diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/README b/applets/compiler_vm/README
deleted file mode 100644
index 5f3697db..00000000
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/README
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,93 +0,0 @@
-Installation:
-
-If you want to run the compiler inside a virtual machine for more security,
-these scripts are designed to work with qemu 0.11.1.  This is required in
-order to use PBot's trigger.  
-
-In addition, you can use the provided 'cc' script to use your local compiler tools
-without installing qemu.  No PBot installation or configuration is required in this case.
-
-To use the local non-vm 'cc' script, you will need to have gcc, gdb and astyle installed locally.
-
-Be aware that you need to single-quote or escape the code if you use the local 'cc' within a shell,
-e.g.:  ./cc $'char s[] = "hello, world"; puts(s);  if(s[0] == \'h\') puts("true");' 
-
-WARNING: Using the local 'cc' script outside of the virtual machine will not use qemu at all; 
-         it will affect local system -- compile "safe" code!
-
-Virtual machine installation:
-
-You will need to download qemu and set up a virtual machine containing a system
-with a compiler and, optionally, sensible ulimits/fork-preventation/other security.
-
-1) copy compiler_vm_server.pl and compiler_watchdog.pl to the virtual machine.
-2) then start up the compiler_vm_server.pl script inside the virtual machine
-3) then connect to qemu's monitor and issue the 'savevm 1' command to save the virtual state
-   (After compiles, this state will be loaded via 'loadvm 1' to reset everything within the machine 
-    for a clean and working environment for subsequent compiles.)
-
-Now the virtual machine state 1 is saved in a state where it is listening for incoming code.  You can 
-go ahead and quit qemu without shutting down the guest operating sytem.
-
-Starting the virtual machine for PBot:
-
-Now that the virtual machine is configured and saved, you may launch the local server to listen for
-code from PBot to send to the virtual machine's server.  To do so, run the compiler_server.pl script.
-
-Dependencies:
-
-gcc (tested with 4.4.4)
-gdb (tested with 7.2)
-astyle (tested with 1.24 -- not working with astyle 2.0)
-
-Files:
-
-(Read within each file for configuration instructions.)
-
-- cc: Allows you to use the compiler locally with or without qemu installed.
-      Can be used within virtual machine for testing.
-      Requires only compiler_vm_client.pl, compiler_vm_server.pl and compiler_watchdog.pl.
-      Must have gcc, gdb and astyle installed locally if not used within virtual machine.
-      WARNING: If not used within virtual machine will not use qemu at all and will 
-               affect local system -- compile "safe" code!
-
-- compiler_client.pl:  Main entry point for compiling snippets.  Sends over TCP to
-                       compiler_server.pl.  This file can be run be run from the
-                       client machine or anywhere.
-
-- compiler_server.pl:  Responsible for setting up a TCP server to listen for
-                       incoming compile requests; and launching and resetting
-                       the virtual machine.  Sends to compiler_vm_client.pl.
-                       Run this file on the server hosting the virtual machine.
-
-- compiler_vm_client.pl: Responsible for sending snippets to the virtual
-                         machine.  Also expands/translates and formats
-                         snippets into compilable code (with main function and
-                         headers), and handles "interactive-editing".
-                         Sends over TCP to qemu serial port, waits for result,
-                         then sends result back caller (compiler_server.pl).
-                         Run this file on the server hosting the virtual machine.
-
-- compiler_vm_server.pl: Runs on the system inside the virtual machine.
-                         This script listens for incoming code snippets over
-                         the virtual machine's serial port.
-                         Calls compiler_watchdog.pl to monitor its exit signal
-                         or exit status, then returns result back over serial
-                         port (to compiler_vm_client.pl).
-
-- compiler_watchdog.pl: Runs a program and watches its exit signals/status.
-                        Run within the virtual machine.
-
-*** The following files are just auxiliary tools to start/connect to qemu, provided
-for convenience only.  Perhaps they will be useful during installation/testing:
-
-- monitor: Connects to qemu monitor (internal console) over TCP.
-
-- serial: Connects to qemu serial port over TCP.
-
-- runqemu: Launches qemu with a visible window, but without networking support.
-
-- runeqmu.net: Launches qemu with a visible window, and with networking support.
-               You may load a state previously saved with runqemu and reboot it
-               or otherwise reload its networking configuration to gain networking.
-
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/cc b/applets/compiler_vm/cc
deleted file mode 100755
index 0715d08d..00000000
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/cc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,6 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-# This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
-# License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
-# file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
-
-CC_LOCAL=1 ./compiler_vm_client.pl c99 compiler compiler "$@"
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_client.pl b/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_client.pl
deleted file mode 100755
index 76583cf3..00000000
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_client.pl
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,44 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/perl
-
-# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Pragmatic Software <pragma78@gmail.com>
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
-
-# compiler_client.pl connects to compiler_server.pl hosted at PeerAddr/PeerPort below
-# and sends a nick, language and code, then retreives and prints the compilation/execution output.
-#
-# this way we can run the compiler virtual machine on any remote server.
-
-use warnings;
-use strict;
-
-use IO::Socket;
-use JSON;
-
-my $sock = IO::Socket::INET->new(
-  PeerAddr => '127.0.0.1',
-  PeerPort => 9000,
-  Proto => 'tcp');
-
-if(not defined $sock) {
-  print "Fatal error compiling: $!; try again later\n";
-  die $!;
-}
-
-my $json = join ' ', @ARGV;
-my $h = decode_json $json;
-my $lang = $h->{lang} // "c11";
-
-if ($h->{code} =~ s/-lang=([^ ]+)//) {
-  $lang = lc $1;
-}
-
-$h->{lang} = $lang;
-$json = encode_json $h;
-
-print $sock "$json\n";
-
-while(my $line = <$sock>) {
-  print "$line";
-}
-
-close $sock;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_server.pl b/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_server.pl
deleted file mode 100755
index ccb4bc87..00000000
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_server.pl
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,276 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/perl
-
-# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Pragmatic Software <pragma78@gmail.com>
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
-
-use warnings;
-use strict;
-
-use IO::Socket;
-use Net::hostent;
-use IPC::Shareable;
-use Time::HiRes qw/gettimeofday/;
-
-my $SERVER_PORT    = 9000;
-my $SERIAL_PORT    = 3333;
-my $HEARTBEAT_PORT = 3336;
-my $DOMAIN_NAME    = 'compiler';
-
-my $COMPILE_TIMEOUT = 10;
-
-sub server_listen {
-  my $port = shift @_;
-
-  my $server = IO::Socket::INET->new(
-    Proto     => 'tcp',
-    LocalPort => $port,
-    Listen    => SOMAXCONN,
-    Reuse     => 1);
-
-  die "can't setup server: $!" unless $server;
-
-  print "[Server $0 accepting clients]\n";
-
-  return $server;
-}
-
-sub vm_stop {
-  system("virsh shutdown $DOMAIN_NAME");
-}
-
-sub vm_start {
-  system("virsh start $DOMAIN_NAME");
-}
-
-sub vm_reset {
-  return if $ENV{NORESET};
-  #system("virsh detach-disk $DOMAIN_NAME vdb");
-  system("virsh snapshot-revert $DOMAIN_NAME 1");
-  #system("virsh attach-disk $DOMAIN_NAME --source /var/lib/libvirt/images/factdata.qcow2 --target vdb");
-  print "Reset vm\n";
-}
-
-sub execute {
-  my ($cmdline) = @_;
-
-  print "execute($cmdline)\n";
-
-  my @list = split / /, $cmdline;
-
-  my ($ret, $result);
-
-  #$SIG{CHLD} = 'IGNORE';
-
-  my $child = fork;
-
-  if($child == 0) {
-    ($ret, $result) = eval {
-      my $result = '';
-
-      my $pid = open(my $fh, '-|', @list);
-
-      if (not defined $pid) {
-        print "Couldn't fork: $!\n";
-        return (-13, "[Fatal error]");
-      }
-
-      local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { print "Time out\n"; kill 9, $pid; print "sent KILL to $pid\n"; die "Timed-out: $result\n"; };
-      alarm($COMPILE_TIMEOUT);
-
-      print "Reading...\n";
-      while(my $line = <$fh>) {
-        print "read [$line]\n";
-        $result .= $line;
-      }
-
-      close $fh;
-      print "Done reading.\n";
-
-      my $ret = $? >> 8;
-      alarm 0;
-
-      print "[$ret, $result]\n";
-      return ($ret, $result);
-    };
-
-    alarm 0;
-    if($@ =~ /Timed-out: (.*)/) {
-      return (-13, "[Timed-out] $1");
-    }
-
-    return ($ret, $result);
-  } else {
-    waitpid($child, 0);
-    print "?: $?\n";
-    my $result = $? >> 8;
-    print "child exited, parent continuing [result = $result]\n";
-    return (undef, $result);
-  }
-}
-
-sub compiler_server {
-  my ($server, $heartbeat_pid, $heartbeat_monitor);
-
-  my $heartbeat;
-  my $running;
-
-  tie $heartbeat, 'IPC::Shareable', 'dat1', { create => 1 };
-  tie $running,   'IPC::Shareable', 'dat2', { create => 1 };
-
-  my $last_wait = 0;
-
-  while(1) {
-    $running = 1;
-    $heartbeat = 0;
-
-    vm_reset;
-    print "vm started\n";
-
-    $heartbeat_pid = fork;
-    die "Fork failed: $!" if not defined $heartbeat_pid;
-
-    if($heartbeat_pid == 0) {
-      tie $heartbeat, 'IPC::Shareable', 'dat1', { create => 1 };
-      tie $running,   'IPC::Shareable', 'dat2', { create => 1 };
-
-      $heartbeat_monitor = undef;
-      my $attempts = 0;
-      while((not $heartbeat_monitor) and $attempts < 5) {
-        print "Connecting to heartbeat ...";
-        $heartbeat_monitor = IO::Socket::INET->new(PeerAddr => '127.0.0.1', PeerPort => $HEARTBEAT_PORT, Proto => 'tcp', Type => SOCK_STREAM);
-        if(not $heartbeat_monitor) {
-          print " failed.\n";
-          ++$attempts;
-          sleep 2;
-        } else {
-          print " success!\n";
-        }
-      }
-
-      if ($attempts >= 5) {
-        print "heart not beating... restarting\n";
-        $heartbeat = -1;
-        sleep 5;
-        next;
-      }
-
-      print "child: running: $running\n";
-
-      while($running and <$heartbeat_monitor>) {
-        $heartbeat = 1;
-        #print "child: got heartbeat\n";
-      }
-
-      print "child no longer running\n";
-      exit;
-    } else {
-
-      while ($heartbeat <= 0) {
-        if ($heartbeat == -1) {
-          print "heartbeat died\n";
-          last;
-        }
-        print "sleeping for heartbeat...\n";
-        sleep 1;
-      }
-
-      if ($heartbeat == -1) {
-        print "fucking dead, restarting\n";
-        waitpid $heartbeat_pid, 0;
-        #vm_stop;
-        next;
-      }
-
-      print "K, got heartbeat, here we go...\n";
-
-      if(not defined $server) {
-        print "Starting compiler server on port $SERVER_PORT\n";
-        $server = server_listen($SERVER_PORT);
-      } else {
-        print "Compiler server already listening on port $SERVER_PORT\n";
-      }
-
-      print "parent: running: $running\n";
-
-      while ($running and my $client = $server->accept()) {
-        $client->autoflush(1);
-        my $hostinfo = gethostbyaddr($client->peeraddr);
-        print '-' x 20, "\n";
-        printf "[Connect from %s at %s]\n", $client->peerhost, scalar localtime;
-        my $timed_out = 0;
-        my $killed = 0;
-
-        eval {
