1SYSTEMD-NSPAWN(1) systemd-nspawn SYSTEMD-NSPAWN(1)
2
6 systemd-nspawn - Spawn a command or OS in a light-weight container
7
9 systemd-nspawn [OPTIONS...] [COMMAND [ARGS...]]
10 systemd-nspawn --boot [OPTIONS...] [ARGS...]
12
14 systemd-nspawn may be used to run a command or OS in a light-weight
15 namespace container. In many ways it is similar to chroot(1), but more
16 powerful since it fully virtualizes the file system hierarchy, as well
17 as the process tree, the various IPC subsystems and the host and domain
18 name.
19 systemd-nspawn may be invoked on any directory tree containing an
21 operating system tree, using the --directory= command line option. By
22 using the --machine= option an OS tree is automatically searched for in
23 a couple of locations, most importantly in /var/lib/machines/, the
24 suggested directory to place OS container images installed on the
25 system.
26 In contrast to chroot(1) systemd-nspawn may be used to boot full
28 Linux-based operating systems in a container.
29 systemd-nspawn limits access to various kernel interfaces in the
31 container to read-only, such as /sys/, /proc/sys/ or /sys/fs/selinux/.
32 The host's network interfaces and the system clock may not be changed
33 from within the container. Device nodes may not be created. The host
34 system cannot be rebooted and kernel modules may not be loaded from
35 within the container.
36 Use a tool like dnf(8), debootstrap(8), or pacman(8) to set up an OS
38 directory tree suitable as file system hierarchy for systemd-nspawn
39 containers. See the Examples section below for details on suitable
40 invocation of these commands.
41 As a safety check systemd-nspawn will verify the existence of
43 /usr/lib/os-release or /etc/os-release in the container tree before
44 starting the container (see os-release(5)). It might be necessary to
45 add this file to the container tree manually if the OS of the container
46 is too old to contain this file out-of-the-box.
47 systemd-nspawn may be invoked directly from the interactive command
49 line or run as system service in the background. In this mode each
50 container instance runs as its own service instance; a default template
51 unit file systemd-nspawn@.service is provided to make this easy, taking
52 the container name as instance identifier. Note that different default
53 options apply when systemd-nspawn is invoked by the template unit file
54 than interactively on the command line. Most importantly the template
55 unit file makes use of the --boot which is not the default in case
56 systemd-nspawn is invoked from the interactive command line. Further
57 differences with the defaults are documented along with the various
58 supported options below.
59 The machinectl(1) tool may be used to execute a number of operations on
61 containers. In particular it provides easy-to-use commands to run
62 containers as system services using the systemd-nspawn@.service
63 template unit file.
64 Along with each container a settings file with the .nspawn suffix may
66 exist, containing additional settings to apply when running the
67 container. See systemd.nspawn(5) for details. Settings files override
68 the default options used by the systemd-nspawn@.service template unit
69 file, making it usually unnecessary to alter this template file
70 directly.
71 Note that systemd-nspawn will mount file systems private to the
73 container to /dev/, /run/ and similar. These will not be visible
74 outside of the container, and their contents will be lost when the
75 container exits.
76 Note that running two systemd-nspawn containers from the same directory
78 tree will not make processes in them see each other. The PID namespace
79 separation of the two containers is complete and the containers will
80 share very few runtime objects except for the underlying file system.
81 Use machinectl(1)'s login or shell commands to request an additional
82 login session in a running container.
83 systemd-nspawn implements the Container Interface[1] specification.
85 While running, containers invoked with systemd-nspawn are registered
87 with the systemd-machined(8) service that keeps track of running
88 containers, and provides programming interfaces to interact with them.
89
91 If option -b is specified, the arguments are used as arguments for the
92 init program. Otherwise, COMMAND specifies the program to launch in the
93 container, and the remaining arguments are used as arguments for this
94 program. If --boot is not used and no arguments are specified, a shell
95 is launched in the container.
96 The following options are understood:
98 -q, --quiet
100 Turns off any status output by the tool itself. When this switch is
101 used, the only output from nspawn will be the console output of the
102 container OS itself.
103 --settings=MODE
105 Controls whether systemd-nspawn shall search for and use additional
106 per-container settings from .nspawn files. Takes a boolean or the
107 special values override or trusted.
108 If enabled (the default), a settings file named after the machine
110 (as specified with the --machine= setting, or derived from the
111 directory or image file name) with the suffix .nspawn is searched
112 in /etc/systemd/nspawn/ and /run/systemd/nspawn/. If it is found
113 there, its settings are read and used. If it is not found there, it
114 is subsequently searched in the same directory as the image file or
115 in the immediate parent of the root directory of the container. In
116 this case, if the file is found, its settings will be also read and
117 used, but potentially unsafe settings are ignored. Note that in
118 both these cases, settings on the command line take precedence over
119 the corresponding settings from loaded .nspawn files, if both are
120 specified. Unsafe settings are considered all settings that elevate
121 the container's privileges or grant access to additional resources
122 such as files or directories of the host. For details about the
123 format and contents of .nspawn files, consult systemd.nspawn(5).
124 If this option is set to override, the file is searched, read and
126 used the same way, however, the order of precedence is reversed:
127 settings read from the .nspawn file will take precedence over the
128 corresponding command line options, if both are specified.
129 If this option is set to trusted, the file is searched, read and
131 used the same way, but regardless of being found in
132 /etc/systemd/nspawn/, /run/systemd/nspawn/ or next to the image
133 file or container root directory, all settings will take effect,
134 however, command line arguments still take precedence over
135 corresponding settings.
136 If disabled, no .nspawn file is read and no settings except the
138 ones on the command line are in effect.
