1IOCTL_NS(2)                Linux Programmer's Manual               IOCTL_NS(2)
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NAME

6       ioctl_ns - ioctl() operations for Linux namespaces
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DESCRIPTION

9   Discovering namespace relationships
10       The  following  ioctl(2)  operations are provided to allow discovery of
11       namespace relationships (see user_namespaces(7) and pid_namespaces(7)).
12       The form of the calls is:
13
14           new_fd = ioctl(fd, request);
15
16       In  each  case,  fd refers to a /proc/[pid]/ns/* file.  Both operations
17       return a new file descriptor on success.
18
19       NS_GET_USERNS (since Linux 4.9)
20              Returns a file descriptor that refers to the owning  user  name‐
21              space for the namespace referred to by fd.
22
23       NS_GET_PARENT (since Linux 4.9)
24              Returns a file descriptor that refers to the parent namespace of
25              the namespace referred to by fd.  This operation is  valid  only
26              for  hierarchical  namespaces  (i.e.,  PID and user namespaces).
27              For  user   namespaces,   NS_GET_PARENT   is   synonymous   with
28              NS_GET_USERNS.
29
30       The new file descriptor returned by these operations is opened with the
31       O_RDONLY and O_CLOEXEC (close-on-exec; see fcntl(2)) flags.
32
33       By applying fstat(2) to the returned file  descriptor,  one  obtains  a
34       stat structure whose st_dev (resident device) and st_ino (inode number)
35       fields together identify the owning/parent namespace.  This inode  num‐
36       ber    can    be   matched   with   the   inode   number   of   another
37       /proc/[pid]/ns/{pid,user} file to determine whether that  is  the  own‐
38       ing/parent namespace.
39
40       Either of these ioctl(2) operations can fail with the following errors:
41
42       EPERM  The  requested  namespace  is  outside of the caller's namespace
43              scope.  This error can occur if, for example,  the  owning  user
44              namespace is an ancestor of the caller's current user namespace.
45              It can also occur on attempts to obtain the parent of  the  ini‐
46              tial user or PID namespace.
47
48       ENOTTY The operation is not supported by this kernel version.
49
50       Additionally,  the  NS_GET_PARENT operation can fail with the following
51       error:
52
53       EINVAL fd refers to a nonhierarchical namespace.
54
55       See the EXAMPLES section for an example of the use of these operations.
56
57   Discovering the namespace type
58       The NS_GET_NSTYPE operation (available since Linux 4.11) can be used to
59       discover the type of namespace referred to by the file descriptor fd:
60
61           nstype = ioctl(fd, NS_GET_NSTYPE);
62
63       fd refers to a /proc/[pid]/ns/* file.
64
65       The  return value is one of the CLONE_NEW* values that can be specified
66       to clone(2) or unshare(2) in order to create a namespace.
67
68   Discovering the owner of a user namespace
69       The NS_GET_OWNER_UID operation (available since Linux 4.11) can be used
70       to  discover the owner user ID of a user namespace (i.e., the effective
71       user ID of the process that created the user namespace).  The  form  of
72       the call is:
73
74           uid_t uid;
75           ioctl(fd, NS_GET_OWNER_UID, &uid);
76
77       fd refers to a /proc/[pid]/ns/user file.
78
79       The  owner user ID is returned in the uid_t pointed to by the third ar‐
80       gument.
81
82       This operation can fail with the following error:
83
84       EINVAL fd does not refer to a user namespace.
85

ERRORS

87       Any of the above ioctl() operations can return the following errors:
88
89       ENOTTY fd does not refer to a /proc/[pid]/ns/* file.
90