-          local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die 'Timed-out'; };
-          alarm 5;
-
-          while (my $line = <$client>) {
-            $line =~ s/[\r\n]+$//;
-            next if $line =~ m/^\s*$/;
-            alarm 5;
-            print "got: [$line]\n";
-
-            if($heartbeat <= 0) {
-              print "No heartbeat yet, ignoring compile attempt.\n";
-              print $client "Recovering from previous snippet, please wait.\n" if gettimeofday - $last_wait > 60;
-              $last_wait = gettimeofday;
-              last;
-            }
-
-            print "Attempting compile...\n";
-            alarm 0;
-
-            my ($ret, $result) = execute("perl compiler_vm_client.pl $line");
-
-            if(not defined $ret) {
-              #print "parent continued\n";
-              print "parent continued [$result]\n";
-              $timed_out = 1 if $result == 243 or $result == -13; # -13 == 243
-              $killed = 1 if $result == 242 or $result == -14; # -14 = 242
-              last;
-            }
-
-            $result =~ s/\s+$//;
-            print "Ret: $ret; result: [$result]\n";
-
-            if($result =~ m/\[Killed\]$/) {
-              print "Process was killed\n";
-              $killed = 1;
-            }
-
-            print $client $result . "\n";
-            close $client;
-
-            $ret = -14 if $killed;
-
-            # child exit
-            print "child exit\n";
-            exit $ret;
-          }
-
-          alarm 0;
-        };
-
-        alarm 0;
-
-        close $client;
-
-        print "timed out: $timed_out; killed: $killed\n";
-        next unless ($timed_out or $killed);
-
-        vm_reset;
-        next;
-
-        print "stopping vm\n";
-        #vm_stop;
-        $running = 0;
-        last;
-      }
-      print "Compiler server no longer running, restarting...\n";
-    }
-    print "waiting on heartbeat pid?\n";
-    waitpid($heartbeat_pid, 0);
-  }
-}
-
-compiler_server;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_server_watchdog.pl b/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_server_watchdog.pl
deleted file mode 100755
index 44706b1e..00000000
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_server_watchdog.pl
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,62 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env perl
-
-# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Pragmatic Software <pragma78@gmail.com>
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
-
-use warnings;
-use strict;
-
-use Proc::ProcessTable;
-use IO::Socket;
-
-my $SLEEP = 15;
-my $MAX_PCTCPU = 25;
-my $QEMU = 'qemu-system-x86';
-my $MONITOR_PORT = 3335;
-
-my $last_pctcpu = 0;
-
-sub reset_vm {
-  print "Resetting vm\n";
-
-  my $sock = IO::Socket::INET->new(PeerAddr => '127.0.0.1', PeerPort => $MONITOR_PORT, Prot => 'tcp');
-  if(not defined $sock) {
-    print "[vm_reset] Unable to connect to monitor: $!\n";
-    return;
-  }
-
-  print $sock "loadvm 1\n";
-  close $sock;
-
-  print "Reset vm\n";
-}
-
-while (1) {
-  my $t = new Proc::ProcessTable(enable_ttys => 0);
-
-  my ($pids, $p);
-
-  foreach $p (@{$t->table}) {
-    $pids->{$p->pid} = { fname => $p->fname, ppid => $p->ppid };
-  }
-
-  foreach $p (keys %$pids) {
-    if ($pids->{$p}->{fname} eq $QEMU) {
-      my $ppid = $pids->{$p}->{ppid};
-      if ($pids->{$ppid}->{fname} eq 'compiler_server') {
-        my $pctcpu = `top -b -n 1 -p $p | tail -n 1 | awk '{print \$9}'`;
-        $pctcpu =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//g;
-        print scalar localtime, " :: Got compiler qemu pid: $p; using $pctcpu cpu\n" if $pctcpu > 0;
-
-        if ($pctcpu >= $last_pctcpu and $last_pctcpu >= $MAX_PCTCPU) {
-          reset_vm;
-          $last_pctcpu = 0;
-        } else {
-          $last_pctcpu = $pctcpu;
-        }
-      }
-    }
-  }
-
-  sleep $SLEEP;
-}
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_vm_client.pl b/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_vm_client.pl
deleted file mode 100755
index f733cd90..00000000
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_vm_client.pl
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,73 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env perl
-
-# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Pragmatic Software <pragma78@gmail.com>
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
-
-use warnings;
-use strict;
-
-use File::Basename;
-use JSON;
-
-use lib '.';
-
-my $json = join ' ', @ARGV;
-my $h = decode_json $json;
-
-my $language = lc $h->{lang};
-
-eval {
-  use lib 'languages';
-  require "$language.pm";
-} or do {
-  my @modules = glob 'languages/*.pm';
-  my $found = 0;
-  my ($languages, $comma) = ('', '');
-
-  foreach my $module (sort @modules) {
-    $module = basename $module;
-    $module =~ s/.pm$//;
-    next if $module =~ m/^_/;
-
-    require "$module.pm" or die $!;
-    my $mod = $module->new;
-
-
-    if (exists $mod->{name} and $mod->{name} eq $language) {
-      $language = $module;
-      $found = 1;
-      last;
-    }
-
-    $module = $mod->{name} if exists $mod->{name};
-    $languages .= "$comma$module";
-    $comma = ', ';
-  }
-
-  if (not $found) {
-    print "Language '$language' is not supported.\nSupported languages are: $languages\n";
-    exit;
-  }
-};
-
-if (not length $h->{code}) {
-  if (exists $h->{usage}) {
-    print "$h->{usage}\n";
-  } else {
-    print "Usage: cc [-lang=<language>] [-info] [-paste] [-args \"command-line arguments\"] [compiler/language options] <code> [-stdin <stdin input>]\n";
-  }
-  exit;
-}
-
-my $lang = $language->new(%{$h});
-
-$lang->{local} = $ENV{CC_LOCAL};
-
-$lang->process_interactive_edit;
-$lang->process_standard_options;
-$lang->process_custom_options;
-$lang->process_cmdline_options;
-$lang->preprocess_code;
-$lang->execute;
-$lang->postprocess_output;
-$lang->show_output;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_vm_server.pl b/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_vm_server.pl
deleted file mode 100755
index fa6e9f0c..00000000
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_vm_server.pl
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,212 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env perl
-
-# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Pragmatic Software <pragma78@gmail.com>
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
-
-use warnings;
-use strict;
-
-use English;
-use File::Basename;
-use JSON;
-
-my $USERNAME = 'compiler';
-my $USE_LOCAL = defined $ENV{'CC_LOCAL'};
-
-use constant MOD_DIR => '/usr/local/share/compiler_vm/languages';
-
-use lib MOD_DIR;
-
-my %languages;
-
-sub load_modules {
-  my @files = glob MOD_DIR . "/*.pm";
-  foreach my $mod (@files){
-    print "Loading module $mod\n";
-    my $filename = basename($mod);
-    require $filename;
-    $filename =~ s/\.pm$//;
-    $languages{$filename} = 1;
-  }
-}
-
-sub run_server {
-  my ($input, $output, $heartbeat);
-
-  if(not defined $USE_LOCAL or $USE_LOCAL == 0) {
-    open($input, '<', "/dev/ttyS0") or die $!;
-    open($output, '>', "/dev/ttyS0") or die $!;
-    open($heartbeat, '>', "/dev/ttyS1") or die $!;
-  } else {
-    open($input, '<', "/dev/stdin") or die $!;
-    open($output, '>', "/dev/stdout") or die $!;
-  }
-
-  my $date;
-  my $lang;
-  my $sourcefile;
-  my $execfile;
-  my $code;
-  my $cmdline;
-  my $user_input;
-
-  my $pid = fork;
-  die "Fork failed: $!" if not defined $pid;
-
-  if($pid == 0) {
-    my $buffer = "";
-    my $length = 4096;
-    my $line;
-    my $total_read = 0;
-
-    while (1) {
-      print "Waiting for input...\n";
-      my $ret = sysread($input, my $buf, $length);
-
-      if (not defined $ret) {
-        print "Error reading: $!\n";
-        next;
-      }
-
-      $total_read += $ret;
-
-      if ($ret == 0) {
-        print "input  ded?\n";
-        print "got buffer [$buffer]\n";
-        exit;
-      }
-
-      chomp $buf;
-      print "read $ret bytes [$total_read so far] [$buf]\n";
-      $buffer.= $buf;
-
-      if ($buffer =~ s/\s*:end:\s*$//m) {
-        $line = $buffer;
-        $buffer = "";
-        $total_read = 0;
-      } else {
-        next;
-      }
-
-      chomp $line;
-
-      print "-" x 40, "\n";
-      print "Got [$line]\n";
-
-      my $compile_in = decode_json($line);
-
-      $compile_in->{arguments} //= '';
-      $compile_in->{input} //= '';
-
-      print "Attempting compile [$compile_in->{lang}] ...\n";
-
-      use Data::Dumper;
-      print Dumper $compile_in;
-
-      my $pid = fork;
-
-      if (not defined $pid) {
-        print "fork failed: $!\n";
-        next;
-      }
-
-      if ($pid == 0) {
-        my ($uid, $gid, $home) = (getpwnam $USERNAME)[2, 3, 7];
-        if (not $uid and not $gid) {
-          print "Could not find user $USERNAME: $!\n";
-          exit;
-        }
-
-        if ($compile_in->{'persist-key'}) {
-          system ("rm -rf \"/home/compiler/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\"");
-          system("mount /dev/vdb1 /root/factdata");
-          system("mkdir -p \"/root/factdata/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\"");
-          system("cp -R -p \"/root/factdata/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\" \"/home/compiler/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\"");
-        }
-
-        system("chmod -R 755 /home/compiler");
-        system("chown -R compiler /home/compiler");
-        system("chgrp -R compiler /home/compiler");
-        system("rm -rf /home/compiler/prog*");
-        system("pkill -u compiler");
-
-        $ENV{USER} = $USERNAME;
-        $ENV{LOGNAME} = $USERNAME;
-        $ENV{HOME} = $home;
-
-        $GID = $gid;
-        $EGID = "$gid $gid";
-        $EUID = $UID = $uid;
-
-        my $result = interpret(%$compile_in);
-
-        my $compile_out = { result => $result };
-        my $json = encode_json($compile_out);
-
-        print "Done compiling; result: [$result] [$json]\n";
-        print $output "result:$json\n";
-        print $output "result:end\n";
-
-        $( = 0;
-        $< = 0;
-
-        if ($compile_in->{'persist-key'}) {
-          system("id");
-          system("cp -R -p \"/home/compiler/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\" \"/root/factdata/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\"");
-          system("umount /root/factdata");
-          system ("rm -rf \"/home/compiler/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\"");
-        }
-
-        exit;
-      } else {
-        waitpid $pid, 0;
-      }
-
-      if(not defined $USE_LOCAL or $USE_LOCAL == 0) {
-        print "=" x 40, "\n";
-        print "input: ";
-        next;
-      } else {
-        exit;
-      }
-    }
-  } else {
-    while(1) {
-      print $heartbeat "\n";
-      sleep 1;
-    }
-  }
-
-  close $input;
-  close $output;
-  close $heartbeat;
-}
-
-sub interpret {
-  my %h = @_;
-
-  $h{lang} = '_default' if not exists $languages{$h{lang}};
-
-  chdir("/home/compiler");
-
-  my $mod = $h{lang}->new(%h);
-
-  $mod->preprocess;
-
-  $mod->postprocess if not $mod->{error} and not $mod->{done};
-
-  if (exists $mod->{no_output} or not length $mod->{output}) {
-    if ($h{factoid}) {
-      $mod->{output} = "";
-    } else {
-      $mod->{output} .= "\n" if length $mod->{output};
-      $mod->{output} .= "Success (no output).\n" if not $mod->{error};
-      $mod->{output} .= "Success (exit code $mod->{error}).\n" if $mod->{error};
-    }
-  }
-
-  return $mod->{output};
-}
-
-load_modules;
-run_server;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_watchdog.pl b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/bin/guest-gdb
similarity index 99%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/compiler_watchdog.pl
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/bin/guest-gdb
index e6e5ea3f..9b76c714 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/compiler_watchdog.pl
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/bin/guest-gdb
@@ -3,9 +3,18 @@
 # SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Pragmatic Software <pragma78@gmail.com>
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
 