139 Image Options
141 -D, --directory=
142 Directory to use as file system root for the container.
143 If neither --directory=, nor --image= is specified the directory is
145 determined by searching for a directory named the same as the
146 machine name specified with --machine=. See machinectl(1) section
147 "Files and Directories" for the precise search path.
148 If neither --directory=, --image=, nor --machine= are specified,
150 the current directory will be used. May not be specified together
151 with --image=.
152 --template=
154 Directory or "btrfs" subvolume to use as template for the
155 container's root directory. If this is specified and the
156 container's root directory (as configured by --directory=) does not
157 yet exist it is created as "btrfs" snapshot (if supported) or plain
158 directory (otherwise) and populated from this template tree.
159 Ideally, the specified template path refers to the root of a
160 "btrfs" subvolume, in which case a simple copy-on-write snapshot is
161 taken, and populating the root directory is instant. If the
162 specified template path does not refer to the root of a "btrfs"
163 subvolume (or not even to a "btrfs" file system at all), the tree
164 is copied (though possibly in a 'reflink' copy-on-write scheme — if
165 the file system supports that), which can be substantially more
166 time-consuming. Note that the snapshot taken is of the specified
167 directory or subvolume, including all subdirectories and subvolumes
168 below it, but excluding any sub-mounts. May not be specified
169 together with --image= or --ephemeral.
170 Note that this switch leaves hostname, machine ID and all other
172 settings that could identify the instance unmodified.
173 -x, --ephemeral
175 If specified, the container is run with a temporary snapshot of its
176 file system that is removed immediately when the container
177 terminates. May not be specified together with --template=.
178 Note that this switch leaves hostname, machine ID and all other
180 settings that could identify the instance unmodified. Please note
181 that — as with --template= — taking the temporary snapshot is more
182 efficient on file systems that support subvolume snapshots or
183 'reflinks' natively ("btrfs" or new "xfs") than on more traditional
184 file systems that do not ("ext4"). Note that the snapshot taken is
185 of the specified directory or subvolume, including all
186 subdirectories and subvolumes below it, but excluding any
187 sub-mounts.
188 With this option no modifications of the container image are
190 retained. Use --volatile= (described below) for other mechanisms to
191 restrict persistency of container images during runtime.
192 -i, --image=
194 Disk image to mount the root directory for the container from.
195 Takes a path to a regular file or to a block device node. The file
196 or block device must contain either:
197 • An MBR partition table with a single partition of type 0x83
199 that is marked bootable.
200 • A GUID partition table (GPT) with a single partition of type
202 0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4.
203 • A GUID partition table (GPT) with a marked root partition which
205 is mounted as the root directory of the container. Optionally,
206 GPT images may contain a home and/or a server data partition
207 which are mounted to the appropriate places in the container.
208 All these partitions must be identified by the partition types
209 defined by the Discoverable Partitions Specification[2].
210 • No partition table, and a single file system spanning the whole
212 image.
213 On GPT images, if an EFI System Partition (ESP) is discovered, it
215 is automatically mounted to /efi (or /boot as fallback) in case a
216 directory by this name exists and is empty.
217 Partitions encrypted with LUKS are automatically decrypted. Also,
219 on GPT images dm-verity data integrity hash partitions are set up
220 if the root hash for them is specified using the --root-hash=
221 option.
222 Single file system images (i.e. file systems without a surrounding
224 partition table) can be opened using dm-verity if the integrity
225 data is passed using the --root-hash= and --verity-data= (and
226 optionally --root-hash-sig=) options.
227 Any other partitions, such as foreign partitions or swap partitions
229 are not mounted. May not be specified together with --directory=,
230 --template=.
231 --oci-bundle=
233 Takes the path to an OCI runtime bundle to invoke, as specified in
234 the OCI Runtime Specification[3]. In this case no .nspawn file is
235 loaded, and the root directory and various settings are read from
236 the OCI runtime JSON data (but data passed on the command line
237 takes precedence).
238 --read-only
240 Mount the container's root file system (and any other file systems
241 container in the container image) read-only. This has no effect on
242 additional mounts made with --bind=, --tmpfs= and similar options.
243 This mode is implied if the container image file or directory is
244 marked read-only itself. It is also implied if --volatile= is used.
245 In this case the container image on disk is strictly read-only,
246 while changes are permitted but kept non-persistently in memory
247 only. For further details, see below.
248 --volatile, --volatile=MODE
250 Boots the container in volatile mode. When no mode parameter is
251 passed or when mode is specified as yes, full volatile mode is
252 enabled. This means the root directory is mounted as a mostly
253 unpopulated "tmpfs" instance, and /usr/ from the OS tree is mounted
254 into it in read-only mode (the system thus starts up with read-only
255 OS image, but pristine state and configuration, any changes are
256 lost on shutdown). When the mode parameter is specified as state,
257 the OS tree is mounted read-only, but /var/ is mounted as a
258 writable "tmpfs" instance into it (the system thus starts up with
259 read-only OS resources and configuration, but pristine state, and
260 any changes to the latter are lost on shutdown). When the mode
261 parameter is specified as overlay the read-only root file system is
262 combined with a writable tmpfs instance through "overlayfs", so
263 that it appears at it normally would, but any changes are applied
264 to the temporary file system only and lost when the container is
265 terminated. When the mode parameter is specified as no (the
266 default), the whole OS tree is made available writable (unless
267 --read-only is specified, see above).
