Sometimes you may execute “virsh undefine” command .. but if you really didnt meant to delete the guest configuration from disk, please make sure you have a backup of the guest configuraiton file in a location which is NOT default for libvirt ie /etc/libvirt/qemu. Otherwise you may wonder where it went after virsh undefine command.
libvirt code path does do a “unlink” operation on the guest configuration file when you execute virsh undefine” command.
This is the snip from my system::
[root@humbles-lap qemu]# virsh list –inactive Id Name State ———————————- – RHEL-5 shut off – rhel5.4-x86_64-kvm shut off – RHEV-H-Server shut off – Window-2008 shut off
[root@humbles-lap qemu]# pwd /etc/libvirt/qemu [root@humbles-lap qemu]# cp rhel5.4-x86_64-kvm.xml /tmp/
[root@humbles-lap qemu]# ls networks rhel5.4-x86_64-kvm_backup.xml rhel5.4-x86_64-kvm.xml RHEL-5.xml rhevh.xml Window-2008.xml [root@humbles-lap qemu]# virsh undefine rhel5.4-x86_64-kvm Domain rhel5.4-x86_64-kvm has been undefined
[root@humbles-lap qemu]# ls networks rhel5.4-x86_64-kvm_backup.xml RHEL-5.xml rhevh.xml Window-2008.xml [root@humbles-lap qemu]#