+# This script was thrown together quickly and sloppily. It will be
+# rewritten "soon".
+
 no warnings;
 use strict;
 
+my $cmdlineargs = '';
+foreach my $arg (@ARGV) {
+  $arg =~ s/'/'"'"'/g;
+  $cmdlineargs .= "'$arg' ";
+}
+
 use IPC::Open2;
 
 my $debug = $ENV{DEBUG} // 0;
@@ -26,12 +35,6 @@ my ($main_start, $main_end);
 sub flushall;
 sub gdb;
 
-my $cmdlineargs = '';
-foreach my $arg (@ARGV) {
-  $arg =~ s/'/'"'"'/g;
-  $cmdlineargs .= "'$arg' ";
-}
-
 my ($out, $in);
 
 sub getlocals {
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/guest/bin/setup-guest b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/bin/setup-guest
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..4e927368
--- /dev/null
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/bin/setup-guest
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+cp guest/bin/* /usr/local/bin
+mkdir /usr/local/share/pbot-vm/
+cp -r guest/lib/Languages/ /usr/local/share/pbot-vm/
+cp guest/include/prelude.h /usr/include
+
+echo unset DEBUGINFOD_URLS >> /root/.bashrc
+echo export ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_leaks=0 >> /root/.bashrc
+
+echo PBot Guest VM is now set up. For changes to take effect, run this command now: source /root/.bashrc
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/guest/bin/start-guest b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/bin/start-guest
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..53c10382
--- /dev/null
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/bin/start-guest
@@ -0,0 +1,226 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+
+# This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+# License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
+# file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
+
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+
+use English;
+use Encode;
+use File::Basename;
+use JSON::XS;
+
+my $USERNAME = 'vm';   # variable for easier string interpolation
+
+use constant MOD_DIR   => '/usr/local/share/pbot-vm/Languages';
+use constant SERIAL    => '/dev/ttyS1';
+use constant HEARTBEAT => '/dev/ttyS2';
+use constant STDIN     => '/dev/stdin';
+use constant STDOUT    => '/dev/stdout';
+
+use lib MOD_DIR;
+
+my %languages;
+
+my $USE_LOCAL = $ENV{'CC_LOCAL'};
+
+sub load_modules {
+    my @files = glob MOD_DIR . "/*.pm";
+    foreach my $mod (@files){
+        print "Loading module $mod\n";
+        my $filename = basename($mod);
+        require $filename;
+        $filename =~ s/\.pm$//;
+        $languages{$filename} = 1;
+    }
+}
+
+sub run_server {
+    my ($input, $output, $heartbeat);
+
+    if(not defined $USE_LOCAL or $USE_LOCAL == 0) {
+        # set serial to 115200 baud instead of 9600
+        system('stty -F ' . SERIAL . ' 115200');
+
+        open($input,     '<', SERIAL)       or die $!;
+        open($output,    '>', SERIAL)       or die $!;
+        open($heartbeat, '>', HEARTBEAT)    or die $!;
+    } else {
+        open($input,     '<', STDIN)        or die $!;
+        open($output,    '>', STDOUT)       or die $!;
+    }
+
+    my $date;
+    my $lang;
+    my $sourcefile;
+    my $execfile;
+    my $code;
+    my $cmdline;
+    my $user_input;
+
+    my $pid = fork;
+    die "Fork failed: $!" if not defined $pid;
+
+    if($pid == 0) {
+        my $buffer = "";
+        my $length = 4096;
+        my $line;
+        my $total_read = 0;
+
+        while (1) {
+            print "Waiting for input...\n";
+            my $ret = sysread($input, my $buf, $length);
+
+            if (not defined $ret) {
+                print "Error reading: $!\n";
+                next;
+            }
+
+            $total_read += $ret;
+
+            if ($ret == 0) {
+                print "input  ded?\n";
+                print "got buffer [$buffer]\n";
+                exit;
+            }
+
+            chomp $buf;
+            print "read $ret bytes [$total_read so far] [$buf]\n";
+            $buffer.= $buf;
+
+            if ($buffer =~ s/\s*:end:\s*$//m) {
+                $line = $buffer;
+                $buffer = "";
+                $total_read = 0;
+            } else {
+                next;
+            }
+
+            chomp $line;
+
+            print "-" x 40, "\n";
+            print "Got [$line]\n";
+
+            $line = encode('UTF-8', $line);
+            my $compile_in = decode_json($line);
+
+            $compile_in->{arguments} //= '';
+            $compile_in->{input} //= '';
+
+            print "Attempting compile [$compile_in->{lang}] ...\n";
+
+            use Data::Dumper;
+            print Dumper $compile_in;
+
+            my $pid = fork;
+
+            if (not defined $pid) {
+                print "fork failed: $!\n";
+                next;
+            }
+
+            if ($pid == 0) {
+                my ($uid, $gid, $home) = (getpwnam $USERNAME)[2, 3, 7];
+                if (not $uid and not $gid) {
+                    print "Could not find user $USERNAME: $!\n";
+                    exit;
+                }
+
+                if ($compile_in->{'persist-key'}) {
+                    system ("rm -rf \"/home/$USERNAME/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\"");
+                    system("mount /dev/vdb1 /root/factdata");
+                    system("mkdir -p \"/root/factdata/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\"");
+                    system("cp -R -p \"/root/factdata/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\" \"/home/$USERNAME/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\"");
+                }
+
+                system("chmod -R 755 /home/$USERNAME");
+                system("chown -R $USERNAME /home/$USERNAME");
+                system("chgrp -R $USERNAME /home/$USERNAME");
+                system("rm -rf /home/$USERNAME/prog*");
+                system("pkill -u $USERNAME");
+
+                $ENV{USER} = $USERNAME;
+                $ENV{LOGNAME} = $USERNAME;
+                $ENV{HOME} = $home;
+
+                $GID = $gid;
+                $EGID = "$gid $gid";
+                $EUID = $UID = $uid;
+
+                my $result = interpret(%$compile_in);
+
+                my $compile_out = { result => $result };
+                my $json = encode_json($compile_out);
+
+                print "Done compiling; result: [$result] [$json]\n";
+                print $output "result:$json\n";
+                print $output "result:end\n";
+
+                $( = 0;
+                $< = 0;
+
+                if ($compile_in->{'persist-key'}) {
+                    system("id");
+                    system("cp -R -p \"/home/$USERNAME/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\" \"/root/factdata/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\"");
+                    system("umount /root/factdata");
+                    system ("rm -rf \"/home/$USERNAME/$compile_in->{'persist-key'}\"");
+                }
+
+                exit;
+            } else {
+                waitpid $pid, 0;
+            }
+
+            if(not defined $USE_LOCAL or $USE_LOCAL == 0) {
+                print "=" x 40, "\n";
+                next;
+            } else {
+                exit;
+            }
+        }
+    } else {
+        while (1) {
+            print $heartbeat "\n";
+            sleep 5;
+        }
+    }
+
+    close $input;
+    close $output;
+    close $heartbeat;
+}
+
+sub interpret {
+    my %h = @_;
+
+    $h{lang} = '_default' if not exists $languages{$h{lang}};
+
+    chdir("/home/$USERNAME");
+
+    my $mod = $h{lang}->new(%h);
+
+    $mod->preprocess;
+
+    print "after preprocess: ", Dumper $mod, "\n";
+
+    $mod->postprocess if not $mod->{error} and not $mod->{done};
+
+    print "after postprocess: ", Dumper $mod, "\n";
+
+    if (exists $mod->{no_output} or not length $mod->{output}) {
+        if ($h{factoid}) {
+            $mod->{output} = "";
+        } else {
+            $mod->{output} .= "\n" if length $mod->{output};
+            $mod->{output} .= "Success (no output).\n" if not $mod->{error};
+            $mod->{output} .= "Success (exit code $mod->{error}).\n" if $mod->{error};
+        }
+    }
+
+    return $mod->{output};
+}
+
+load_modules;
+run_server;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/misc/prelude.h b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/include/prelude.h
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/misc/prelude.h
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/include/prelude.h
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/_c_base.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/_c_base.pm
similarity index 99%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/_c_base.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/_c_base.pm
index c1c55549..54bfc9d9 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/_c_base.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/_c_base.pm
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ sub postprocess {
       # ASAN_OPTIONS=strict_string_checks=1:detect_stack_use_after_return=1:check_initialization_order=1:strict_init_order=1
       ($exitval, $stdout, $stderr) = $self->execute(60, undef, './prog', @args);
   } else {
-      ($exitval, $stdout, $stderr) = $self->execute(60, undef, 'compiler_watchdog.pl', @args);
+      ($exitval, $stdout, $stderr) = $self->execute(60, undef, 'guest-gdb', @args);
   }
 
