@item raw
Raw disk image format (default). This format has the advantage of
-being simple and easily exportable to all other emulators. If your file
-system supports @emph{holes} (for example in ext2 or ext3 on Linux),
-then only the written sectors will reserve space. Use @code{qemu-img
-info} to know the real size used by the image or @code{ls -ls} on
-Unix/Linux.
+being simple and easily exportable to all other emulators. If your
+file system supports @emph{holes} (for example in ext2 or ext3 on
+Linux or NTFS on Windows), then only the written sectors will reserve
+space. Use @code{qemu-img info} to know the real size used by the
+image or @code{ls -ls} on Unix/Linux.
-@item qcow
+@item qcow2
QEMU image format, the most versatile format. Use it to have smaller
images (useful if your filesystem does not supports holes, for example
-on Windows), optional AES encryption and zlib based compression.
+on Windows), optional AES encryption, zlib based compression and
+support of multiple VM snapshots.
+@item qcow
+Old QEMU image format. Left for compatibility.
@item cow
User Mode Linux Copy On Write image format. Used to be the only growable
image format in QEMU. It is supported only for compatibility with
previous versions. It does not work on win32.
@item vmdk
-VMware 3 and 4 compatible image format. Currently only supported as
-read-only.
+VMware 3 and 4 compatible image format.
@item cloop
Linux Compressed Loop image, useful only to reuse directly compressed
CD-ROM images present for example in the Knoppix CD-ROMs.
Give information about the disk image @var{filename}. Use it in
particular to know the size reserved on disk which can be different
-from the displayed size.
+from the displayed size. If VM snapshots are stored in the disk image,
+they are displayed too.
@end table
@c man end
projects / qemu / blobdiff