Copyright 2010 Lennart Poettering
systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
- under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
- the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+ under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
+ the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
systemd is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
- General Public License for more details.
+ Lesser General Public License for more details.
- You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
along with systemd; If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
-->
<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis>
- <command>systemd-nspawn <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg> <arg choice="opt">COMMAND</arg> <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">ARGS</arg></command>
+ <command>systemd-nspawn</command>
+ <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg>
+ <arg choice="opt"><replaceable>COMMAND</replaceable>
+ <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">ARGS</arg>
+ </arg>
+ </cmdsynopsis>
+ <cmdsynopsis>
+ <command>systemd-nspawn</command>
+ <arg choice="plain">-b</arg>
+ <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg>
+ <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">ARGS</arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>
container. In many ways it is similar to
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
but more powerful since it fully virtualizes the file
- system hierachy, as well as the process tree, the
+ system hierarchy, as well as the process tree, the
various IPC subsystems and the host and domain
name.</para>
to various kernel interfaces in the container to
read-only, such as <filename>/sys</filename>,
<filename>/proc/sys</filename> or
- <filename>/selinux</filename>. Network interfaces and
- the system clock may not be changed from within the
- container. Device nodes may not be created. The host
- system cannot be rebooted and kernel modules may not
- be loaded from within the container.</para>
+ <filename>/sys/fs/selinux</filename>. Network
+ interfaces and the system clock may not be changed
+ from within the container. Device nodes may not be
+ created. The host system cannot be rebooted and kernel
+ modules may not be loaded from within the
+ container.</para>
<para>Note that even though these security precautions
are taken <command>systemd-nspawn</command> is not
involved with boot and systems management.</para>
<para>In contrast to
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
- <command>systemd-nspawn</command> may be used to boot
- full Linux-based operating systems in a
- container.</para>
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> <command>systemd-nspawn</command>
+ may be used to boot full Linux-based operating systems
+ in a container.</para>
<para>Use a tool like
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>debootstrap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> or <citerefentry><refentrytitle>mock</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>yum</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>debootstrap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ or
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>pacman</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
to set up an OS directory tree suitable as file system
- hierarchy for <command>systemd-nspawn</command> containers.</para>
+ hierarchy for <command>systemd-nspawn</command>
+ containers.</para>
<para>Note that <command>systemd-nspawn</command> will
mount file systems private to the container to
<para>Note that running two
<command>systemd-nspawn</command> containers from the
same directory tree will not make processes in them
- see each other. The PID namespace seperation of the
+ see each other. The PID namespace separation of the
two containers is complete and the containers will
share very few runtime objects except for the
- underlying file system.</para>
+ underlying file system. Use
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machinectl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>'s
+ <command>login</command> command to request an
+ additional login prompt in a running container.</para>
+
+ <para><command>systemd-nspawn</command> implements the
+ <ulink
+ url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/ContainerInterface">Container
+ Interface</ulink> specification.</para>
+
+ <para>As a safety check
+ <command>systemd-nspawn</command> will verify the
+ existence of <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> in
+ the container tree before starting the container (see
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>os-release</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>). It
+ might be necessary to add this file to the container
+ tree manually if the OS of the container is too old to
+ contain this file out-of-the-box.</para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Incompatibility with Auditing</title>
+
+ <para>Note that the kernel auditing subsystem is
+ currently broken when used together with
+ containers. We hence recommend turning it off entirely
+ by booting with <literal>audit=0</literal> on the
+ kernel command line, or by turning it off at kernel
+ build time. If auditing is enabled in the kernel,
+ operating systems booted in an nspawn container might
+ refuse log-in attempts.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Options</title>
- <para>If no arguments are passed the container is set
- up and a shell started in it, otherwise the passed
- command and arguments are executed in it. The
- following options are understood:</para>
+ <para>If option <option>-b</option> is specified, the
+ arguments are used as arguments for the init
+ binary. Otherwise, <replaceable>COMMAND</replaceable>
+ specifies the program to launch in the container, and
+ the remaining arguments are used as arguments for this
+ program. If <option>-b</option> is not used and no
+ arguments are specifed, a shell is launched in the
+ container.</para>
+
+ <para>The following options are understood:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-h</option></term>
<term><option>--help</option></term>
<listitem><para>Prints a short help
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--version</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Prints a version string
+ and exits.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-D</option></term>
<term><option>--directory=</option></term>
- <term><option>--D</option></term>
<listitem><para>Directory to use as
file system root for the namespace
- container. If omitted the current
+ container. If omitted, the current
directory will be
used.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-b</option></term>
+ <term><option>--boot</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Automatically search
+ for an init binary and invoke it
+ instead of a shell or a user supplied
+ program. If this option is used, arguments
+ specified on the command line are used
+ as arguments for the init binary.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-u</option></term>
+ <term><option>--user=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Run the command
+ under specified user, create home
+ directory and cd into it. As rest
+ of systemd-nspawn, this is not
+ the security feature and limits
+ against accidental changes only.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-M</option></term>