   my $result = $stderr;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/_default.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/_default.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/_default.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/_default.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/c11.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/c11.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/c11.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/c11.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/c89.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/c89.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/c89.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/c89.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/c99.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/c99.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/c99.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/c99.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/clang.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/clang.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/clang.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/clang.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/clang11.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/clang11.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/clang11.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/clang11.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/clang89.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/clang89.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/clang89.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/clang89.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/clang99.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/clang99.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/clang99.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/clang99.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/clangpp.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/clangpp.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/clangpp.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/clangpp.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/cpp.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/cpp.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/cpp.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/cpp.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/freebasic.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/freebasic.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/freebasic.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/freebasic.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/haskell.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/haskell.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/haskell.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/haskell.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/java.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/java.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/java.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/java.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/qbasic.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/qbasic.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/qbasic.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/qbasic.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/tendra.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/tendra.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/server/tendra.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/guest/lib/Languages/tendra.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/host/bin/vm-client b/applets/compiler_vm/host/bin/vm-client
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..146a8f77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/bin/vm-client
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+
+# File: vm-client
+#
+# Purpose: Interfaces with the PBot virtual machine server hosted at
+# PeerAddr/PeerPort defined below. This allows us to host instances of
+# virtual machines on remote servers.
+#
+# This script is intended to be installed to PBot's applets directory
+# and attached to a PBot command such as `cc`.
+
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Pragmatic Software <pragma78@gmail.com>
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+
+# TODO: extend to take a list of server/ports to cycle for load-balancing
+
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+
+use IO::Socket;
+
+my $sock = IO::Socket::INET->new(
+    PeerAddr => '127.0.0.1',
+    PeerPort => 9000,
+    Proto => 'tcp',
+);
+
+if (not defined $sock) {
+    print "Fatal error compiling: $!; try again later\n";
+    die $!;
+}
+
+my $nick    = shift @ARGV;
+my $channel = shift @ARGV;
+my $code    = join '', @ARGV;
+
+my $lang = "c11";
+
+if ($code =~ s/-lang=([^ ]+)//) {
+    $lang = lc $1;
+}
+
+print $sock "compile:$nick:$channel:$lang\n";
+print $sock "$code\n";
+print $sock "compile:end\n";
+
+while (my $line = <$sock>) {
+    print "$line";
+}
+
+close $sock;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/host/bin/vm-exec b/applets/compiler_vm/host/bin/vm-exec
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..e97413c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/bin/vm-exec
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+
+# File: vm-exec
+#
+# Purpose: Process and send commands to the PBot virtual machine on the
+# default TCP port (5555). Use the PBOT_VM_PORT environment variable to
+# override the port. E.g., to use port 6666 instead:
+#
+# $ PBOT_VM_PORT=6666 vm-exec -lang=sh echo test
+
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Pragmatic Software <pragma78@gmail.com>
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+
+use File::Basename;
+use JSON::XS;
+
+use FindBin qw($RealBin);
+use lib "$RealBin/../lib";
+
+my $json = join ' ', @ARGV;
+
+my $args = eval { decode_json $json };
+
+if ($@) {
+    # wasn't JSON; make structure manually
+    if ($json =~ s/^-lang=([^ ]+)//) {
+      $args = { lang => $1, code => $json };
+    } else {
+      $args = { code => $json };
+    }
+}
+
+if (not exists $args->{code}) {
+    die "Missing `code` field. Usage: $0 {'code':'<code>'}\n";
+}
+
+# set any missing fields to default values
+$args->{nick}    //= 'vm';
+$args->{channel} //= 'vm';
+$args->{lang}    //= 'c11';
+
+# override vm-port with environment variable
+if ($ENV{PBOT_VM_PORT}) {
+    $args->{'vm-port'} = $ENV{PBOT_VM_PORT};
+}
+
+my $language = lc $args->{lang};
+
+eval {
+    require "Languages/$language.pm";
+} or do {
+    my $found = 0;
+    my ($languages, $comma) = ('', '');
+
+    foreach my $module (sort glob "$RealBin/../lib/Languages/*.pm") {
+        $module = basename $module;
+        $module =~ s/.pm$//;
+        next if $module =~ m/^_/;
+
+        require "Languages/$module.pm" or die $!;
+        my $mod = "Languages::$module"->new;
+
+        if (exists $mod->{name} and $mod->{name} eq $language) {
+            $language = $module;
+            $found = 1;
+            last;
+        }
+
+        $module = $mod->{name} if exists $mod->{name};
+        $languages .= "$comma$module";
+        $comma = ', ';
+    }
+
+    if (not $found) {
+        print "Language '$language' is not supported.\nSupported languages are: $languages\n";
+        exit;
+    }
+};
+
+if (not length $args->{code}) {
+    if (exists $args->{usage}) {
+        print "$args->{usage}\n";
+    } else {
+        print "Usage: cc [-lang=<language>] [-info] [-paste] [-args \"command-line arguments\"] [compiler/language options] <code> [-stdin <stdin input>]\n";
+    }
+    exit;
+}
+
+my $lang = "Languages::$language"->new(%{$args});
+
+$lang->{local} = $ENV{CC_LOCAL};
+
+$lang->process_interactive_edit;
+$lang->process_standard_options;
+$lang->process_custom_options;
+$lang->process_cmdline_options;
+$lang->preprocess_code;
+$lang->execute;
+$lang->postprocess_output;
+$lang->show_output;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/host/bin/vm-host-watchdog b/applets/compiler_vm/host/bin/vm-host-watchdog
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..194fe4de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/bin/vm-host-watchdog
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Pragmatic Software <pragma78@gmail.com>
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+
+use Proc::ProcessTable;
+use IO::Socket;
+
+my $SLEEP      = 15;
+my $MAX_PCTCPU = 25;
+my $QEMU       = 'qemu-system-x86';
+my $DOMAIN     = 'pbot-vm';
+
+my $last_pctcpu = 0;
+
+sub reset_vm {
+  print "Resetting vm\n";
+  system("virsh snapshot-revert $DOMAIN 1");
+  print "Reset vm\n";
+}
+
+while (1) {
+  my $t = Proc::ProcessTable->new(enable_ttys => 0);
+
+  foreach my $p (@{$t->table}) {
+    if ($p->fname eq $QEMU and $p->cmndline =~ m/guest=\Q$DOMAIN\E/) {
+      # $p->pctcpu never updates? so we use top instead.
+      my $pctcpu = `top -b -n 1 -p $p->{pid} | tail -n 1 | awk '{print \$9}'`;
+      $pctcpu =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//g;
+      print scalar localtime, " :: Got $DOMAIN qemu pid: $p; using $pctcpu cpu\n" if $pctcpu > 0;
+
+      if ($pctcpu >= $last_pctcpu and $last_pctcpu >= $MAX_PCTCPU) {
+        reset_vm;
+        $last_pctcpu = 0;
+      } else {
+        $last_pctcpu = $pctcpu;
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  sleep $SLEEP;
+}
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/host/bin/vm-server b/applets/compiler_vm/host/bin/vm-server
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..0507a1d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/bin/vm-server
@@ -0,0 +1,277 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+
+# File: compiler_server.pl
+#
+# Purpose: The compiler server manages the guest virtual machine state and
+# listens for incoming compile requests. This server can be run on any remote
+# machine. There can be multiple servers using different ports on the same machine.
+#
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Pragmatic Software <pragma78@gmail.com>
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+
+use IO::Socket;
+use Net::hostent;
+use IPC::Shareable;
+use Time::HiRes qw/gettimeofday/;
+use Encode;
+
+my $SERVER_PORT    = 9000;
+my $SERIAL_PORT    = 5555;
+my $HEARTBEAT_PORT = 5556;
+my $DOMAIN_NAME    = 'pbot-vm';
+
+my $COMPILE_TIMEOUT = 15;
+
+sub vm_stop {
+    system("virsh shutdown $DOMAIN_NAME");
+}
+
+sub vm_start {
+    system("virsh start $DOMAIN_NAME");
+}
+
+sub vm_reset {
+    return if $ENV{NORESET};
+    #system("virsh detach-disk $DOMAIN_NAME vdb");
+    system("virsh snapshot-revert $DOMAIN_NAME 1");
+    #system("virsh attach-disk $DOMAIN_NAME --source /var/lib/libvirt/images/factdata.qcow2 --target vdb");
+    print "Reset vm\n";
+}
+
+sub execute {
+    my ($cmdline) = @_;
+
+    print "execute($cmdline)\n";
+
+    my @list = split / /, $cmdline;
+
+    my ($ret, $result);
+
+    my $child = fork;
+
+    if($child == 0) {
+        ($ret, $result) = eval {
+            my $result = '';
+
+            my $pid = open(my $fh, '-|', @list);
+
+            if (not defined $pid) {
+                print "Couldn't fork: $!\n";
+                return (-13, "[Fatal error]");
+            }
+
+            local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { kill 9, $pid; die "Timed-out: $result\n"; };
+            alarm($COMPILE_TIMEOUT);
+
+            print "Reading result...\n";
+            while (my $line = <$fh>) {
+                print "read result [$line]\n";
+                $result .= $line;
+            }
+
+            close $fh;
+            print "Done reading result.\n";
+
+            my $ret = $? >> 8;
+
+            print "[$ret, $result]\n";
+            return ($ret, $result);
+        };
+
+        alarm 0;
+        if ($@ =~ /Timed-out: (.*)/) {
+            return (-13, "[Timed-out] $1");
+        }
+
+        return ($ret, $result);
+    } else {
+        waitpid($child, 0);
+        print "?: $?\n";
+        my $result = $? >> 8;
+        print "child exited, parent continuing [result = $result]\n";
+        return (undef, $result);
+    }
+}
+
+sub connect_to_heartbeat {
+    my $heartbeat;
+    my $attempts = 15;
+
+    while (!$heartbeat && $attempts > 0) {
+        print "Connecting to heartbeat ... ";
+
+        $heartbeat = IO::Socket::INET->new (
+            PeerAddr => '127.0.0.1',
+            PeerPort => $HEARTBEAT_PORT,
+            Proto    => 'tcp',
+            Type     => SOCK_STREAM,
+        );
+
+        if (!$heartbeat) {
+            print "failed.\n";
+            --$attempts;
+            print "Trying again in 2 seconds ($attempts attempts remaining) ...\n" if $attempts > 0;
+            sleep 2;
+        } else {
+            print "success!\n";
+        }
+    }
+
+    return $heartbeat;
+}
+
+sub server_listen {
+    my $port = shift @_;
+    my $server = IO::Socket::INET->new (
+        Proto     => 'tcp',
+        LocalPort => $port,
+        Listen    => SOMAXCONN,
+        ReuseAddr => 1,
+        Reuse     => 1,
+    );
+    die "Can't setup server: $!" unless $server;
+    print "[Server $0 accepting clients at :$port]\n";
+    return $server;
+}
+
+sub vm_server {
+    my ($server, $heartbeat_pid, $heartbeat_monitor);
+
+    my $heartbeat;
+    my $running;
+
+    tie $heartbeat, 'IPC::Shareable', 'dat1', { create => 1 };
+    tie $running,   'IPC::Shareable', 'dat2', { create => 1 };
+
+    my $last_wait = 0;
+
+    $running = 1;
+    $heartbeat = 0;
+
+    vm_reset;
+    print "vm started\n";
+
+    $heartbeat_pid = fork;
+    die "Fork failed: $!" if not defined $heartbeat_pid;
+
+    if ($heartbeat_pid == 0) {
+        # heartbeat
+
+        tie $heartbeat, 'IPC::Shareable', 'dat1', { create => 1 };
+        tie $running,   'IPC::Shareable', 'dat2', { create => 1 };
+
+        if (!($heartbeat_monitor = connect_to_heartbeat)) {
+            die "Could not start heartbeat.\n";
+        }
+
+        print "child: running: $running\n";
+
+        while($running and <$heartbeat_monitor>) {
+            $heartbeat = 1;
+            #print "child: got heartbeat\n";
+        }
+
+        $heartbeat = -1;
+        print "child no longer running\n";
+
+        exit;
+
+    } else {
+        # server
+
+        if (not defined $server) {
+            print "Starting compiler server on port $SERVER_PORT\n";
+            $server = server_listen($SERVER_PORT);
+        } else {
+            print "Compiler server already listening on port $SERVER_PORT\n";
+        }
+
+        print "parent: running: $running\n";
+
+        while ($running and my $client = $server->accept) {
+            $client->autoflush(1);
+            my $hostinfo = gethostbyaddr($client->peeraddr);
+
+            print '-' x 20, "\n";
+            printf "[Connect from %s at %s]\n", $client->peerhost, scalar localtime;
+
+            my ($timed_out, $killed);
+
+            eval {
+                local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die 'Timed-out'; };
+                alarm 5;
+
+                while (my $line = <$client>) {
+                    $line =~ s/[\r\n]+$//;
+                    next if $line =~ m/^\s*$/;
+                    alarm 5;
+                    print "got: [$line]\n";
+
+                    if($heartbeat <= 0) {
+                        print "No heartbeat yet, ignoring compile attempt.\n";
+                        print $client "Recovering from previous snippet, please wait.\n" if gettimeofday - $last_wait > 60;
+                        $last_wait = gettimeofday;
+                        last;
+                    }
+
+                    print "Attempting compile...\n";
+                    alarm 0;
+
+                    my ($ret, $result) = execute("perl bin/compiler_run.pl $line");
+
+                    if(not defined $ret) {
+                        #print "parent continued\n";
+                        print "parent continued [$result]\n";
+                        $timed_out = 1 if $result == 243 or $result == -13; # -13 == 243
+                        $killed = 1 if $result == 242 or $result == -14; # -14 = 242
+                        last;
+                    }
+
+                    $result =~ s/\s+$//;
+                    print "Ret: $ret; result: [$result]\n";
+
+                    if($result =~ m/\[Killed\]$/) {
+                        print "Process was killed\n";
+                        $killed = 1;
+                    }
+
+                    print $client $result . "\n";
+                    close $client;
+
+                    $ret = -14 if $killed;
+
+                    # child exit
+                    print "child exit\n";
+                    exit $ret;
+                }
+
+                alarm 0;
+            };
+
+            alarm 0;
+
+            close $client;
+
+            print "timed out: $timed_out; killed: $killed\n";
+            next unless ($timed_out or $killed);
+
+            vm_reset;
+            next;
+
+            print "stopping vm\n";
+            #vm_stop;
+            $running = 0;
+            last;
+        }
+
+        print "Compiler server no longer running, restarting...\n";
+    }
+
+    print "waiting on heartbeat pid\n";
+    waitpid($heartbeat_pid, 0);
+}
+
+vm_server;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/host/devices/add-serials b/applets/compiler_vm/host/devices/add-serials
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..b321cf58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/devices/add-serials
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+virsh attach-device --config pbot-vm serial-2.xml
+virsh attach-device --config pbot-vm serial-3.xml
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/host/devices/serial-2.xml b/applets/compiler_vm/host/devices/serial-2.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..45ec745f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/devices/serial-2.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+<serial type='tcp'>
+    <source mode='bind' host='127.0.0.1' service='5555' tls='no'/>
+    <protocol type='raw'/>
+    <target port='2'/>
+</serial>
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/host/devices/serial-3.xml b/applets/compiler_vm/host/devices/serial-3.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..229be48d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/devices/serial-3.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+<serial type='tcp'>
+    <source mode='bind' host='127.0.0.1' service='5556' tls='no'/>
+    <protocol type='raw'/>
+    <target port='3'/>
+</serial>
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/history/.gitignore b/applets/compiler_vm/host/history/.gitignore
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/history/.gitignore
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/history/.gitignore
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/Diff.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Diff.pm
similarity index 100%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/Diff.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Diff.pm
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/_c_base.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/_c_base.pm
similarity index 99%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/_c_base.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/_c_base.pm
index bc5e4991..094248fc 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/_c_base.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/_c_base.pm
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@ use feature 'unicode_strings';
 
