Data and Caches
Everything libvirt persists lives under two directories, scoped by app:
(default: derived from shell.program).
$XDG_DATA_HOME/<app>/libvirt/:
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
ssh/ |
SSH keys |
seeds/ |
Cloud-init seed ISOs |
provision/ |
Unattended-install provisioning discs |
images/ |
Base disk images |
domains/ |
Per-domain working state |
screenshots/ |
Consoles captured when a wait timed out |
$XDG_CACHE_HOME/<app>/:
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
transfer/ |
Download cache |
Of these, it is recommended that you retain ssh/ and seeds/ in
$XDG_DATA_HOME and the entire cache directory in $XDG_CACHE_HOME. SSH
public keys are baked into seed ISOs and exported VMs, so they are the
most critical to retain across build runs.
Pass an explicit app: if you need to use the same data directory and cache
from multiple scripts, as the default is derived from shell.program.