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Start

Start Barn with up, connect with ssh, and read the other guides only when needed.

With Barn installed, new users can start a test lab with the Quick Start:

barn up
barn ssh

When no inventory or deployment exists, interactive up creates the default inventory. It can prepare missing host dependencies and networking. Repeat barn up to retry unfinished guest setup without restarting healthy VMs. For unattended setup, run barn setup --yes before barn up.

Package availability is recorded on Status; developers and source reviewers can use Build from Source.

Everything else is separated by task:

  1. Daily Operations — status, access, start/stop, changes, scale-in, and destroy.
  2. Troubleshooting — diagnostics and common fixes.
  3. Image Repositories — choose images, use mirrors, import, and prune the cache.
  4. Build from Source — developer builds, checks, and local PATH setup.
  5. Uninstall and Clean Up — remove the deployment, images, networking, and state.
  6. Automation and Guest Scripts — unattended setup, JSON acceptance, repeatable guest commands, and the Pigsty handoff.
  7. Storage and Access — disk retention, file transfer, SSH tunnels, and Linux directory sharing.
  8. macOS Virtual Machines — unreleased barn mac: macOS 27 guests on Apple Silicon with desktop, SSH, shared folders, and clipboard.
Quick Start

Install Barn 0.9.0, start an Ubuntu lab with up, connect with ssh, and scale from the same inventory.

Daily Operations

The normal lifecycle for the one deployment: inspect, access, scale, change, stop, and destroy.

Troubleshooting

Short, safe runbooks for setup, networking, images, drift, interrupted state, and SSH.

Automation

Prepare an unattended lab, check JSON results, and run repeatable scripts inside selected guests.

Storage and Access

Configure test data disks, understand retention, transfer files, and reach guest services through OpenSSH.

macOS VMs

Run macOS 27 virtual machines on Apple Silicon with barn mac — create, connect, share files and the clipboard, and clean up.

Image Repositories

Choose guest images, use a mirror, import a local qcow2, and prune the cache.

Build from Source

Build Barn for development and review, then run the complete source gate.

Uninstall and Clean Up

Safely remove the Barn deployment, integrations, images, host network, and default state directory.