 no if $] >= 5.018, warnings => "experimental::smartmatch";
 
-package _c_base;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::_c_base;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 use Text::Balanced qw/extract_bracketed/;
 
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/_default.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/_default.pm
similarity index 94%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/_default.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/_default.pm
index c57330d1..788590d3 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/_default.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/_default.pm
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ use feature 'unicode_strings';
 
 no if $] >= 5.018, warnings => "experimental::smartmatch";
 
-package _default;
+package Languages::_default;
 
 use IPC::Open2;
 use IO::Socket;
@@ -21,21 +21,24 @@ use JSON;
 use Getopt::Long qw/GetOptionsFromArray :config pass_through no_ignore_case no_auto_abbrev/;
 use Encode;
 
+use FindBin qw($RealBin);
+
 my $EXECUTE_PORT = '3333';
 
 sub new {
   my ($class, %conf) = @_;
   my $self = bless {}, $class;
 
-  $self->{debug}       = $conf{debug} // 0;
-  $self->{nick}        = $conf{nick};
-  $self->{channel}     = $conf{channel};
-  $self->{lang}        = $conf{lang};
-  $self->{code}        = $conf{code};
-  $self->{max_history} = $conf{max_history} // 10000;
-  $self->{arguments}   = $conf{arguments};
-  $self->{factoid}     = $conf{factoid};
+  $self->{debug}         = $conf{debug} // 0;
+  $self->{nick}          = $conf{nick};
+  $self->{channel}       = $conf{channel};
+  $self->{lang}          = $conf{lang};
+  $self->{code}          = $conf{code};
+  $self->{max_history}   = $conf{max_history} // 10000;
+  $self->{arguments}     = $conf{arguments};
+  $self->{factoid}       = $conf{factoid};
   $self->{'persist-key'} = $conf{'persist-key'};
+  $self->{'vm-port'}     = $conf{'vm-port'} // $EXECUTE_PORT;
 
