man/systemd-nspawn.xml

   1 <?xml version='1.0'?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
   2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
   3         "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
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   6   This file is part of systemd.
   7
   8   Copyright 2010 Lennart Poettering
   9
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  23
  24 <refentry id="systemd-nspawn">
  25
  26         <refentryinfo>
  27                 <title>systemd-nspawn</title>
  28                 <productname>systemd</productname>
  29
  30                 <authorgroup>
  31                         <author>
  32                                 <contrib>Developer</contrib>
  33                                 <firstname>Lennart</firstname>
  34                                 <surname>Poettering</surname>
  35                                 <email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
  36                         </author>
  37                 </authorgroup>
  38         </refentryinfo>
  39
  40         <refmeta>
  41                 <refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle>
  42                 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
  43         </refmeta>
  44
  45         <refnamediv>
  46                 <refname>systemd-nspawn</refname>
  47                 <refpurpose>Spawn a namespace container for debugging, testing and building</refpurpose>
  48         </refnamediv>
  49
  50         <refsynopsisdiv>
  51                 <cmdsynopsis>
  52                         <command>systemd-nspawn <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg> <arg choice="opt">COMMAND</arg> <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">ARGS</arg></command>
  53                 </cmdsynopsis>
  54         </refsynopsisdiv>
  55
  56         <refsect1>
  57                 <title>Description</title>
  58
  59                 <para><command>systemd-nspawn</command> may be used to
  60                 run a command or OS in a light-weight namespace
  61                 container. In many ways it is similar to
  62                 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
  63                 but more powerful since it fully virtualizes the file
  64                 system hierarchy, as well as the process tree, the
  65                 various IPC subsystems and the host and domain
  66                 name.</para>
  67
  68                 <para><command>systemd-nspawn</command> limits access
  69                 to various kernel interfaces in the container to
  70                 read-only, such as <filename>/sys</filename>,
  71                 <filename>/proc/sys</filename> or
  72                 <filename>/sys/fs/selinux</filename>. Network
  73                 interfaces and the system clock may not be changed
  74                 from within the container. Device nodes may not be
  75                 created. The host system cannot be rebooted and kernel
  76                 modules may not be loaded from within the
  77                 container.</para>
  78
  79                 <para>Note that even though these security precautions
  80                 are taken <command>systemd-nspawn</command> is not
  81                 suitable for secure container setups. Many of the
  82                 security features may be circumvented and are hence
  83                 primarily useful to avoid accidental changes to the
  84                 host system from the container. The intended use of
  85                 this program is debugging and testing as well as
  86                 building of packages, distributions and software
  87                 involved with boot and systems management.</para>
  88
  89                 <para>In contrast to
  90                 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
  91                 <command>systemd-nspawn</command> may be used to boot
  92                 full Linux-based operating systems in a
  93                 container.</para>
  94
  95                 <para>Use a tool like
  96                 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>yum</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
  97                 or
  98                 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>debootstrap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
  99                 to set up an OS directory tree suitable as file system
 100                 hierarchy for <command>systemd-nspawn</command>
 101                 containers.</para>
 102
 103                 <para>Note that <command>systemd-nspawn</command> will
 104                 mount file systems private to the container to
 105                 <filename>/dev</filename>,
 106                 <filename>/run</filename> and similar. These will
 107                 not be visible outside of the container, and their
 108                 contents will be lost when the container exits.</para>
 109
 110                 <para>Note that running two
 111                 <command>systemd-nspawn</command> containers from the
 112                 same directory tree will not make processes in them
 113                 see each other. The PID namespace separation of the
 114                 two containers is complete and the containers will
 115                 share very few runtime objects except for the
 116                 underlying file system.</para>
 117
 118                 <para><command>systemd-nspawn</command> implements the
 119                 <ulink
 120                 url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/ContainerInterface">Container
 121                 Interface</ulink> specification.</para>
 122         </refsect1>
 123
 124         <refsect1>
 125                 <title>Options</title>
 126
 127                 <para>If no arguments are passed the container is set
 128                 up and a shell started in it, otherwise the passed
 129                 command and arguments are executed in it. The
 130                 following options are understood:</para>
 131
 132                 <variablelist>
 133                         <varlistentry>
 134                                 <term><option>--help</option></term>
 135                                 <term><option>-h</option></term>
 136
 137                                 <listitem><para>Prints a short help
 138                                 text and exits.</para></listitem>
 139                         </varlistentry>
 140
 141                         <varlistentry>
 142                                 <term><option>--directory=</option></term>
 143                                 <term><option>-D</option></term>
 144
 145                                 <listitem><para>Directory to use as
 146                                 file system root for the namespace
 147                                 container. If omitted the current
 148                                 directory will be
 149                                 used.</para></listitem>
 150                         </varlistentry>
 151
 152                         <varlistentry>
 153                                 <term><option>--boot</option></term>
 154                                 <term><option>-b</option></term>
 155
 156                                 <listitem><para>Automatically search
 157                                 for an init binary and invoke it
 158                                 instead of a shell or a user supplied
 159                                 program.</para></listitem>
 160                         </varlistentry>
 161
 162                         <varlistentry>
 163                                 <term><option>--user=</option></term>
 164                                 <term><option>-u</option></term>
 165
 166                                 <listitem><para>Run the command
 167                                 under specified user, create home
 168                                 directory and cd into it. As rest
 169                                 of systemd-nspawn, this is not
 170                                 the security feature and limits
 171                                 against accidental changes only.