268 Note that if one of the volatile modes is chosen, its effect is
270 limited to the root file system (or /var/ in case of state), and
271 any other mounts placed in the hierarchy are unaffected —
272 regardless if they are established automatically (e.g. the EFI
273 system partition that might be mounted to /efi/ or /boot/) or
274 explicitly (e.g. through an additional command line option such as
275 --bind=, see below). This means, even if --volatile=overlay is used
276 changes to /efi/ or /boot/ are prohibited in case such a partition
277 exists in the container image operated on, and even if
278 --volatile=state is used the hypothetical file /etc/foobar is
279 potentially writable if --bind=/etc/foobar if used to mount it from
280 outside the read-only container /etc/ directory.
281 The --ephemeral option is closely related to this setting, and
283 provides similar behaviour by making a temporary, ephemeral copy of
284 the whole OS image and executing that. For further details, see
285 above.
286 The --tmpfs= and --overlay= options provide similar functionality,
288 but for specific sub-directories of the OS image only. For details,
289 see below.
290 This option provides similar functionality for containers as the
292 "systemd.volatile=" kernel command line switch provides for host
293 systems. See kernel-command-line(7) for details.
294 Note that setting this option to yes or state will only work
296 correctly with operating systems in the container that can boot up
297 with only /usr/ mounted, and are able to automatically populate
298 /var/ (and /etc/ in case of "--volatile=yes"). Specifically, this
299 means that operating systems that follow the historic split of
300 /bin/ and /lib/ (and related directories) from /usr/ (i.e. where
301 the former are not symlinks into the latter) are not supported by
302 "--volatile=yes" as container payload. The overlay option does not
303 require any particular preparations in the OS, but do note that
304 "overlayfs" behaviour differs from regular file systems in a number
305 of ways, and hence compatibility is limited.
306 --root-hash=
308 Takes a data integrity (dm-verity) root hash specified in
309 hexadecimal. This option enables data integrity checks using
310 dm-verity, if the used image contains the appropriate integrity
311 data (see above). The specified hash must match the root hash of
312 integrity data, and is usually at least 256 bits (and hence 64
313 formatted hexadecimal characters) long (in case of SHA256 for
314 example). If this option is not specified, but the image file
315 carries the "user.verity.roothash" extended file attribute (see
316 xattr(7)), then the root hash is read from it, also as formatted
317 hexadecimal characters. If the extended file attribute is not found
318 (or is not supported by the underlying file system), but a file
319 with the .roothash suffix is found next to the image file, bearing
320 otherwise the same name (except if the image has the .raw suffix,
321 in which case the root hash file must not have it in its name), the
322 root hash is read from it and automatically used, also as formatted
323 hexadecimal characters.
324 Note that this configures the root hash for the root file system.
326 Disk images may also contain separate file systems for the /usr/
327 hierarchy, which may be Verity protected as well. The root hash for
328 this protection may be configured via the "user.verity.usrhash"
329 extended file attribute or via a .usrhash file adjacent to the disk
330 image, following the same format and logic as for the root hash for
331 the root file system described here. Note that there's currently no
332 switch to configure the root hash for the /usr/ from the command
333 line.
334 Also see the RootHash= option in systemd.exec(5).
336 --root-hash-sig=
338 Takes a PKCS7 signature of the --root-hash= option. The semantics
339 are the same as for the RootHashSignature= option, see
340 systemd.exec(5).
341 --verity-data=
343 Takes the path to a data integrity (dm-verity) file. This option
344 enables data integrity checks using dm-verity, if a root-hash is
345 passed and if the used image itself does not contains the integrity
346 data. The integrity data must be matched by the root hash. If this
347 option is not specified, but a file with the .verity suffix is
348 found next to the image file, bearing otherwise the same name
349 (except if the image has the .raw suffix, in which case the verity
350 data file must not have it in its name), the verity data is read
351 from it and automatically used.
352 --pivot-root=
354 Pivot the specified directory to / inside the container, and either
355 unmount the container's old root, or pivot it to another specified
356 directory. Takes one of: a path argument — in which case the
357 specified path will be pivoted to / and the old root will be
358 unmounted; or a colon-separated pair of new root path and pivot
359 destination for the old root. The new root path will be pivoted to
360 /, and the old / will be pivoted to the other directory. Both paths
361 must be absolute, and are resolved in the container's file system
362 namespace.
363 This is for containers which have several bootable directories in
365 them; for example, several OSTree[4] deployments. It emulates the
366 behavior of the boot loader and initial RAM disk which normally
367 select which directory to mount as the root and start the
368 container's PID 1 in.
369 Execution Options
371 -a, --as-pid2
372 Invoke the shell or specified program as process ID (PID) 2 instead
373 of PID 1 (init). By default, if neither this option nor --boot is
374 used, the selected program is run as the process with PID 1, a mode
375 only suitable for programs that are aware of the special semantics
376 that the process with PID 1 has on UNIX. For example, it needs to
377 reap all processes reparented to it, and should implement sysvinit
378 compatible signal handling (specifically: it needs to reboot on
379 SIGINT, reexecute on SIGTERM, reload configuration on SIGHUP, and
380 so on). With --as-pid2 a minimal stub init process is run as PID 1
381 and the selected program is executed as PID 2 (and hence does not
382 need to implement any special semantics). The stub init process
383 will reap processes as necessary and react appropriately to
384 signals. It is recommended to use this mode to invoke arbitrary
385 commands in containers, unless they have been modified to run
386 correctly as PID 1. Or in other words: this switch should be used
387 for pretty much all commands, except when the command refers to an
388 init or shell implementation, as these are generally capable of
389 running correctly as PID 1. This option may not be combined with
390 --boot.
391 -b, --boot
393 Automatically search for an init program and invoke it as PID 1,
394 instead of a shell or a user supplied program. If this option is
395 used, arguments specified on the command line are used as arguments
396 for the init program. This option may not be combined with
397 --as-pid2.
