along with systemd; If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
-->
-<refentry id="systemd-nspawn">
+<refentry id="systemd-nspawn"
+ xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
<refentryinfo>
<title>systemd-nspawn</title>
<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>
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>yum</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>yum</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>debootstrap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
or
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>debootstrap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ <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>
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>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>--help</option></term>
- <term><option>-h</option></term>
+ <term><option>-D</option></term>
+ <term><option>--directory=</option></term>
- <listitem><para>Prints a short help
- text and exits.</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Directory to use as
+ file system root for the container. If
+ neither <option>--directory=</option>
+ nor <option>--image=</option> are
+ specified, the current directory will
+ be used. May not be specified together with
+ <option>--image=</option>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>--version</option></term>
-
- <listitem><para>Prints a version string
- and exits.</para></listitem>
+ <term><option>-i</option></term>
+ <term><option>--image=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Disk image to mount
+ the root directory for the container
+ from. Takes a path to a regular file
+ or to a block device node. The file or
+ block device must contain a GUID
+ Partition Table with a root partition
+ which is mounted as the root directory
+ of the container. Optionally, it may
+ contain a home and/or a server data
+ partition which are mounted to the
+ appropriate places in the
+ container. All these partitions must
+ be identified by the partition types
+ defined by the <ulink
+ url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/DiscoverablePartitionsSpec/">Discoverable
+ Partitions Specification</ulink>. Any
+ other partitions, such as foreign
+ partitions, swap partitions or EFI
+ system partitions are not mounted. May
+ not be specified together with
+ <option>--directory=</option>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <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
- directory will be
- used.</para></listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term><option>--boot</option></term>
<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.</para></listitem>
+ program. If this option is used,
+ arguments specified on the command
+ line are used as arguments for the
+ init binary. This option may not be
+ combined with
+ <option>--share-system</option>.
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>--user=</option></term>
<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>
+ <listitem><para>After transitioning
+ into the container, change to the
+ specified user defined in the
+ container's user database. Like all
+ other systemd-nspawn features, this is
+ not a security feature and provides
+ protection against accidental
+ destructive operations
+ 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>--uuid=</option></term>
- <listitem><para>Set the specified uuid
+ <listitem><para>Set the specified UUID
for the container. The init system
will initialize
<filename>/etc/machine-id</filename>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>--controllers=</option></term>
- <term><option>-C</option></term>
+ <term><option>--slice=</option></term>
- <listitem><para>Makes the container appear in
- other hierarchies than the name=systemd:/ one.
- Takes a comma-separated list of controllers.
- </para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Make the container
+ part of the specified slice, instead
+ of the default
+ <filename>machine.slice</filename>.</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>
+ <listitem><para>Disconnect networking
+ of the container from the host. This
+ makes all network interfaces
+ unavailable in the container, with the
+ exception of the loopback device and
+ those specified with
+ <option>--network-interface=</option>
+ and configured with
+ <option>--network-veth</option>. If
+ this option is specified, the
+ CAP_NET_ADMIN capability will be added
+ to the set of capabilities the
+ container retains. The latter may be
+ disabled by using
+ <option>--drop-capability=</option>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>--read-only</option></term>
+ <term><option>--network-interface=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Assign the specified
+ network interface to the
+ container. This will remove the
+ specified interface from the calling
+ namespace and place it in the
+ container. When the container
+ terminates, it is moved back to the
+ host namespace. Note that
+ <option>--network-interface=</option>
+ implies
+ <option>--private-network</option>. This
+ option may be used more than once to
+ add multiple network interfaces to the
+ container.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
- <listitem><para>Mount the root file
- system read only for the
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--network-macvlan=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Create a
+ <literal>macvlan</literal> interface
+ of the specified Ethernet network
+ interface and add it to the
+ container. A
+ <literal>macvlan</literal> interface
+ is a virtual interface that adds a
+ second MAC address to an existing
+ physical Ethernet link. The interface
+ in the container will be named after
+ the interface on the host, prefixed
+ with <literal>mv-</literal>. Note that
+ <option>--network-macvlan=</option>
+ implies
+ <option>--private-network</option>. This
+ option may be used more than once to
+ add multiple network interfaces to the
container.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--network-veth</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Create a virtual
+ Ethernet link
+ (<literal>veth</literal>) between host
+ and container. The host side of the
+ Ethernet link will be available as a
+ network interface named after the
+ container's name (as specified with
+ <option>--machine=</option>), prefixed
+ with <literal>ve-</literal>. The
+ container side of the the Ethernet
+ link will be named
+ <literal>host0</literal>. Note that
+ <option>--network-veth</option>
+ implies
+ <option>--private-network</option>.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--network-bridge=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Adds the host side of
+ the Ethernet link created with
+ <option>--network-veth</option> to the
+ specified bridge. Note that
+ <option>--network-bridge=</option>
+ implies
+ <option>--network-veth</option>. If
+ this option is used the host side of
+ the Ethernet link will use the
+ <literal>vb-</literal> prefix instead
+ of <literal>ve-</literal>.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-Z</option></term>
+ <term><option>--selinux-context=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Sets the SELinux
+ security context to be used to label
+ processes in the container.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-L</option></term>
+ <term><option>--selinux-apifs-context=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Sets the SELinux security