   $self->{default_options} = '';
   $self->{cmdline}         = 'echo Hello, world!';
@@ -68,7 +71,7 @@ sub preprocess_code {
   }
 
   unless($self->{got_run} and $self->{copy_code}) {
-    open FILE, ">> log.txt";
+    open FILE, ">> $RealBin/../log.txt";
     print FILE localtime() . "\n";
     print FILE "$self->{nick} $self->{channel}: [" . $self->{arguments} . "] " . $self->{cmdline_options} . "$self->{code}\n";
     close FILE;
@@ -140,7 +143,7 @@ sub postprocess_output {
   my $self = shift;
 
   unless($self->{got_run} and $self->{copy_code}) {
-    open FILE, ">> log.txt";
+    open FILE, ">> $RealBin/../log.txt";
     print FILE "--------------------------post processing----------------------------------------------\n";
     print FILE localtime() . "\n";
     print FILE "$self->{output}\n";
@@ -173,7 +176,7 @@ sub show_output {
   my $output = $self->{output};
 
   unless ($self->{got_run} and $self->{copy_code}) {
-    open FILE, ">> log.txt";
+    open FILE, ">> $RealBin/../log.txt";
     print FILE "------------------------show output------------------------------------------------\n";
     print FILE localtime() . "\n";
     print FILE "$output\n";
@@ -237,7 +240,7 @@ sub show_output {
     exit 0;
   }
 
-  if($self->{channel} =~ m/^#/ and length $output > 22 and open FILE, "< history/$self->{channel}-$self->{lang}.last-output") {
+  if($self->{channel} =~ m/^#/ and length $output > 22 and open FILE, "< $RealBin/../history/$self->{channel}-$self->{lang}.last-output") {
     my $last_output;
     my $time = <FILE>;
 
@@ -258,7 +261,7 @@ sub show_output {
 
   print "$output\n";
 
-  open FILE, "> history/$self->{channel}-$self->{lang}.last-output" or die "Couldn't open $self->{channel}-$self->{lang}.last-output: $!";
+  open FILE, "> $RealBin/../history/$self->{channel}-$self->{lang}.last-output" or die "Couldn't open $self->{channel}-$self->{lang}.last-output: $!";
   my $now = gettimeofday;
   print FILE "$now\n";
   print FILE "$output";
@@ -319,17 +322,18 @@ sub paste_0x0 {
 sub execute {
   my ($self) = @_;
 
-  my ($compiler, $compiler_output, $pid);
+  my ($vm, $vm_output, $pid);
 
   delete $self->{local};
   if(exists $self->{local} and $self->{local} != 0) {
-    print "Using local compiler instead of virtual machine\n";
-    $pid = open2($compiler_output, $compiler, './compiler_vm_server.pl') || die "repl failed: $@\n";
-    print "Started compiler, pid: $pid\n";
+    print "Using local machine instead of virtual machine\n";
+    $pid = open2($vm_output, $vm, './compiler_vm_server.pl') || die "repl failed: $@\n"; # XXX
+    print "Started fake-vm, pid: $pid\n";
   } else {
-    $compiler  = IO::Socket::INET->new(PeerAddr => '127.0.0.1', PeerPort => $EXECUTE_PORT, Proto => 'tcp', Type => SOCK_STREAM);
-    die "Could not create socket: $!" unless $compiler;
-    $compiler_output = $compiler;
+    print STDERR "Connecting to remote VM port $self->{'vm-port'}\n";
+    $vm = IO::Socket::INET->new(PeerAddr => '127.0.0.1', PeerPort => $self->{'vm-port'}, Proto => 'tcp', Type => SOCK_STREAM);
+    die "Could not create connection to VM: $!" unless $vm;
+    $vm_output = $vm;
   }
 
   my $date = time;
@@ -383,7 +387,7 @@ sub execute {
       $cmdline =~ s/\$options\s+//;
   }
 
-  open FILE, ">> log.txt";
+  open FILE, ">> $RealBin/../log.txt";
   print FILE "---------------------executing---------------------------------------------------\n";
   print FILE localtime() . "\n";
   print FILE "$cmdline\n$stdin\n$pretty_code\n";
@@ -422,7 +426,7 @@ sub execute {
       #print FILE "Sending chunk [$chunk]\n";
       $chunks_sent += length $chunk;
 
-      my $ret = syswrite($compiler, $chunk);
+      my $ret = syswrite($vm, $chunk);
 
       if (not defined $ret) {
           print FILE "Error sending: $!\n";
@@ -445,7 +449,7 @@ sub execute {
   my $result = "";
   my $got_result = 0;
 
-  while(my $line = <$compiler_output>) {
+  while(my $line = <$vm_output>) {
       utf8::decode($line);
       print STDERR "Read from vm [$line]\n";
 
@@ -465,7 +469,7 @@ sub execute {
       }
   }
 
-  close $compiler;
+  close $vm;
   waitpid($pid, 0) if defined $pid;
 
   $self->{output} = $result;
@@ -486,7 +490,7 @@ sub add_option {
 sub process_standard_options {
   my $self = shift;
 
-  my @opt_args = $self->split_line($self->{code}, preserve_escapes => 1, keep_spaces => 1);
+  my @opt_args = $self->split_line($self->{code}, preserve_escapes => 1, keep_spaces => 0);
 
   use Data::Dumper;
   print STDERR "code:\n$self->{code}\n";
@@ -569,7 +573,7 @@ sub process_interactive_edit {
   if($subcode =~ s/^\s*copy\s+(\S+)\s*//) {
     my $copy = $1;
 
-    if(open FILE, "< history/$copy-$self->{lang}.hist") {
+    if(open FILE, "< $RealBin/../history/$copy-$self->{lang}.hist") {
       $copy_code = <FILE>;
       close FILE;
       goto COPY_ERROR if not $copy_code;;
@@ -594,7 +598,7 @@ sub process_interactive_edit {
     $self->{channel} = $1;
   }
 
-  if(open FILE, "< history/$self->{channel}-$self->{lang}.hist") {
+  if(open FILE, "< $RealBin/../history/$self->{channel}-$self->{lang}.hist") {
     while(my $line = <FILE>) {
       chomp $line;
       push @last_code, $line;
@@ -1018,7 +1022,7 @@ sub process_interactive_edit {
       unshift @last_code, $code;
     }
 
-    open FILE, "> history/$self->{channel}-$self->{lang}.hist";
+    open FILE, "> $RealBin/../history/$self->{channel}-$self->{lang}.hist";
 
     my $i = 0;
     foreach my $line (@last_code) {
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/bash.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/bash.pm
similarity index 91%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/bash.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/bash.pm
index 4eb1e0f0..c5a4b989 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/bash.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/bash.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package bash;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::bash;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/bc.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/bc.pm
similarity index 89%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/bc.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/bc.pm
index cbb5610e..974d622d 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/bc.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/bc.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package bc;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::bc;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/bf.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/bf.pm
similarity index 86%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/bf.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/bf.pm
index 3050ebfb..f6d07cb2 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/bf.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/bf.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package bf;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::bf;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/c11.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/c11.pm
similarity index 95%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/c11.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/c11.pm
index 6792493f..650d043a 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/c11.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/c11.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package c11;
-use parent '_c_base';
+package Languages::c11;
+use parent 'Languages::_c_base';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/c89.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/c89.pm
similarity index 94%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/c89.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/c89.pm
index fd08fe89..28fad8fe 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/c89.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/c89.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package c89;
-use parent '_c_base';
+package Languages::c89;
+use parent 'Languages::_c_base';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/c99.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/c99.pm
similarity index 95%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/c99.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/c99.pm
index ead33054..47761396 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/c99.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/c99.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package c99;
-use parent '_c_base';
+package Languages::c99;
+use parent 'Languages::_c_base';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/clang.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clang.pm
similarity index 71%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/clang.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clang.pm
index 5e299187..4ef6eba6 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/clang.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clang.pm
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package clang;
-use parent 'clang11';
+package Languages::clang;
+use parent 'Languages::clang11';
 
 1;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/clang11.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clang11.pm
similarity index 85%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/clang11.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clang11.pm
index 5d9d92f1..5c0a41e8 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/clang11.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clang11.pm
@@ -1,20 +1,17 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl
 
-# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Pragmatic Software <pragma78@gmail.com>
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
-
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package clang11;
-use parent '_c_base';
+package Languages::clang11;
+use parent 'Languages::_c_base';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
 