398 The following table explains the different modes of invocation and
400 relationship to --as-pid2 (see above):
401 Table 1. Invocation Mode
403 ┌──────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
404 │Switch │ Explanation │
405 ├──────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
406 │Neither --as-pid2 nor │ The passed parameters are │
407 │--boot specified │ interpreted as the command │
408 │ │ line, which is executed as │
409 │ │ PID 1 in the container. │
410 ├──────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
411 │--as-pid2 specified │ The passed parameters are │
412 │ │ interpreted as the command │
413 │ │ line, which is executed as │
414 │ │ PID 2 in the container. A │
415 │ │ stub init process is run │
416 │ │ as PID 1. │
417 ├──────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
418 │--boot specified │ An init program is │
419 │ │ automatically searched for │
420 │ │ and run as PID 1 in the │
421 │ │ container. The passed │
422 │ │ parameters are used as │
423 │ │ invocation parameters for │
424 │ │ this process. │
425 └──────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
426 Note that --boot is the default mode of operation if the
427 systemd-nspawn@.service template unit file is used.
428 --chdir=
430 Change to the specified working directory before invoking the
431 process in the container. Expects an absolute path in the
432 container's file system namespace.
433 -E NAME=VALUE, --setenv=NAME=VALUE
435 Specifies an environment variable assignment to pass to the init
436 process in the container, in the format "NAME=VALUE". This may be
437 used to override the default variables or to set additional
438 variables. This parameter may be used more than once.
439 -u, --user=
441 After transitioning into the container, change to the specified
442 user defined in the container's user database. Like all other
443 systemd-nspawn features, this is not a security feature and
444 provides protection against accidental destructive operations only.
445 --kill-signal=
447 Specify the process signal to send to the container's PID 1 when
448 nspawn itself receives SIGTERM, in order to trigger an orderly
449 shutdown of the container. Defaults to SIGRTMIN+3 if --boot is used
450 (on systemd-compatible init systems SIGRTMIN+3 triggers an orderly
451 shutdown). If --boot is not used and this option is not specified
452 the container's processes are terminated abruptly via SIGKILL. For
453 a list of valid signals, see signal(7).
454 --notify-ready=
456 Configures support for notifications from the container's init
457 process. --notify-ready= takes a boolean (no and yes). With option
458 no systemd-nspawn notifies systemd with a "READY=1" message when
459 the init process is created. With option yes systemd-nspawn waits
460 for the "READY=1" message from the init process in the container
461 before sending its own to systemd. For more details about
462 notifications see sd_notify(3).
463 System Identity Options
465 -M, --machine=
466 Sets the machine name for this container. This name may be used to
467 identify this container during its runtime (for example in tools
468 like machinectl(1) and similar), and is used to initialize the
469 container's hostname (which the container can choose to override,
470 however). If not specified, the last component of the root
471 directory path of the container is used, possibly suffixed with a
472 random identifier in case --ephemeral mode is selected. If the root
473 directory selected is the host's root directory the host's hostname
474 is used as default instead.
475 --hostname=
477 Controls the hostname to set within the container, if different
478 from the machine name. Expects a valid hostname as argument. If
479 this option is used, the kernel hostname of the container will be
480 set to this value, otherwise it will be initialized to the machine
481 name as controlled by the --machine= option described above. The
482 machine name is used for various aspect of identification of the
483 container from the outside, the kernel hostname configurable with
484 this option is useful for the container to identify itself from the
485 inside. It is usually a good idea to keep both forms of
486 identification synchronized, in order to avoid confusion. It is
487 hence recommended to avoid usage of this option, and use --machine=
488 exclusively. Note that regardless whether the container's hostname
489 is initialized from the name set with --hostname= or the one set
490 with --machine=, the container can later override its kernel
491 hostname freely on its own as well.
492 --uuid=
494 Set the specified UUID for the container. The init system will
495 initialize /etc/machine-id from this if this file is not set yet.
496 Note that this option takes effect only if /etc/machine-id in the
497 container is unpopulated.
498 Property Options
500 -S, --slice=
501 Make the container part of the specified slice, instead of the
502 default machine.slice. This applies only if the machine is run in
503 its own scope unit, i.e. if --keep-unit isn't used.
504 --property=
506 Set a unit property on the scope unit to register for the machine.
507 This applies only if the machine is run in its own scope unit, i.e.
508 if --keep-unit isn't used. Takes unit property assignments in the
509 same format as systemctl set-property. This is useful to set memory
510 limits and similar for container.
511 --register=
513 Controls whether the container is registered with systemd-
514 machined(8). Takes a boolean argument, which defaults to "yes".
515 This option should be enabled when the container runs a full
516 Operating System (more specifically: a system and service manager
517 as PID 1), and is useful to ensure that the container is accessible
518 via machinectl(1) and shown by tools such as ps(1). If the
519 container does not run a service manager, it is recommended to set
520 this option to "no".
521 --keep-unit
523 Instead of creating a transient scope unit to run the container in,
524 simply use the service or scope unit systemd-nspawn has been
525 invoked in. If --register=yes is set this unit is registered with
526 systemd-machined(8). This switch should be used if systemd-nspawn
527 is invoked from within a service unit, and the service unit's sole
528 purpose is to run a single systemd-nspawn container. This option is
529 not available if run from a user session.
530 Note that passing --keep-unit disables the effect of --slice= and
532 --property=. Use --keep-unit and --register=no in combination to
533 disable any kind of unit allocation or registration with
534 systemd-machined.
535 User Namespacing Options
537 --private-users=
538 Controls user namespacing. If enabled, the container will run with
539 its own private set of UNIX user and group ids (UIDs and GIDs).
