qvm-copy target selection via cli

[m4lu]

Qubes OS version:

R4.0 (rc4)

Affected TemplateVMs:

• fedora-26
• fedora-26-minimal
• debian-9

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Steps to reproduce the behavior:

Run qvm-copy file in any Qube based on the templates mentioned above.

Expected behavior:

There should be a way to provide the target Qube on the cli (without a GUI).

Actual behavior:

A GUI dialogue pops up.

General notes:

The documentation (https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/copying-files/) states that the old tools like qvm-copy-to-vm are deprecated in 4.x The provided user interface is an improvement over the old one on 3.2, but to be able to script certain tasks would yield advantages for me.

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Related issues:

3529 (might be considered related)

[andrewdavidwong]

Related: #3251, #3141, #1839

[andrewdavidwong]

The provided user interface is an improvement over the old one on 3.2, but to be able to script certain tasks would yield advantages for me.

You should be able to script it by specifying the destination VM in the appropriate policy file. I think this issue should be about documenting that functionality.

CC: @marmarek

[andrewdavidwong]

Alternatively, if it's actually available, try using qvm-copy-to-vm (instead of the qvm-copy wrapper), as mentioned in #3141 (if the way it's described there is how it actually ended up being implemented).

[marmarek]

If policy define action ask, you need GUI anyway. But if you define allow (for some specific source and target), then qvm-copy-to-vm will work.

[bemoody]

Would it be reasonable to add a command-line option to qvm-copy to make it behave like qvm-copy-to-vm?

I understand that qvm-copy-to-vm is generally inferior for normal interactive use and may be confusing to newbies. But the functionality (i.e., ability to specify target VM in a script, if dom0 has an explicit policy rule to allow it) is very useful to me, and I hope this functionality can be preserved even if the qvm-copy-to-vm tool itself is removed in a future version of Qubes.