   $self->{sourcefile}      = 'prog.c';
   $self->{execfile}        = 'prog';
-  $self->{default_options} = '-Wextra -Wall -Wno-unused -Wno-unused-parameter -pedantic -Wfloat-equal -Wshadow -std=c11 -lm -Wfatal-errors -fsanitize=integer,undefined,alignment';
+  $self->{default_options} = '-Wextra -Wall -Wno-unused -Wno-unused-parameter -pedantic -Wfloat-equal -Wshadow -std=c11 -lm -Wfatal-errors -fsanitize=integer,undefined,alignment -fsanitize-address-use-after-scope -fno-omit-frame-pointer';
   $self->{options_paste}   = '-fcaret-diagnostics';
   $self->{options_nopaste} = '-fno-caret-diagnostics';
   $self->{cmdline}         = 'clang -ggdb -g3 $sourcefile $options -o $execfile';
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/clang89.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clang89.pm
similarity index 94%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/clang89.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clang89.pm
index 86972cff..98c2c8bb 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/clang89.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clang89.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package clang89;
-use parent '_c_base';
+package Languages::clang89;
+use parent 'Languages::_c_base';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/clang99.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clang99.pm
similarity index 95%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/clang99.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clang99.pm
index e5e1b9c9..c52ecd39 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/clang99.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clang99.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package clang99;
-use parent '_c_base';
+package Languages::clang99;
+use parent 'Languages::_c_base';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/clangpp.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clangpp.pm
similarity index 97%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/clangpp.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clangpp.pm
index 4b794e28..96701956 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/clangpp.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clangpp.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package clangpp;
-use parent '_c_base';
+package Languages::clangpp;
+use parent 'Languages::_c_base';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/clisp.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clisp.pm
similarity index 94%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/clisp.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clisp.pm
index fac247cd..982c82f0 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/clisp.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/clisp.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package clisp;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::clisp;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/cpp.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/cpp.pm
similarity index 97%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/cpp.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/cpp.pm
index 979159f8..f4fafb23 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/cpp.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/cpp.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package cpp;
-use parent '_c_base';
+package Languages::cpp;
+use parent 'Languages::_c_base';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/freebasic.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/freebasic.pm
similarity index 92%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/freebasic.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/freebasic.pm
index 1c3acc3d..88b7d52d 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/freebasic.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/freebasic.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package freebasic;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::freebasic;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/go.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/go.pm
similarity index 86%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/go.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/go.pm
index 73282b9d..acc95137 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/go.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/go.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package go;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::go;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/haskell.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/haskell.pm
similarity index 92%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/haskell.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/haskell.pm
index c807cb66..225b6f43 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/haskell.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/haskell.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package haskell;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::haskell;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/java.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/java.pm
similarity index 99%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/java.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/java.pm
index 8dd7e8fd..04fcaecc 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/java.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/java.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package java;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::java;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 use Text::Balanced qw/extract_bracketed/;
 
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/javascript.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/javascript.pm
similarity index 91%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/javascript.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/javascript.pm
index 8a3d77ec..9f0c46b2 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/javascript.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/javascript.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package javascript;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::javascript;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/ksh.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/ksh.pm
similarity index 91%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/ksh.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/ksh.pm
index c3ce2572..5f8d1b61 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/ksh.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/ksh.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package ksh;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::ksh;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/lua.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/lua.pm
similarity index 92%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/lua.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/lua.pm
index 12595277..21355907 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/lua.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/lua.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package lua;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::lua;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/perl.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/perl.pm
similarity index 94%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/perl.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/perl.pm
index 99e9c8cd..9eb5eeb3 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/perl.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/perl.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package perl;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::perl;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 use Text::ParseWords qw(shellwords);
 
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/php.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/php.pm
similarity index 86%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/php.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/php.pm
index 4993a39f..db502b26 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/php.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/php.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package php;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::php;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/python.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/python.pm
similarity index 92%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/python.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/python.pm
index 8047233e..f7b53c50 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/python.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/python.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package python;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::python;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/python3.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/python3.pm
similarity index 92%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/python3.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/python3.pm
index 14d981b3..d935b15f 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/python3.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/python3.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package python3;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::python3;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/qbasic.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/qbasic.pm
similarity index 92%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/qbasic.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/qbasic.pm
index 25585ac5..398a3606 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/qbasic.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/qbasic.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package qbasic;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::qbasic;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/ruby.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/ruby.pm
similarity index 86%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/ruby.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/ruby.pm
index 0d16d82e..f41c027c 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/ruby.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/ruby.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package ruby;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::ruby;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/scheme.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/scheme.pm
similarity index 93%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/scheme.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/scheme.pm
index 7f90230b..333f6c13 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/scheme.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/scheme.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package scheme;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::scheme;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/sh.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/sh.pm
similarity index 91%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/sh.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/sh.pm
index 7c5c9c9c..5872c0a9 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/sh.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/sh.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package sh;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::sh;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/tcl.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/tcl.pm
similarity index 90%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/tcl.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/tcl.pm
index 0d85e1d4..33089c1b 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/tcl.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/tcl.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package tcl;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::tcl;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/tendra.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/tendra.pm
similarity index 96%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/tendra.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/tendra.pm
index a08e2539..4e2eac5e 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/tendra.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/tendra.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package tendra;
-use parent '_c_base';
+package Languages::tendra;
+use parent 'Languages::_c_base';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/zsh.pm b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/zsh.pm
similarity index 91%
rename from applets/compiler_vm/languages/zsh.pm
rename to applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/zsh.pm
index 1428d927..3152b86d 100755
--- a/applets/compiler_vm/languages/zsh.pm
+++ b/applets/compiler_vm/host/lib/Languages/zsh.pm
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 use warnings;
 use strict;
 
-package zsh;
-use parent '_default';
+package Languages::zsh;
+use parent 'Languages::_default';
 
 sub initialize {
   my ($self, %conf) = @_;
diff --git a/doc/README.md b/doc/README.md
index 960cb0bd..687ea77d 100644
--- a/doc/README.md
+++ b/doc/README.md
@@ -317,11 +317,27 @@
 <!-- md-toc-begin -->
 * [Virtual Machine](VirtualMachine.md#virtual-machine)
   * [About](VirtualMachine.md#about)
-  * [Creating a new virtual machine](VirtualMachine.md#creating-a-new-virtual-machine)
-  * [Configuring the virtual machine](VirtualMachine.md#configuring-the-virtual-machine)
-  * [Installing Linux in the virtual machine](VirtualMachine.md#installing-linux-in-the-virtual-machine)
-  * [Configuring Linux for PBot Communication](VirtualMachine.md#configuring-linux-for-pbot-communication)
-  * [Hardening the PBot virtual machine](VirtualMachine.md#hardening-the-pbot-virtual-machine)
+  * [Initial virtual machine set-up](VirtualMachine.md#initial-virtual-machine-set-up)
+    * [Prerequisites](VirtualMachine.md#prerequisites)
+      * [CPU Virtualization Technology](VirtualMachine.md#cpu-virtualization-technology)
+      * [KVM](VirtualMachine.md#kvm)
+      * [libvirt](VirtualMachine.md#libvirt)
+      * [Make a pbot-vm user or directory](VirtualMachine.md#make-a-pbot-vm-user-or-directory)
+      * [Add libvirt group to your user](VirtualMachine.md#add-libvirt-group-to-your-user)
+      * [Download Linux ISO](VirtualMachine.md#download-linux-iso)
+    * [Creating a new virtual machine](VirtualMachine.md#creating-a-new-virtual-machine)
+      * [Installing Linux in the virtual machine](VirtualMachine.md#installing-linux-in-the-virtual-machine)
+      * [Configuring virtual machine for PBot](VirtualMachine.md#configuring-virtual-machine-for-pbot)
+      * [Set up serial ports](VirtualMachine.md#set-up-serial-ports)
+      * [Install Perl](VirtualMachine.md#install-perl)
+      * [Install PBot VM Guest](VirtualMachine.md#install-pbot-vm-guest)
+      * [Install software](VirtualMachine.md#install-software)
+      * [Start PBot VM Guest](VirtualMachine.md#start-pbot-vm-guest)
+      * [Test PBot VM Guest](VirtualMachine.md#test-pbot-vm-guest)
+      * [Save initial state](VirtualMachine.md#save-initial-state)
+    * [Initial virtual machine set-up complete](VirtualMachine.md#initial-virtual-machine-set-up-complete)
+  * [Start PBot VM Host](VirtualMachine.md#start-pbot-vm-host)
+    * [Test PBot](VirtualMachine.md#test-pbot)
 <!-- md-toc-end -->
 <!-- md-toc-begin -->
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](FAQ.md#frequently-asked-questions)
diff --git a/doc/VirtualMachine.md b/doc/VirtualMachine.md
index e2bb7e4e..b410b305 100644
--- a/doc/VirtualMachine.md
+++ b/doc/VirtualMachine.md
@@ -1,5 +1,30 @@
 # Virtual Machine
 
+<!-- md-toc-begin -->
+* [About](#about)
+* [Initial virtual machine set-up](#initial-virtual-machine-set-up)
+  * [Prerequisites](#prerequisites)
+    * [CPU Virtualization Technology](#cpu-virtualization-technology)
+    * [KVM](#kvm)
+    * [libvirt](#libvirt)
+    * [Make a pbot-vm user or directory](#make-a-pbot-vm-user-or-directory)
+    * [Add libvirt group to your user](#add-libvirt-group-to-your-user)
+    * [Download Linux ISO](#download-linux-iso)
+  * [Creating a new virtual machine](#creating-a-new-virtual-machine)
+    * [Installing Linux in the virtual machine](#installing-linux-in-the-virtual-machine)
+    * [Configuring virtual machine for PBot](#configuring-virtual-machine-for-pbot)
+    * [Set up serial ports](#set-up-serial-ports)
+    * [Install Perl](#install-perl)
+    * [Install PBot VM Guest](#install-pbot-vm-guest)
+    * [Install software](#install-software)
+    * [Start PBot VM Guest](#start-pbot-vm-guest)
+    * [Test PBot VM Guest](#test-pbot-vm-guest)
+    * [Save initial state](#save-initial-state)
+  * [Initial virtual machine set-up complete](#initial-virtual-machine-set-up-complete)
+* [Start PBot VM Host](#start-pbot-vm-host)
+  * [Test PBot](#test-pbot)
+<!-- md-toc-end -->
+
 ## About
 
 PBot can interact with a virtual machine to safely execute arbitrary user-submitted
@@ -9,29 +34,228 @@ This document will guide you through installing and configuring a virtual machin
 by using the widely available [libvirt](https://libvirt.org) project tools, such as
 `virt-install`, `virsh`, `virt-manager`, `virt-viewer`, etc.
 
-Though there are many, many tutorials and walk-throughs available for these tools,
-this guide will demonstrate the necessary `virt-install` and `virsh` commands to
-configure the virtual machine.
+If you're more comfortable working with QEMU directly instead, feel free to do that.
+I hope this guide will answer everything you need to know to set that up. If not,
+open an GitHub issue or /msg me on IRC.
 