540 This involves mapping the private UIDs/GIDs used in the container
541 (starting with the container's root user 0 and up) to a range of
542 UIDs/GIDs on the host that are not used for other purposes (usually
543 in the range beyond the host's UID/GID 65536). The parameter may be
544 specified as follows:
545 1. If one or two colon-separated numbers are specified, user
547 namespacing is turned on. The first parameter specifies the
548 first host UID/GID to assign to the container, the second
549 parameter specifies the number of host UIDs/GIDs to assign to
550 the container. If the second parameter is omitted, 65536
551 UIDs/GIDs are assigned.
552 2. If the parameter is "yes", user namespacing is turned on. The
554 UID/GID range to use is determined automatically from the file
555 ownership of the root directory of the container's directory
556 tree. To use this option, make sure to prepare the directory
557 tree in advance, and ensure that all files and directories in
558 it are owned by UIDs/GIDs in the range you'd like to use. Also,
559 make sure that used file ACLs exclusively reference UIDs/GIDs
560 in the appropriate range. In this mode, the number of UIDs/GIDs
561 assigned to the container is 65536, and the owner UID/GID of
562 the root directory must be a multiple of 65536.
563 3. If the parameter is "no", user namespacing is turned off. This
565 is the default.
566 4. If the parameter is "identity", user namespacing is employed
568 with an identity mapping for the first 65536 UIDs/GIDs. This is
569 mostly equivalent to --private-users=0:65536. While it does not
570 provide UID/GID isolation, since all host and container
571 UIDs/GIDs are chosen identically it does provide process
572 capability isolation, and hence is often a good choice if
573 proper user namespacing with distinct UID maps is not
574 appropriate.
575 5. The special value "pick" turns on user namespacing. In this
577 case the UID/GID range is automatically chosen. As first step,
578 the file owner UID/GID of the root directory of the container's
579 directory tree is read, and it is checked that no other
580 container is currently using it. If this check is successful,
581 the UID/GID range determined this way is used, similar to the
582 behavior if "yes" is specified. If the check is not successful
583 (and thus the UID/GID range indicated in the root directory's
584 file owner is already used elsewhere) a new – currently unused
585 – UID/GID range of 65536 UIDs/GIDs is randomly chosen between
586 the host UID/GIDs of 524288 and 1878982656, always starting at
587 a multiple of 65536, and, if possible, consistently hashed from
588 the machine name. This setting implies
589 --private-users-ownership=auto (see below), which possibly has
590 the effect that the files and directories in the container's
591 directory tree will be owned by the appropriate users of the
592 range picked. Using this option makes user namespace behavior
593 fully automatic. Note that the first invocation of a previously
594 unused container image might result in picking a new UID/GID
595 range for it, and thus in the (possibly expensive) file
596 ownership adjustment operation. However, subsequent invocations
597 of the container will be cheap (unless of course the picked
598 UID/GID range is assigned to a different use by then).
599 It is recommended to assign at least 65536 UIDs/GIDs to each
601 container, so that the usable UID/GID range in the container covers
602 16 bit. For best security, do not assign overlapping UID/GID ranges
603 to multiple containers. It is hence a good idea to use the upper 16
604 bit of the host 32-bit UIDs/GIDs as container identifier, while the
605 lower 16 bit encode the container UID/GID used. This is in fact the
606 behavior enforced by the --private-users=pick option.
607 When user namespaces are used, the GID range assigned to each
609 container is always chosen identical to the UID range.
610 In most cases, using --private-users=pick is the recommended option
612 as it enhances container security massively and operates fully
613 automatically in most cases.
614 Note that the picked UID/GID range is not written to /etc/passwd or
616 /etc/group. In fact, the allocation of the range is not stored
617 persistently anywhere, except in the file ownership of the files
618 and directories of the container.
619 Note that when user namespacing is used file ownership on disk
621 reflects this, and all of the container's files and directories are
622 owned by the container's effective user and group IDs. This means
623 that copying files from and to the container image requires
624 correction of the numeric UID/GID values, according to the UID/GID
625 shift applied.
626 --private-users-ownership=
628 Controls how to adjust the container image's UIDs and GIDs to match
629 the UID/GID range chosen with --private-users=, see above. Takes
630 one of "off" (to leave the image as is), "chown" (to recursively
631 chown() the container's directory tree as needed), "map" (in order
632 to use transparent ID mapping mounts) or "auto" for automatically
633 using "map" where available and "chown" where not.
634 If "chown" is selected, all files and directories in the
636 container's directory tree will be adjusted so that they are owned
637 by the appropriate UIDs/GIDs selected for the container (see
638 above). This operation is potentially expensive, as it involves
639 iterating through the full directory tree of the container. Besides
640 actual file ownership, file ACLs are adjusted as well.
641 Typically "map" is the best choice, since it transparently maps
643 UIDs/GIDs in memory as needed without modifying the image, and
644 without requiring an expensive recursive adjustment operation.
645 However, it is not available for all file systems, currently.
646 The --private-users-ownership=auto option is implied if
648 --private-users=pick is used. This option has no effect if user
649 namespacing is not used.
650 -U
652 If the kernel supports the user namespaces feature, equivalent to
653 --private-users=pick --private-users-ownership=auto, otherwise
654 equivalent to --private-users=no.
655 Note that -U is the default if the systemd-nspawn@.service template
657 unit file is used.