 172                                 </para></listitem>
 173                         </varlistentry>
 174
 175                         <varlistentry>
 176                                 <term><option>--uuid=</option></term>
 177
 178                                 <listitem><para>Set the specified uuid
 179                                 for the container. The init system
 180                                 will initialize
 181                                 <filename>/etc/machine-id</filename>
 182                                 from this if this file is not set yet.
 183                                 </para></listitem>
 184                         </varlistentry>
 185
 186                         <varlistentry>
 187                                 <term><option>--controllers=</option></term>
 188                                 <term><option>-C</option></term>
 189
 190                                 <listitem><para>Makes the container appear in
 191                                 other hierarchies that the name=systemd:/ one.
 192                                 Takes a comma-separated list of controllers.
 193                                 </para></listitem>
 194                         </varlistentry>
 195
 196                         <varlistentry>
 197                                 <term><option>--private-network</option></term>
 198
 199                                 <listitem><para>Turn off networking in
 200                                 the container. This makes all network
 201                                 interfaces unavailable in the
 202                                 container, with the exception of the
 203                                 loopback device.</para></listitem>
 204                         </varlistentry>
 205
 206                         <varlistentry>
 207                                 <term><option>--read-only</option></term>
 208
 209                                 <listitem><para>Mount the root file
 210                                 system read only for the
 211                                 container.</para></listitem>
 212                         </varlistentry>
 213
 214                         <varlistentry>
 215                                 <term><option>--capability=</option></term>
 216
 217                                 <listitem><para>List one or more
 218                                 additional capabilities to grant the
 219                                 container. Takes a comma separated
 220                                 list of capability names, see
 221                                 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>capabilities</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
 222                                 for more information. Note that the
 223                                 the following capabilities will be
 224                                 granted in any way: CAP_CHOWN,
 225                                 CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE, CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH,
 226                                 CAP_FOWNER, CAP_FSETID, CAP_IPC_OWNER,
 227                                 CAP_KILL, CAP_LEASE,
 228                                 CAP_LINUX_IMMUTABLE,
 229                                 CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE,
 230                                 CAP_NET_BROADCAST, CAP_NET_RAW,
 231                                 CAP_SETGID, CAP_SETFCAP, CAP_SETPCAP,
 232                                 CAP_SETUID, CAP_SYS_ADMIN,
 233                                 CAP_SYS_CHROOT, CAP_SYS_NICE,
 234                                 CAP_SYS_PTRACE, CAP_SYS_TTY_CONFIG,
 235                                 CAP_SYS_RESOURCE.</para></listitem>
 236                         </varlistentry>
 237
 238                 </variablelist>
 239
 240         </refsect1>
 241
 242         <refsect1>
 243                 <title>Example 1</title>
 244
 245                 <programlisting># yum --releasever=17 --nogpgcheck --installroot ~/fedora-tree/ install yum passwd vim-minimal rootfiles systemd
 246 # systemd-nspawn -D ~/fedora-tree /usr/lib/systemd/systemd</programlisting>
 247
 248                 <para>This installs a minimal Fedora distribution into
 249                 the directory <filename>~/fedora-tree/</filename>
 250                 and then boots an OS in a namespace container in it,
 251                 with systemd as init system.</para>
 252         </refsect1>
 253
 254         <refsect1>
 255                 <title>Example 2</title>
 256
 257                 <programlisting># debootstrap --arch=amd64 unstable ~/debian-tree/
 258 # systemd-nspawn -D ~/debian-tree/</programlisting>
 259
 260                 <para>This installs a minimal Debian unstable
 261                 distribution into the directory
 262                 <filename>~/debian-tree/</filename> and then spawns a
 263                 shell in a namespace container in it.</para>
 264
 265         </refsect1>
 266
 267         <refsect1>
 268                 <title>Exit status</title>
 269
 270                 <para>The exit code of the program executed in the
 271                 container is returned.</para>
 272         </refsect1>
 273
 274         <refsect1>
 275                 <title>See Also</title>
 276                 <para>
 277                         <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
 278                         <citerefentry><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
 279                         <citerefentry><refentrytitle>yum</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
 280                         <citerefentry><refentrytitle>debootstrap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
 281                 </para>
 282         </refsect1>
 283
 284 </refentry>