-You may install a guest Linux distribution of your choice. Any of the recent popular
-Linux distributions should suffice. This guide will use Fedora Rawhide because
-playing around with the latest bleeding-edge software is fun!
+Some quick terminology:
 
-Then we will show you the necessary commands to configure the Linux guest system
-to be able to communicate with PBot. Commands and code snippets are sent over a
-virtual serial cable. We'll show you how to set that up.
+ * host: your physical Linux system hosting the virtual machine
+ * guest: the Linux system installed inside the virtual machine
 
-We'll also show a few tips and tricks to help secure the virtual machine against
-malicious user-submitted commands.
+## Initial virtual machine set-up
+These steps need to be done only once during the first-time set-up.
 
-Let's get started.
+### Prerequisites
+#### CPU Virtualization Technology
+Ensure CPU Virtualization Technology is enabled in your motherboard BIOS.
 
-## Creating a new virtual machine
+    $ egrep '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo
 
-## Configuring the virtual machine
+If you see your CPUs listed with `vmx` or `svm` flags, you're good to go.
+Otherwise, consult your motherboard manual to see how to enable VT.
 
-## Installing Linux in the virtual machine
+#### KVM
+Ensure KVM is set up and loaded.
 
-## Configuring Linux for PBot Communication
+    $ kvm-ok
+    INFO: /dev/kvm exists
+    KVM acceleration can be used
 
-## Hardening the PBot virtual machine
+If you see the above, everything's set up. Otherwise, consult your operating
+system manual or KVM manual to install and load KVM.
+
+#### libvirt
+Ensure libvirt is installed and ready.
+
+    $ virsh version --daemon
+    Compiled against library: libvirt 7.6.0
+    Using library: libvirt 7.6.0
+    Using API: QEMU 7.6.0
+    Running hypervisor: QEMU 6.0.0
+    Running against daemon: 7.6.0
+
+If there's anything missing, please consult your operating system manual to
+install the libvirt and QEMU packages.
+
+On Ubuntu: `sudo apt install qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system`
+
+#### Make a pbot-vm user or directory
+You can either make a new user account or make a new directory in your current user account.
+In either case, name it `pbot-vm` so we'll have one place for the install ISO file and the
+virtual machine disk and snapshot files.
+
+#### Add libvirt group to your user
+Add your user or the `pbot-vm` user to the `libvirt` group.
+
+    $ sudo adduser $USER libvirt
+
+Log out and then log back in for the new group to take effect on your user.
+
+#### Download Linux ISO
+Download a preferred Linux ISO. For this guide, we'll use Fedora. Why? I'm
+using Fedora Rawhide for my PBot VM because I want convenient and reliable
+access to the latest bleeding-edge versions of software.
+
+I recommend using the Fedora Stable net-installer for this guide unless you
+are more comfortable in another Linux distribution. Make sure you choose
+the minimal install option without a graphical desktop.
+
+https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/35/Server/x86_64/iso/Fedora-Server-netinst-x86_64-35-1.2.iso
+is the Fedora Stable net-installer ISO used in this guide.
+
+### Creating a new virtual machine
+To create a new virtual machine we'll use the `virt-install` command. First, ensure you are
+the `pbot-vm` user or that you have changed your current working directory to `pbot-vm`.
+
+    $ virt-install --name=pbot-vm --disk=size=12,cache=none,driver.io=native,snapshot=external,path=vm.qcow2 --cpu=host --os-variant=fedora34 --graphics=spice,gl.enable=yes --video=virtio --location=Fedora-Server-netinst-x86_64-35-1.2.iso
+
+If you are installing over an X-forwarded SSH session, strip the `,gl.enable=yes`
+part. Note that `disk=size=12` will create a 12 GB sparse file. Sparse means the file
+won't actually take up 12 GB. It will start at 0 bytes and grow as needed. You can
+use the `du` command to verify this. After a minimal Fedora install, the size will be
+approximately 1.7 GB. It will grow to about 2.5 GB with most PBot features installed.
+
+For further information about `virt-install`, read its manual page. While the above command should
+give sufficient performance and compatability, there are a great many options worth investigating
+if you want to fine-tune your virtual machine.
+
+#### Installing Linux in the virtual machine
+After executing the `virt-install` command above, you should now see a window
+showing Linux booting up and launching an installer. For this guide, we'll walk
+through the Fedora 35 installer. You can adapt these steps for your own distribution
+of choice.
+
+ * Click `Partition disks`. Don't change anything. Click `Done`.
+ * Click `Root account`. Click `Enable root account`. Set a password. Click `Done`.
+ * Click `User creation`. Create a new user. Skip Fullname and set Username to `vm`. Untick `Add to wheel` or `Set as administrator`. Untick `Require password`.
+ * Wait until `Software selection` is done processing and is no longer greyed out. Click it. Change install from `Server` to `Minimal`. Click `Done`.
+ * Click `Begin installation`.
+
+Installation will need to download about 328 RPMs consisting of about 425 MB. It'll take 5 minutes to an hour or longer
+depending on your hardware and network configuration.
+
+#### Configuring virtual machine for PBot
+Once the install finishes, click the `Reboot` button in the Fedora installer in the virtual machine window.
+
+#### Set up serial ports
+Now, while the virtual machine is rebooting, switch to a terminal on your host system. Go into the
+`pbot-vm/host/devices` directory and run the `add-serials` script. Feel free to look inside. It will add
+the `serial-2.xml` and `serial-3.xml` files to the configuration for the `pbot-vm` libvirt machine.
+
+This will enable and connect the `/dev/ttyS1` and `/dev/ttyS2` serial ports inside the virtual machine
+to TCP connections on `127.0.0.1:5555` and `127.0.0.1:5556`, respectively. `ttyS1/5555` is the data
+channel used to send commands or code to the virtual machine and to read back output. `ttyS2/5556` is
+simply a newline sent every 5 seconds, representing a heartbeat, used to ensure that the PBot communication
+channel is healthy.
+
+Once that's done, switch back to the virtual machine window. Once the virtual machine has rebooted,
+log in as `root`. Now go ahead and shut the virtual machine down with `shutdown now -h`. We need to
+restart the virtual machine itself so it loads the new serial device configuration. Once the machine
+has shutdown, bring it right back up with the following commands on the host system in the terminal
+used for `virt-install`:
+
+    $ virsh start pbot-vm
+
+Now the virtual machine will start back up in the background.
+
+    $ virt-viewer pbot-vm
+
+Now you should see the virtual machine window after a few seconds. Log in as `root` once the login
+prompt appears.
+
+#### Install Perl
+Now we need to install Perl inside the virtual machine. This allows us to run the PBot VM Guest
+script.
+
+    $ dnf install perl-interpreter perl-lib perl-IPC-Run perl-JSON-XS perl-English
+
+That installs the minium packages for the Perl interpreter (note we used `perl-interpreter` instead of `perl`),
+the package for the Perl `lib`, `IPC::Run`, `JSON::XS` and `English` modules.
+
+#### Install PBot VM Guest
+Next we install the PBot VM Guest script that fosters communication between the virtual machine guest
+and the physical host system. We'll do this inside the virtual machine guest system.
+
+The `rsync` command isn't installed in a Fedora minimal install, but `scp` is available. Replace
+`192.168.100.42` below with your own local IP address and `user` with the user account that has the
+PBot directory and `pbot` with the path to the directory.
+
+    $ scp -r user@192.168.100.42:~/pbot/applets/pbot-vm/guest .
+
+Once that's done, run the following command:
+
+    $ ./guest/bin/setup-guest
+
+Feel free to take a look inside to see what it does. It's very short. After running
+the `setup-guest` script make sure you run `source /root/.bashrc` so the environment
+changes take effect.
+
+#### Install software
+Now you can install any languages you want to use.
+
+Python3 is already installed.
+
+For the C programming language you will need at least these:
+
+    $ dnf install libubsan libasan gdb gcc clang
+
+I'll list all the packages for the others soon. You can use `dnf search <name>` to find packages
+in Fedora.
+
+#### Start PBot VM Guest
+We're ready to start the PBot VM Guest.
+
+    $ start-guest
+
+This starts up a server to listen for incoming commands or code and to handle them. We'll leave
+this running.
+
+#### Test PBot VM Guest
+Let's make sure everything's working up to this point. There should be two open TCP ports on
+`5555` and `5556`.
+
+    $ nc -zv 127.0.0.1 5555-5556
+
+If it says anything other than `Connection succeeded` then make sure you have completed the steps
+under [Set up serial ports](#set-up-serial-ports) and that your network configuration is allowing
+access.
+
+Let's make sure the PBot VM Guest is listening for and can execute commands. The `vm-exec` command
+in the `applets/pbot-vm/host/bin` directory allows you to send commands from the shell.
+
+    $ vm-exec -lang=sh echo hello world
+
+This should output some logging noise followed by "hello world". You can test other language modules
+by changing the `-lang=` option. I recommend testing and verifying that all of your desired language
+modules are configured before going on to the next step.
+
+If you have multiple PBot VM Guests, or if you used a different TCP port, you can specify the
+`PBOT_VM_PORT` environment variable when executing the `vm-exec` command:
+
+    $ PBOT_VM_PORT=6666 vm-exec -lang=sh echo test
+
+#### Save initial state
+Switch back to an available terminal on the physical host machine. Enter the following command
+to save a snapshot of the virtual machine waiting for incoming commands.
+
+    $ virsh snapshot-create-as pbot-vm 1
+
+This will create a snapshot file `vm.1` next to the `vm.qcow2` disk file. If the virtual machine
+ever times-out or its heartbeat stops responding, PBot will reset the virtual machine to this
+saved snapshot.
+
+### Initial virtual machine set-up complete
+This concludes the initial one-time set-up. You can close the `virt-viewer` window. The
+virtual machine will continue running in the background until it is manually shutdown (via
+`shutdown now -h` inside the VM or via `virsh shutdown pbot-vm` on the host).
+
+## Start PBot VM Host
+To start the PBot VM Host server, execute the `vm-server` script in the
+`applets/pbot_vm/host/bin` directory on the host.
+
+This will start a TCP server on port `9000`. It will listen for incoming commands and
+pass them along to the virtual machine's TCP serial port.
+
+### Test PBot
+All done. Everything is set up now. In your instance of PBot, the `sh echo hello` command should output `hello`.