658 Note: it is possible to undo the effect of
660 --private-users-ownership=chown (or -U) on the file system by
661 redoing the operation with the first UID of 0:
662 systemd-nspawn ... --private-users=0 --private-users-ownership=chown
664 Networking Options
666 --private-network
667 Disconnect networking of the container from the host. This makes
668 all network interfaces unavailable in the container, with the
669 exception of the loopback device and those specified with
670 --network-interface= and configured with --network-veth. If this
671 option is specified, the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability will be added to
672 the set of capabilities the container retains. The latter may be
673 disabled by using --drop-capability=. If this option is not
674 specified (or implied by one of the options listed below), the
675 container will have full access to the host network.
676 --network-interface=
678 Assign the specified network interface to the container. This will
679 remove the specified interface from the calling namespace and place
680 it in the container. When the container terminates, it is moved
681 back to the calling namespace. Note that --network-interface=
682 implies --private-network. This option may be used more than once
683 to add multiple network interfaces to the container.
684 Note that any network interface specified this way must already
686 exist at the time the container is started. If the container shall
687 be started automatically at boot via a systemd-nspawn@.service unit
688 file instance, it might hence make sense to add a unit file drop-in
689 to the service instance (e.g.
690 /etc/systemd/system/systemd-nspawn@foobar.service.d/50-network.conf)
691 with contents like the following:
692 [Unit]
694 Wants=sys-subsystem-net-devices-ens1.device
695 After=sys-subsystem-net-devices-ens1.device
696 This will make sure that activation of the container service will
698 be delayed until the "ens1" network interface has shown up. This is
699 required since hardware probing is fully asynchronous, and network
700 interfaces might be discovered only later during the boot process,
701 after the container would normally be started without these
702 explicit dependencies.
703 --network-macvlan=
705 Create a "macvlan" interface of the specified Ethernet network
706 interface and add it to the container. A "macvlan" interface is a
707 virtual interface that adds a second MAC address to an existing
708 physical Ethernet link. The interface in the container will be
709 named after the interface on the host, prefixed with "mv-". Note
710 that --network-macvlan= implies --private-network. This option may
711 be used more than once to add multiple network interfaces to the
712 container.
713 As with --network-interface=, the underlying Ethernet network
715 interface must already exist at the time the container is started,
716 and thus similar unit file drop-ins as described above might be
717 useful.
718 --network-ipvlan=
720 Create an "ipvlan" interface of the specified Ethernet network
721 interface and add it to the container. An "ipvlan" interface is a
722 virtual interface, similar to a "macvlan" interface, which uses the
723 same MAC address as the underlying interface. The interface in the
724 container will be named after the interface on the host, prefixed
725 with "iv-". Note that --network-ipvlan= implies --private-network.
726 This option may be used more than once to add multiple network
727 interfaces to the container.
728 As with --network-interface=, the underlying Ethernet network
730 interface must already exist at the time the container is started,
731 and thus similar unit file drop-ins as described above might be
732 useful.
733 -n, --network-veth
735 Create a virtual Ethernet link ("veth") between host and container.
736 The host side of the Ethernet link will be available as a network
737 interface named after the container's name (as specified with
738 --machine=), prefixed with "ve-". The container side of the
739 Ethernet link will be named "host0". The --network-veth option
740 implies --private-network.
741 Note that systemd-networkd.service(8) includes by default a network
743 file /usr/lib/systemd/network/80-container-ve.network matching the
744 host-side interfaces created this way, which contains settings to
745 enable automatic address provisioning on the created virtual link
746 via DHCP, as well as automatic IP routing onto the host's external
747 network interfaces. It also contains
748 /usr/lib/systemd/network/80-container-host0.network matching the
749 container-side interface created this way, containing settings to
750 enable client side address assignment via DHCP. In case
751 systemd-networkd is running on both the host and inside the
752 container, automatic IP communication from the container to the
753 host is thus available, with further connectivity to the external
754 network.
755 Note that --network-veth is the default if the
757 systemd-nspawn@.service template unit file is used.
758 Note that on Linux network interface names may have a length of 15
760 characters at maximum, while container names may have a length up
761 to 64 characters. As this option derives the host-side interface
762 name from the container name the name is possibly truncated. Thus,
763 care needs to be taken to ensure that interface names remain unique
764 in this case, or even better container names are generally not
765 chosen longer than 12 characters, to avoid the truncation. If the
766 name is truncated, systemd-nspawn will automatically append a
767 4-digit hash value to the name to reduce the chance of collisions.
768 However, the hash algorithm is not collision-free. (See
769 systemd.net-naming-scheme(7) for details on older naming algorithms
770 for this interface). Alternatively, the --network-veth-extra=
771 option may be used, which allows free configuration of the
772 host-side interface name independently of the container name — but
773 might require a bit more additional configuration in case bridging
774 in a fashion similar to --network-bridge= is desired.
775 --network-veth-extra=
777 Adds an additional virtual Ethernet link between host and
778 container. Takes a colon-separated pair of host interface name and
779 container interface name. The latter may be omitted in which case
780 the container and host sides will be assigned the same name. This
781 switch is independent of --network-veth, and — in contrast — may be
782 used multiple times, and allows configuration of the network
783 interface names. Note that --network-bridge= has no effect on
784 interfaces created with --network-veth-extra=.
785 --network-bridge=
787 Adds the host side of the Ethernet link created with --network-veth
788 to the specified Ethernet bridge interface. Expects a valid network
789 interface name of a bridge device as argument. Note that
790 --network-bridge= implies --network-veth. If this option is used,
791 the host side of the Ethernet link will use the "vb-" prefix
792 instead of "ve-". Regardless of the used naming prefix the same
793 network interface name length limits imposed by Linux apply, along
794 with the complications this creates (for details see above).
795 As with --network-interface=, the underlying bridge network
797 interface must already exist at the time the container is started,
798 and thus similar unit file drop-ins as described above might be
799 useful.
