trycua/cua

[Lume] VM Snapshot Management

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#15 opened on Feb 5, 2025

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good first issue

Description

Current Behavior

Currently lume does not support creating, managing, or restoring VM snapshots.

Desired Behavior

Ability to:

  • Create named snapshots of running or stopped VMs
  • List available snapshots for a VM
  • Restore VMs to previous snapshots
  • Delete snapshots
  • Export/Import snapshots

Technical Implementation

macOS Virtualization.Framework already provides snapshot support through VZMacOSVirtualMachineSnapshot class, which offers:

  • VZMacOSVirtualMachine.takeSnapshot() - Creates a snapshot of the current VM state
  • VZMacOSVirtualMachine.restoreSnapshot(_:) - Restores VM to a previous snapshot
  • Snapshot data can be written to disk using write(toFile:) and loaded using init(contentsOf:)

This native support makes implementation straightforward, mainly requiring:

  1. CLI interface to expose snapshot functions
  2. Snapshot management system
  3. Storage handling for snapshot files

Proposed CLI Commands

# Create snapshot
lume snapshot create <vm-name> [--name <snapshot-name>]

# List snapshots
lume snapshot list <vm-name>

# Restore snapshot
lume snapshot restore <vm-name> <snapshot-name>

# Delete snapshot
lume snapshot delete <vm-name> <snapshot-name>

# Export snapshot
lume snapshot export <vm-name> <snapshot-name> <output-path>

# Import snapshot
lume snapshot import <vm-name> <snapshot-path>

Contributor guide

Tech stack
swift
Domain
cli
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
macOS developmentSwift programmingVirtualization.Framework knowledge
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
50
Research direction
The existing lume codebase should be studied to understand the current VM management structure. Look at how VMs are started and stopped using Virtualization.Framework. The snapshot feature can be implemented by extending the 'lume' CLI with new commands, possibly in a new file handling snapshot operations. The macOS Virtualization.Framework provides VZMacOSVirtualMachineSnapshot class which can be used for takeSnapshot() and restoreSnapshot(). The implementation should handle snapshot storage paths and listing.
[Lume] VM Snapshot Management · trycua/cua#15 | Good First Issue