+ <term><option>--machine=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Sets the machine name
+ for this container. This name may be
+ used to identify this container on the
+ host, and is used to initialize the
+ container's hostname (which the
+ container can choose to override,
+ however). If not specified, the last
+ component of the root directory of the
+ container is used.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--slice=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Make the container
+ part of the specified slice, instead
+ of the
+ <filename>machine.slice</filename>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--uuid=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Set the specified UUID
+ for the container. The init system
+ will initialize
+ <filename>/etc/machine-id</filename>
+ from this if this file is not set yet.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--private-network</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Turn off networking in
+ the container. This makes all network
+ interfaces unavailable in the
+ container, with the exception of the
+ loopback device.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--read-only</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Mount the root file
+ system read-only for the
+ container.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--capability=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>List one or more
+ additional capabilities to grant the
+ container. Takes a comma-separated
+ list of capability names, see
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>capabilities</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ for more information. Note that the
+ following capabilities will be granted
+ in any way: CAP_CHOWN,
+ CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE, CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH,
+ CAP_FOWNER, CAP_FSETID, CAP_IPC_OWNER,
+ CAP_KILL, CAP_LEASE,
+ CAP_LINUX_IMMUTABLE,
+ CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE,
+ CAP_NET_BROADCAST, CAP_NET_RAW,
+ CAP_SETGID, CAP_SETFCAP, CAP_SETPCAP,
+ CAP_SETUID, CAP_SYS_ADMIN,
+ CAP_SYS_CHROOT, CAP_SYS_NICE,
+ CAP_SYS_PTRACE, CAP_SYS_TTY_CONFIG,
+ CAP_SYS_RESOURCE, CAP_SYS_BOOT,
+ CAP_AUDIT_WRITE,
+ CAP_AUDIT_CONTROL.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--drop-capability=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Specify one or more
+ additional capabilities to drop for
+ the container. This allows running the
+ container with fewer capabilities than
+ the default (see above).</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--link-journal=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Control whether the
+ container's journal shall be made
+ visible to the host system. If enabled,
+ allows viewing the container's journal
+ files from the host (but not vice
+ versa). Takes one of
+ <literal>no</literal>,
+ <literal>host</literal>,
+ <literal>guest</literal>,
+ <literal>auto</literal>. If
+ <literal>no</literal>, the journal is
+ not linked. If <literal>host</literal>,
+ the journal files are stored on the
+ host file system (beneath
+ <filename>/var/log/journal/<replaceable>machine-id</replaceable></filename>)
+ and the subdirectory is bind-mounted
+ into the container at the same
+ location. If <literal>guest</literal>,
+ the journal files are stored on the
+ guest file system (beneath
+ <filename>/var/log/journal/<replaceable>machine-id</replaceable></filename>)
+ and the subdirectory is symlinked into the host
+ at the same location. If
+ <literal>auto</literal> (the default),
+ and the right subdirectory of
+ <filename>/var/log/journal</filename>
+ exists, it will be bind mounted
+ into the container. If the
+ subdirectory does not exist, no
+ linking is performed. Effectively,
+ booting a container once with
+ <literal>guest</literal> or
+ <literal>host</literal> will link the
+ journal persistently if further on
+ the default of <literal>auto</literal>
+ is used.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-j</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Equivalent to
+ <option>--link-journal=guest</option>.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--bind=</option></term>
+ <term><option>--bind-ro=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Bind mount a file or
+ directory from the host into the
+ container. Either takes a path
+ argument -- in which case the
+ specified path will be mounted from
+ the host to the same path in the
+ container --, or a colon-separated
+ pair of paths -- in which case the
+ first specified path is the source in
+ the host, and the second path is the
+ destination in the container. The
+ <option>--bind-ro=</option> option
+ creates read-only bind
+ mount.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Example 1</title>
- <programlisting># debootstrap --arch=amd64 unstable debian-tree/
-# systemd-nspawn -D debian-tree/</programlisting>
+ <programlisting># yum -y --releasever=19 --nogpg --installroot=/srv/mycontainer --disablerepo='*' --enablerepo=fedora install systemd passwd yum fedora-release vim-minimal
+# systemd-nspawn -bD /srv/mycontainer</programlisting>
+
+ <para>This installs a minimal Fedora distribution into
+ the directory <filename noindex='true'>/srv/mycontainer/</filename> and
+ then boots an OS in a namespace container in
+ it.</para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Example 2</title>
+
+ <programlisting># debootstrap --arch=amd64 unstable ~/debian-tree/
+# systemd-nspawn -D ~/debian-tree/</programlisting>
<para>This installs a minimal Debian unstable
distribution into the directory
- <filename>debian-tree/</filename> and then spawns a
+ <filename>~/debian-tree/</filename> and then spawns a
shell in a namespace container in it.</para>
-
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
- <title>Example 2</title>
+ <title>Example 3</title>
- <programlisting># mock --init
-# systemd-nspawn -D /var/lib/mock/fedora-rawhide-x86_64/root/ /bin/systemd systemd.log_level=debug</programlisting>
+ <programlisting># pacstrap -c -d ~/arch-tree/ base
+# systemd-nspawn -bD ~/arch-tree/</programlisting>
- <para>This installs a minimal Fedora distribution into
- a subdirectory of <filename>/var/lib/mock/</filename>
- and then boots an OS in a namespace container in it,
- with systemd as init system, configured for debug
- logging.</para>
+ <para>This installs a mimimal Arch Linux distribution into
+ the directory <filename>~/arch-tree/</filename> and then
+ boots an OS in a namespace container in it.</para>
+ </refsect1>
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Example 4</title>
+
+ <programlisting># mv ~/arch-tree /var/lib/container/arch
+# systemctl enable systemd-nspawn@arch.service
+# systemctl start systemd-nspawn@arch.service</programlisting>
+
+ <para>This makes the Arch Linux container part of the
+ <filename>multi-user.target</filename> on the host.
+ </para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<para>
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>debootstrap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>mock</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>yum</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>debootstrap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>pacman</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.slice</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machinectl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
</para>
</refsect1>