800 --network-zone=
802 Creates a virtual Ethernet link ("veth") to the container and adds
803 it to an automatically managed Ethernet bridge interface. The
804 bridge interface is named after the passed argument, prefixed with
805 "vz-". The bridge interface is automatically created when the first
806 container configured for its name is started, and is automatically
807 removed when the last container configured for its name exits.
808 Hence, each bridge interface configured this way exists only as
809 long as there's at least one container referencing it running. This
810 option is very similar to --network-bridge=, besides this automatic
811 creation/removal of the bridge device.
812 This setting makes it easy to place multiple related containers on
814 a common, virtual Ethernet-based broadcast domain, here called a
815 "zone". Each container may only be part of one zone, but each zone
816 may contain any number of containers. Each zone is referenced by
817 its name. Names may be chosen freely (as long as they form valid
818 network interface names when prefixed with "vz-"), and it is
819 sufficient to pass the same name to the --network-zone= switch of
820 the various concurrently running containers to join them in one
821 zone.
822 Note that systemd-networkd.service(8) includes by default a network
824 file /usr/lib/systemd/network/80-container-vz.network matching the
825 bridge interfaces created this way, which contains settings to
826 enable automatic address provisioning on the created virtual
827 network via DHCP, as well as automatic IP routing onto the host's
828 external network interfaces. Using --network-zone= is hence in most
829 cases fully automatic and sufficient to connect multiple local
830 containers in a joined broadcast domain to the host, with further
831 connectivity to the external network.
832 --network-namespace-path=
834 Takes the path to a file representing a kernel network namespace
835 that the container shall run in. The specified path should refer to
836 a (possibly bind-mounted) network namespace file, as exposed by the
837 kernel below /proc/$PID/ns/net. This makes the container enter the
838 given network namespace. One of the typical use cases is to give a
839 network namespace under /run/netns created by ip-netns(8), for
840 example, --network-namespace-path=/run/netns/foo. Note that this
841 option cannot be used together with other network-related options,
842 such as --private-network or --network-interface=.
843 -p, --port=
845 If private networking is enabled, maps an IP port on the host onto
846 an IP port on the container. Takes a protocol specifier (either
847 "tcp" or "udp"), separated by a colon from a host port number in
848 the range 1 to 65535, separated by a colon from a container port
849 number in the range from 1 to 65535. The protocol specifier and its
850 separating colon may be omitted, in which case "tcp" is assumed.
851 The container port number and its colon may be omitted, in which
852 case the same port as the host port is implied. This option is only
853 supported if private networking is used, such as with
854 --network-veth, --network-zone= --network-bridge=.
855 Security Options
857 --capability=
858 List one or more additional capabilities to grant the container.
859 Takes a comma-separated list of capability names, see
860 capabilities(7) for more information. Note that the following
861 capabilities will be granted in any way: CAP_AUDIT_CONTROL,
862 CAP_AUDIT_WRITE, CAP_CHOWN, CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE, CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH,
863 CAP_FOWNER, CAP_FSETID, CAP_IPC_OWNER, CAP_KILL, CAP_LEASE,
864 CAP_LINUX_IMMUTABLE, CAP_MKNOD, CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE,
865 CAP_NET_BROADCAST, CAP_NET_RAW, CAP_SETFCAP, CAP_SETGID,
866 CAP_SETPCAP, CAP_SETUID, CAP_SYS_ADMIN, CAP_SYS_BOOT,
867 CAP_SYS_CHROOT, CAP_SYS_NICE, CAP_SYS_PTRACE, CAP_SYS_RESOURCE,
868 CAP_SYS_TTY_CONFIG. Also CAP_NET_ADMIN is retained if
869 --private-network is specified. If the special value "all" is
870 passed, all capabilities are retained.
871 If the special value of "help" is passed, the program will print
873 known capability names and exit.
874 This option sets the bounding set of capabilities which also limits
876 the ambient capabilities as given with the --ambient-capability=.
877 --drop-capability=
879 Specify one or more additional capabilities to drop for the
880 container. This allows running the container with fewer
881 capabilities than the default (see above).
882 If the special value of "help" is passed, the program will print
884 known capability names and exit.
885 This option sets the bounding set of capabilities which also limits
887 the ambient capabilities as given with the --ambient-capability=.
888 --ambient-capability=
890 Specify one or more additional capabilities to pass in the
891 inheritable and ambient set to the program started within the
892 container. The value "all" is not supported for this setting.
893 All capabilities specified here must be in the set allowed with the
895 --capability= and --drop-capability= options. Otherwise, an error
896 message will be shown.
897 This option cannot be combined with the boot mode of the container
899 (as requested via --boot).
900 If the special value of "help" is passed, the program will print
902 known capability names and exit.
903 --no-new-privileges=
905 Takes a boolean argument. Specifies the value of the
906 PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS flag for the container payload. Defaults to
907 off. When turned on the payload code of the container cannot
908 acquire new privileges, i.e. the "setuid" file bit as well as file
909 system capabilities will not have an effect anymore. See prctl(2)
910 for details about this flag.
911 --system-call-filter=
913 Alter the system call filter applied to containers. Takes a
914 space-separated list of system call names or group names (the
915 latter prefixed with "@", as listed by the syscall-filter command
916 of systemd-analyze(1)). Passed system calls will be permitted. The
917 list may optionally be prefixed by "~", in which case all listed
918 system calls are prohibited. If this command line option is used
919 multiple times the configured lists are combined. If both a
920 positive and a negative list (that is one system call list without
921 and one with the "~" prefix) are configured, the negative list
922 takes precedence over the positive list. Note that systemd-nspawn
923 always implements a system call allow list (as opposed to a deny
924 list!), and this command line option hence adds or removes entries
925 from the default allow list, depending on the "~" prefix. Note that
926 the applied system call filter is also altered implicitly if
927 additional capabilities are passed using the --capabilities=.
