There's no concept of versions for "raw" images as there's no metadata at all - its just raw disk content.
For the qcow2 format, the version 2 vs version 3 distinction is not something that is intended to be exposed externally. A version 3 format file is still handled by the qcow2 format driver, and there is no qcow3 driver. At an end user level you can specify a compatibility level "0.10" vs "1.1" which indicates what QEMU version your image shuld be compatible with - from 'man qemu-img': "compat" Determines the qcow2 version to use. "compat=0.10" uses the traditional image format that can be read by any QEMU since 0.10. "compat=1.1" enables image format extensions that only QEMU 1.1 and newer understand (this is the default). Amongst others, this includes zero clusters, which allow efficient copy-on-read for sparse images. Internally, compat=1.1, will cause qemu to use qcow2 version 3, but that's not something users should be concerned with. Docs that talk about version 2 vs version 3 should be fixed as that's not something user should be exposed to. They should just talk about the compat level. ** Changed in: qemu Status: New => Invalid -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of qemu- devel-ml, which is subscribed to QEMU. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1790617 Title: Version of disk image format not exhibited using the 'qemu-img info' command Status in QEMU: Invalid Bug description: OS: Fedora (64 bits) – Linux –. Last available component: qemu- img.x86_64 2:2.11.2-2.fc28 Description: version of disk image format not exhibited using the 'qemu-img info' command. Command 'qemu-img info qcow2 [image-file-name.img]' produces this stderr message: qemu-img: Expecting one image file name Try 'qemu-img --help' for more information How to reproduce in terminal: 1. Create a VM using Raw disk image format 2. Run either commands 'qemu-img info -f raw [image-file-name.img]', 'qemu-img info [image-file-name.img]'. 3. Run either commands 'qemu-img info -f qcow2 [image-file-name.qcow2]', 'qemu-img info [image-file-name.qcow2]'. Actual result: output model resulting from step .2 exhibits following informations: image: image-file-name.img file format: raw virtual size: _G (_ bytes) disk size: _G Output model resulting from step .3 exhibits following informations: image: image-file-name.qcow2 file format: qcow2 virtual size: _G (_ bytes) disk size: _G cluster_size: _ Snapshot list: ID TAG VM SIZE DATE VM CLOCK 1 snapshot1 _G 2018-07-31 18:27:49 00:03:45.890 Format specific information: compat: 1.1 lazy refcounts: true refcount bits: 16 corrupt: false Actual result: raw and qcow2 formats respective versions –which are likely to be mentioned as "version"– to be exhibited. Additional information: in documentation lastly updated 2018-08-23 at https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en- us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/virtualization_deployment_and_administration_guide/index it is stated in chapters: 14.10 – 'images in raw format can be resized in both directions, whereas qcow2 version 2 or qcow2 version 3 images can be grown'; 14.12 – 'the qcow2 version supplied with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 is 1.1', 'To know which version you are using, run qemu-img info qcow2 [imagefilename.img] command.'. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1790617/+subscriptions