Command Functions

The print-usage message appears next, with output partially shown in Usage Message.

Next comes the main() function, which sets defaults and parses command-line arguments to determine the operation and possibly set options to change defaults. Dynamic loading occurs, if defined. Notice the all-zero initialization of the VixDiskLibConnectParams declared structure:

VixDiskLibConnectParams cnxParams = {0};

For connections to an ESXi host, credentials including user name and password must be correctly supplied in the -user and -password command-line arguments. Both the -host name of the ESXi host and its -vm inventory path (vmxSpec) must be supplied. When set, these values populate the cnxParams structure. Initialize all parameters, especially vmxSpec, or else the connection might behave unexpectedly.

A call to VixDiskLib_Init() initializes the library. In a production application, you can supply appropriate log, warn, and panic functions as parameters, in place of NULL.

A call to VixDiskLib_Connect() creates a connection to disk. If host cnxParams.serverName is null, as it is without the -host argument, a connection is made to hosted disk on the local host. Otherwise a connection is made to managed disk on the remote host. With -ssmoref argument, advanced transport is used.

Next, an appropriate function is called for the requested operation, followed by error information if applicable. Finally, the main() function closes the library connection to disk and exits.