Free tools · Networking

Reach a server running inside a VM from your Mac

Discover and forward the ports a Linux guest is listening on. 1VMTool finds them automatically with updated guest tools, publishes them on the Mac's loopback address, reports collisions, and can expose a port on the LAN when you ask it to.

macOS 26 or later · Apple silicon · free on both tiers

Step by step

  1. 1vm ports dev

    Every TCP and UDP port the guest is listening on, discovered through the Linux guest tools.

  2. 1vm ip dev

    The guest's address, bare, for scripting.

  3. 1vm config-global list

    Library memory budget and the Linux port defaults that decide what is published automatically.

  4. 1vm set dev network bridged:en0

    Put the guest on your LAN instead of NAT, when loopback forwarding is not what you want.

Worth knowing

  • Discovery needs the updated Linux guest tools inside the machine. Without them the Ports tab and `1vm ports` have nothing to read.
  • A port already taken on the Mac is reported as a collision rather than silently remapped.
  • Machines created from a recipe report their address from the guest tools when the host's DHCP lease file is unavailable.

The long version

This page is the short path. For the whole area in prose — the options, the edge cases and what to do when it does not work — read Networking.

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Frequently asked questions

Do I have to configure forwarding by hand?

No. Ports are discovered inside the guest and published on localhost automatically, with the defaults under your control in `1vm config-global`.

Can other machines on my network reach the guest?

Only if you ask. LAN exposure is opt-in per port; the default publishes to loopback only. Bridged networking is the other route, and puts the guest on your LAN with its own address.

Does this work for Windows guests?

Automatic port discovery is a Linux guest-tools feature. A Windows guest reaches the network normally, but the listening-port list comes from the Linux tools.