+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><command>image-status</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>...</term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Show terse status
+ information about one or more
+ container or VM images. This function
+ is intended to generate human-readable
+ output. Use
+ <command>show-image</command> (see
+ below) to generate computer-parsable
+ output instead.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><command>show-image</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>...</term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Show properties of one
+ or more registered virtual machine or
+ container images, or the manager
+ itself. If no argument is specified,
+ properties of the manager will be
+ shown. If an NAME is specified,
+ properties of this virtual machine or
+ container image are shown. By default,
+ empty properties are suppressed. Use
+ <option>--all</option> to show those
+ too. To select specific properties to
+ show, use
+ <option>--property=</option>. This
+ command is intended to be used
+ whenever computer-parsable output is
+ required. Use
+ <command>image-status</command> if you
+ are looking for formatted
+ human-readable
+ output.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><command>clone</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Clones a container or
+ disk image. The arguments specify the
+ name of the image to clone and the
+ name of the newly cloned image. Note
+ that plain directory container images
+ are cloned into subvolume images with
+ this command. Note that cloning a
+ container or VM image is optimized for
+ btrfs file systems, and might not be
+ efficient on others, due to file
+ system limitations.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><command>rename</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Renames a container or
+ disk image. The arguments specify the
+ name of the image to rename and the
+ new name of the
+ image.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><command>read-only</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> [<replaceable>BOOL</replaceable>]</term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Marks or (unmarks) a
+ container or disk image
+ read-only. Takes a VM or container
+ image name, followed by a boolean as
+ arguments. If the boolean is omitted,
+ positive is implied, i.e. the image is
+ marked read-only.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><command>remove</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>...</term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Removes one or more
+ container or disk images. The special
+ image <literal>.host</literal>, which
+ refers to the host's own directory
+ tree may not be
+ removed.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+
+ </variablelist></refsect2>
+
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Files and Directories</title>
+
+ <para>Machine images are preferably stored in
+ <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename>, but are also
+ searched for in
+ <filename>/usr/local/lib/machines/</filename> and
+ <filename>/usr/lib/machines/</filename>. For
+ compatibility reasons the directory
+ <filename>/var/lib/container/</filename> is searched,
+ too. Note that images stored below
+ <filename>/usr</filename> are always considered
+ read-only. It is possible to symlink machines images
+ from other directories into
+ <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename> to make them
+ available for control with
+ <command>machinectl</command>.</para>
+
+ <para>Disk images are understood in three formats:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem><para>A simple directory tree,
+ containing the files and directories of the
+ container to boot.</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>A subvolume (on btrfs file
+ systems), which are similar to the simple
+ directories, described above. However, they
+ have additional benefits, such as efficient
+ cloning and quota reporting.</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>"Raw" disk images, i.e. binary
+ images of disks with a GPT or MBR partition
+ table. Images of this type are regular
+ files with the suffix
+ <literal>.raw</literal>.</para></listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ <para>See
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ for more information on image formats, in particular
+ it's <option>--directory=</option> and
+ <option>--image=</option> options.</para>