CONFORMING TO

92       Namespaces and the operations described on this page are  a  Linux-spe‐
93       cific.
94

EXAMPLES

96       The example shown below uses the ioctl(2) operations described above to
97       perform simple discovery of  namespace  relationships.   The  following
98       shell sessions show various examples of the use of this program.
99
100       Trying  to get the parent of the initial user namespace fails, since it
101       has no parent:
102
103           $ ./ns_show /proc/self/ns/user p
104           The parent namespace is outside your namespace scope
105
106       Create a process running sleep(1) that resides  in  new  user  and  UTS
107       namespaces,  and show that the new UTS namespace is associated with the
108       new user namespace:
109
110           $ unshare -Uu sleep 1000 &
111           [1] 23235
112           $ ./ns_show /proc/23235/ns/uts u
113           Device/Inode of owning user namespace is: [0,3] / 4026532448
114           $ readlink /proc/23235/ns/user
115           user:[4026532448]
116
117       Then show that the parent of the new user namespace  in  the  preceding
118       example is the initial user namespace:
119
120           $ readlink /proc/self/ns/user
121           user:[4026531837]
122           $ ./ns_show /proc/23235/ns/user p
123           Device/Inode of parent namespace is: [0,3] / 4026531837
124
125       Start  a  shell in a new user namespace, and show that from within this
126       shell, the parent user namespace can't be discovered.   Similarly,  the
127       UTS  namespace  (which  is  associated with the initial user namespace)
128       can't be discovered.
129
130           $ PS1="sh2$ " unshare -U bash
131           sh2$ ./ns_show /proc/self/ns/user p
132           The parent namespace is outside your namespace scope
133           sh2$ ./ns_show /proc/self/ns/uts u
134           The owning user namespace is outside your namespace scope
135
136   Program source
137
138       /* ns_show.c
139
140          Licensed under the GNU General Public License v2 or later.
141       */
142       #include <stdint.h>
143       #include <stdlib.h>
144       #include <unistd.h>
145       #include <stdio.h>
146       #include <fcntl.h>
147       #include <string.h>
148       #include <sys/stat.h>
149       #include <sys/ioctl.h>
150       #include <errno.h>
151       #include <sys/sysmacros.h>
152
153       #ifndef NS_GET_USERNS
154       #define NSIO    0xb7
155       #define NS_GET_USERNS   _IO(NSIO, 0x1)
156       #define NS_GET_PARENT   _IO(NSIO, 0x2)
157       #endif
158
159       int
160       main(int argc, char *argv[])
161       {
162           int fd, userns_fd, parent_fd;
163           struct stat sb;
164
165           if (argc < 2) {
166               fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s /proc/[pid]/ns/[file] [p|u]\n",
167                       argv[0]);
168               fprintf(stderr, "\nDisplay the result of one or both "
169                       "of NS_GET_USERNS (u) or NS_GET_PARENT (p)\n"
170                       "for the specified /proc/[pid]/ns/[file]. If neither "
171                       "'p' nor 'u' is specified,\n"
172                       "NS_GET_USERNS is the default.\n");
173               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
174           }
175
176           /* Obtain a file descriptor for the 'ns' file specified
177              in argv[1] */
178
179           fd = open(argv[1], O_RDONLY);
180           if (fd == -1) {
181               perror("open");
182               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
183           }
184
185           /* Obtain a file descriptor for the owning user namespace and
186              then obtain and display the inode number of that namespace */
187
188           if (argc < 3 || strchr(argv[2], 'u')) {
189               userns_fd = ioctl(fd, NS_GET_USERNS);
190
191               if (userns_fd == -1) {
192                   if (errno == EPERM)
193                       printf("The owning user namespace is outside "
194                               "your namespace scope\n");
195                   else
196                      perror("ioctl-NS_GET_USERNS");
197                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
198                }
199
200               if (fstat(userns_fd, &sb) == -1) {
201                   perror("fstat-userns");
202                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
203               }
204               printf("Device/Inode of owning user namespace is: "
205                       "[%jx,%jx] / %ju\n",
206                       (uintmax_t) major(sb.st_dev),
207                       (uintmax_t) minor(sb.st_dev),
208                       (uintmax_t) sb.st_ino);
209
210               close(userns_fd);
211           }
212
213           /* Obtain a file descriptor for the parent namespace and
214              then obtain and display the inode number of that namespace */
215
216           if (argc > 2 && strchr(argv[2], 'p')) {
217               parent_fd = ioctl(fd, NS_GET_PARENT);
218
219               if (parent_fd == -1) {
220                   if (errno == EINVAL)
221                       printf("Can' get parent namespace of a "
222                               "nonhierarchical namespace\n");
223                   else if (errno == EPERM)
224                       printf("The parent namespace is outside "
225                               "your namespace scope\n");
226                   else
227                       perror("ioctl-NS_GET_PARENT");
228                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
229               }
230
231               if (fstat(parent_fd, &sb) == -1) {
232                   perror("fstat-parentns");
233                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
234               }
235               printf("Device/Inode of parent namespace is: [%jx,%jx] / %ju\n",
236                       (uintmax_t) major(sb.st_dev),
237                       (uintmax_t) minor(sb.st_dev),
238                       (uintmax_t) sb.st_ino);
239
240               close(parent_fd);
241           }
242
243           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
244       }
245

SEE ALSO

247       fstat(2), ioctl(2), proc(5), namespaces(7)
248

COLOPHON

250       This page is part of release 5.10 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
251       description  of  the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
252       latest    version    of    this    page,    can     be     found     at
253       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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257Linux                             2020-11-01                       IOCTL_NS(2)
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