+ context to be used to label files in
+ the virtual API file systems in 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
+ container. Takes a comma-separated
list of capability names, see
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>capabilities</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for more information. Note that the
CAP_SYS_PTRACE, CAP_SYS_TTY_CONFIG,
CAP_SYS_RESOURCE, CAP_SYS_BOOT,
CAP_AUDIT_WRITE,
- CAP_AUDIT_CONTROL.</para></listitem>
+ CAP_AUDIT_CONTROL. Also CAP_NET_ADMIN
+ is retained if
+ <option>--private-network</option> is
+ specified. If the special value
+ <literal>all</literal> is passed, all
+ capabilities are
+ retained.</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>
<listitem><para>Control whether the
container's journal shall be made
- visible to the host system. If enabled
+ visible to the host system. If enabled,
allows viewing the container's journal
files from the host (but not vice
versa). Takes one of
not linked. If <literal>host</literal>,
the journal files are stored on the
host file system (beneath
- <filename>/var/log/journal/<machine-id></filename>)
+ <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/<machine-id></filename>)
+ <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),
<filename>/var/log/journal</filename>
exists, it will be bind mounted
into the container. If the
- subdirectory doesn't exist, no
+ subdirectory does not exist, no
linking is performed. Effectively,
booting a container once with
<literal>guest</literal> or
<listitem><para>Equivalent to
<option>--link-journal=guest</option>.</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>--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
+ mounts.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--setenv=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Specifies an
+ environment variable assignment to
+ pass to the init process in the
+ container, in the format
+ <literal>NAME=VALUE</literal>. This
+ may be used to override the default
+ variables or to set additional
+ variables. This parameter may be used
+ more than once.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--share-system</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Allows the container
+ to share certain system facilities
+ with the host. More specifically, this
+ turns off PID namespacing, UTS
+ namespacing and IPC namespacing, and
+ thus allows the guest to see and
+ interact more easily with processes
+ outside of the container. Note that
+ using this option makes it impossible
+ to start up a full Operating System in
+ the container, as an init system
+ cannot operate in this mode. It is
+ only useful to run specific programs
+ or applications this way, without
+ involving an init system in the
+ container. This option implies
+ <option>--register=no</option>. This
+ option may not be combined with
+ <option>--boot</option>.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--register=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Controls whether the
+ container is registered with
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-machined</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>. Takes
+ a boolean argument, defaults to
+ <literal>yes</literal>. This option
+ should be enabled when the container
+ runs a full Operating System (more
+ specifically: an init system), and is
+ useful to ensure that the container is
+ accessible via
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machinectl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ and shown by tools such as
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>ps</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>. If
+ the container does not run an init
+ system, it is recommended to set this
+ option to <literal>no</literal>. Note
+ that <option>--share-system</option>
+ implies
+ <option>--register=no</option>.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--keep-unit</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Instead of creating a
+ transient scope unit to run the
+ container in, simply register the
+ service or scope unit
+ <command>systemd-nspawn</command> has
+ been invoked in with
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-machined</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>. This
+ has no effect if
+ <option>--register=no</option> is
+ used. This switch should be used if
+ <command>systemd-nspawn</command> is
+ invoked from within a service unit,
+ and the service unit's sole purpose
+ is to run a single
+ <command>systemd-nspawn</command>
+ container. This option is not
+ available if run from a user
+ session.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--personality=</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Control the
+ architecture ("personality") reported
+ by
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>uname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ in the container. Currently, only
+ <literal>x86</literal> and
+ <literal>x86-64</literal> are
+ supported. This is useful when running
+ a 32bit container on a 64bit
+ host. If this setting is not used
+ the personality reported in the
+ container is the same as the one
+ reported on the
+ host.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-q</option></term>
+ <term><option>--quiet</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Turns off any status
+ output by the tool itself. When this
+ switch is used, the only output
+ from nspawn will be the console output
+ of the container OS itself.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="help" />
+ <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="version" />
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Example 1</title>
- <programlisting># yum --releasever=17 --nogpgcheck --installroot ~/fedora-tree/ install yum passwd vim-minimal rootfiles systemd
-# systemd-nspawn -D ~/fedora-tree /usr/lib/systemd/systemd</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>~/fedora-tree/</filename>
- and then boots an OS in a namespace container in it,
- with systemd as init system.</para>
+ the directory <filename noindex='true'>/srv/mycontainer/</filename> and
+ then boots an OS in a namespace container in
+ it.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
distribution into the directory
<filename>~/debian-tree/</filename> and then spawns a
shell in a namespace container in it.</para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Example 3</title>
+
+ <programlisting># pacstrap -c -d ~/arch-tree/ base
+# systemd-nspawn -bD ~/arch-tree/</programlisting>
+
+ <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>
+ <title>Example 5</title>
+
+ <programlisting># btrfs subvolume snapshot / /.tmp
+# systemd-nspawn --private-network -D /.tmp -b</programlisting>
+
+ <para>This runs a copy of the host system in a
+ btrfs snapshot.</para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Example 6</title>
+
+ <programlisting># chcon system_u:object_r:svirt_sandbox_file_t:s0:c0,c1 -R /srv/container
+# systemd-nspawn -L system_u:object_r:svirt_sandbox_file_t:s0:c0,c1 -Z system_u:system_r:svirt_lxc_net_t:s0:c0,c1 -D /srv/container /bin/sh</programlisting>
+ <para>This runs a container with SELinux sandbox security contexts.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>yum</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>debootstrap</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>