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Boxes
Boxes are the skeleton from which Vagrant machines are constructed. They are portable files which can be used by others on any platform that runs Vagrant to bring up a working environment.
The vagrant box utility provides all the functionality for managing
boxes. Boxes must currently be created manually.
Boxes are provider-specific, so you must obtain the proper box depending on what provider you're using.
If you're interested in more details on the exact file format of boxes, there is a separate page dedicated to that, since it is an advanced topic that general users don't need to know.
Adding Boxes
Adding boxes is straightforward:
$ vagrant box add name url
name is a logical name by which the box is referenced from the
Vagrantfile. You can put anything you want here, but know that Vagrant
matches the config.vm.box directive with this name in order to look up
the box to use.
url is the location of the box. This can be a path to your local filesystem
or an HTTP URL to the box remotely.
Vagrant will automatically determine the provider the box was built
for by reading the "metadata.json" file within the box archive. You
may also tell Vagrant what provider the box is for by specifying the
--provider flag.
This is recommended as it adds an extra level of verification to the box you're downloading. Additionally, Vagrant can exit early with an error if a box with that name and provider already exists, whereas it must download the entire box before showing such an error in the other case.
Multiple boxes with the same name can exist as long as they are all
for different providers. The example of listing boxes below shows this,
where there are multiple precise64 boxes, backed by different providers.
This lets a single config.vm.box configuration within a Vagrantfile
properly reference boxes across providers.
Listing Boxes
To view what boxes Vagrant has locally installed, use vagrant box list:
$ vagrant box list
precise64 (virtualbox)
precise64 (vmware_fusion)
Vagrant lists all boxes along with the providers the box is for in parentheses.
Removing Boxes
Boxes can be removed just as easily as they are added:
$ vagrant box remove precise64 virtualbox
The two arguments are the logical name of the box and the provider of the box.
Optional Provider Parameter?
A future release of Vagrant will make the provider parameter optional when removing a box. In this case, Vagrant will show a list of boxes that can be removed and ask the user which they want to remove. This is not currently implemented.