Module boot 

Boot a VM from a Hexz snapshot with optional persistence.

This command implements the full VM boot workflow, combining FUSE mounting, overlay management, and hypervisor configuration to launch virtual machines directly from compressed Hexz snapshots.

Boot Process

1. Mount Snapshot: Mount the .st archive via FUSE as a block device
2. Create Overlay: Set up writable overlay if --persist specified
3. Launch Hypervisor: Start QEMU with configured parameters
4. Setup QMP: Connect to QEMU Machine Protocol for control
5. Resume VM: Trigger execution if VM is paused

Hypervisor Support

• QEMU (default): Full featured, supports KVM acceleration
• Firecracker: Lightweight microVM (future support)

Persistence Modes

Ephemeral (no overlay):

hexz vm boot snapshot.st
# Changes lost on shutdown

Persistent (with overlay):

hexz vm boot snapshot.st --persist overlay.bin
# Writes saved to overlay.bin
# Commit with: hexz vm commit snapshot.st overlay.bin new-snapshot.st

Performance Features

• KVM Acceleration: Enabled by default (disable with --no-kvm)
• Transparent Decompression: FUSE layer handles LZ4/Zstd on-the-fly
• Block Cache: Reduces repeated decompression overhead

Functions

run

Boots a virtual machine from a Hexz snapshot with optional persistence.