# Vagrant — Reproducible VM Development Environments > Practical guide to Vagrant — VM-based development environments with Vagrantfile, boxes, providers, provisioning and snapshots on the command line. Source: https://www.jpkc.com/db/en/cheatsheets/containers/vagrant/ Vagrant by HashiCorp builds reproducible development environments as full virtual machines – not containers. The entire configuration lives in a single file, the `Vagrantfile`, which you version alongside your project. Prebuilt boxes serve as the base images, and Vagrant boots them through a provider such as VirtualBox, VMware, Hyper-V or libvirt. A single `vagrant up` gives every team member the exact same environment. This guide walks you through the essential commands – from initializing through provisioning to snapshots. ## Initialize & Start `vagrant init ` — Create a Vagrantfile for a specific box. ```bash vagrant init ubuntu/jammy64 ``` `vagrant up` — Start and provision the VM. ```bash vagrant up ``` `vagrant up --provider=` — Start with a specific provider. ```bash vagrant up --provider=vmware_desktop ``` `vagrant up --no-provision` — Start without running provisioners. ```bash vagrant up --no-provision ``` `vagrant reload` — Restart the VM (applies Vagrantfile changes). ```bash vagrant reload ``` `vagrant reload --provision` — Restart and re-run provisioners. ```bash vagrant reload --provision ``` ## Stop & Destroy `vagrant halt` — Gracefully shut down the VM. ```bash vagrant halt ``` `vagrant halt -f` — Force shutdown the VM. ```bash vagrant halt -f ``` `vagrant suspend` — Suspend the VM (save state to disk). ```bash vagrant suspend ``` `vagrant resume` — Resume a suspended VM. ```bash vagrant resume ``` `vagrant destroy` — Stop and delete the VM completely. ```bash vagrant destroy ``` `vagrant destroy -f` — Force destroy without confirmation. ```bash vagrant destroy -f ``` ## SSH & Status `vagrant ssh` — Connect to the VM via SSH. ```bash vagrant ssh ``` `vagrant ssh -c ''` — Run a command inside the VM via SSH. ```bash vagrant ssh -c 'cat /etc/os-release' ``` `vagrant ssh-config` — Show SSH config (for use with ssh command). ```bash vagrant ssh-config >> ~/.ssh/config ``` `vagrant status` — Show status of the current VM. ```bash vagrant status ``` `vagrant global-status` — Show status of all Vagrant VMs system-wide. ```bash vagrant global-status ``` `vagrant port` — Show port mappings for the VM. ```bash vagrant port ``` ## Provisioning `vagrant provision` — Run provisioners on a running VM. ```bash vagrant provision ``` `vagrant provision --provision-with ` — Run only a specific provisioner. ```bash vagrant provision --provision-with shell ``` `vagrant upload ` — Upload a file to the VM. ```bash vagrant upload config.yaml /home/vagrant/config.yaml ``` ## Box Management `vagrant box list` — List all installed boxes. ```bash vagrant box list ``` `vagrant box add ` — Download and add a box. ```bash vagrant box add ubuntu/jammy64 ``` `vagrant box update` — Update the box for the current environment. ```bash vagrant box update ``` `vagrant box remove ` — Remove a box from local storage. ```bash vagrant box remove ubuntu/focal64 ``` `vagrant box outdated` — Check if the box is outdated. ```bash vagrant box outdated ``` `vagrant package --output ` — Package the current VM into a reusable box. ```bash vagrant package --output mybox.box ``` ## Snapshots `vagrant snapshot save ` — Take a named snapshot of the VM. ```bash vagrant snapshot save before-update ``` `vagrant snapshot restore ` — Restore a snapshot. ```bash vagrant snapshot restore before-update ``` `vagrant snapshot list` — List all snapshots. ```bash vagrant snapshot list ``` `vagrant snapshot delete ` — Delete a snapshot. ```bash vagrant snapshot delete before-update ``` `vagrant snapshot push` — Take a quick snapshot (stack-based). ```bash vagrant snapshot push ``` `vagrant snapshot pop` — Restore and delete the last pushed snapshot. ```bash vagrant snapshot pop ``` ## Conclusion Vagrant shines wherever you need a complete, isolated environment – a different operating system, a kernel module or a setup that is awkward to reproduce with containers. Once your `Vagrantfile` is in place, onboarding a new team member is a single command. For lightweight, purely Linux-based services, containers are often the leaner choice; for reproducible VM environments, Vagrant remains the tool to reach for. ## Further Reading - [Vagrant – official documentation](https://developer.hashicorp.com/vagrant/docs) – reference and handbook by HashiCorp - [Vagrant Cloud – box catalog](https://portal.cloud.hashicorp.com/vagrant/discover) – ready-made boxes to plug in - [Vagrant (software) – Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagrant_(software)) – background and history ## Related Commands - [ddev](https://www.jpkc.com/db/en/cheatsheets/containers/ddev/) – container-based local development environments for PHP projects - [docker](https://www.jpkc.com/db/en/cheatsheets/containers/docker/) – build and run containers instead of full VMs - [docker-compose](https://www.jpkc.com/db/en/cheatsheets/containers/docker-compose/) – orchestrate multiple containers declaratively