO

  • vgrnt status (can pull it out from vboxmanage)
  • vgrnt reprovision (equivalent to running vagrant ssh -- chef-solo /tmp...
  • vgrnt destroy (how hard is it to kill a VM??)
  • vgrnt snapshot (it's currently implemented as a vagrant plugin, but who needs decoupling?)

Caveats

  • At the moment, it requires OSX/Linux and Virtualbox.
  • Only works from vagrant project root, not in a subfolder
  • Tests, what tests?

Installation

vgrnt should not be installed as a vagrant plugin. Instead, simply Ensure you have Vagrant 1.1+ installed, then run:

gem install vgrnt --no-rdoc --no-ri

Development

To develop on this plugin, do the following:

# get the repo, and then make a feature branch (REPLACE WITH YOUR FORK)
git clone https://github.com/dergachev/vagrant-vboxmanage.git
cd vagrant-vboxmanage
git checkout -b MY-NEW-FEATURE

# installs the vagrant gem, which is a dev dependency
bundle install 

# hack on the plugin
vim lib/vagrant-vboxmanage.rb # or any other file

# test out your changes, in the context provided by the development vagrant gem, and the local Vagrantfile.
bundle exec vagrant snapshot ...

# commit, push, and do a pull-request

See DEVNOTES.md for the notes I compiled while developing this plugin.