928 -Z, --selinux-context=
930 Sets the SELinux security context to be used to label processes in
931 the container.
932 -L, --selinux-apifs-context=
934 Sets the SELinux security context to be used to label files in the
935 virtual API file systems in the container.
936 Resource Options
938 --rlimit=
939 Sets the specified POSIX resource limit for the container payload.
940 Expects an assignment of the form "LIMIT=SOFT:HARD" or
941 "LIMIT=VALUE", where LIMIT should refer to a resource limit type,
942 such as RLIMIT_NOFILE or RLIMIT_NICE. The SOFT and HARD fields
943 should refer to the numeric soft and hard resource limit values. If
944 the second form is used, VALUE may specify a value that is used
945 both as soft and hard limit. In place of a numeric value the
946 special string "infinity" may be used to turn off resource limiting
947 for the specific type of resource. This command line option may be
948 used multiple times to control limits on multiple limit types. If
949 used multiple times for the same limit type, the last use wins. For
950 details about resource limits see setrlimit(2). By default resource
951 limits for the container's init process (PID 1) are set to the same
952 values the Linux kernel originally passed to the host init system.
953 Note that some resource limits are enforced on resources counted
954 per user, in particular RLIMIT_NPROC. This means that unless user
955 namespacing is deployed (i.e. --private-users= is used, see
956 above), any limits set will be applied to the resource usage of the
957 same user on all local containers as well as the host. This means
958 particular care needs to be taken with these limits as they might
959 be triggered by possibly less trusted code. Example:
960 "--rlimit=RLIMIT_NOFILE=8192:16384".
961 --oom-score-adjust=
963 Changes the OOM ("Out Of Memory") score adjustment value for the
964 container payload. This controls /proc/self/oom_score_adj which
965 influences the preference with which this container is terminated
966 when memory becomes scarce. For details see proc(5). Takes an
967 integer in the range -1000...1000.
968 --cpu-affinity=
970 Controls the CPU affinity of the container payload. Takes a comma
971 separated list of CPU numbers or number ranges (the latter's start
972 and end value separated by dashes). See sched_setaffinity(2) for
973 details.
974 --personality=
976 Control the architecture ("personality") reported by uname(2) in
977 the container. Currently, only "x86" and "x86-64" are supported.
978 This is useful when running a 32-bit container on a 64-bit host. If
979 this setting is not used, the personality reported in the container
980 is the same as the one reported on the host.
981 Integration Options
983 --resolv-conf=
984 Configures how /etc/resolv.conf inside of the container shall be
985 handled (i.e. DNS configuration synchronization from host to
986 container). Takes one of "off", "copy-host", "copy-static",
987 "copy-uplink", "copy-stub", "replace-host", "replace-static",
988 "replace-uplink", "replace-stub", "bind-host", "bind-static",
989 "bind-uplink", "bind-stub", "delete" or "auto".
990 If set to "off" the /etc/resolv.conf file in the container is left
992 as it is included in the image, and neither modified nor bind
993 mounted over.
994 If set to "copy-host", the /etc/resolv.conf file from the host is
996 copied into the container, unless the file exists already and is
997 not a regular file (e.g. a symlink). Similar, if "replace-host" is
998 used the file is copied, replacing any existing inode, including
999 symlinks. Similar, if "bind-host" is used, the file is bind mounted
1000 from the host into the container.
1001 If set to "copy-static", "replace-static" or "bind-static" the
1003 static resolv.conf file supplied with systemd-resolved.service(8)
1004 (specifically: /usr/lib/systemd/resolv.conf) is copied or bind
1005 mounted into the container.
1006 If set to "copy-uplink", "replace-uplink" or "bind-uplink" the
1008 uplink resolv.conf file managed by systemd-resolved.service
1009 (specifically: /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf) is copied or bind
1010 mounted into the container.
1011 If set to "copy-stub", "replace-stub" or "bind-stub" the stub
1013 resolv.conf file managed by systemd-resolved.service (specifically:
1014 /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf) is copied or bind mounted
1015 into the container.
1016 If set to "delete" the /etc/resolv.conf file in the container is
1018 deleted if it exists.
1019 Finally, if set to "auto" the file is left as it is if private
1021 networking is turned on (see --private-network). Otherwise, if
1022 systemd-resolved.service is running its stub resolv.conf file is
1023 used, and if not the host's /etc/resolv.conf file. In the latter
1024 cases the file is copied if the image is writable, and bind mounted
1025 otherwise.
1026 It's recommended to use "copy-..." or "replace-..." if the
1028 container shall be able to make changes to the DNS configuration on
1029 its own, deviating from the host's settings. Otherwise "bind" is
1030 preferable, as it means direct changes to /etc/resolv.conf in the
1031 container are not allowed, as it is a read-only bind mount (but
1032 note that if the container has enough privileges, it might simply
1033 go ahead and unmount the bind mount anyway). Note that both if the
1034 file is bind mounted and if it is copied no further propagation of
1035 configuration is generally done after the one-time early
1036 initialization (this is because the file is usually updated through
1037 copying and renaming). Defaults to "auto".
1038 --timezone=
1040 Configures how /etc/localtime inside of the container (i.e. local
1041 timezone synchronization from host to container) shall be handled.
1042 Takes one of "off", "copy", "bind", "symlink", "delete" or "auto".
1043 If set to "off" the /etc/localtime file in the container is left as
1044 it is included in the image, and neither modified nor bind mounted
1045 over. If set to "copy" the /etc/localtime file of the host is
1046 copied into the container. Similarly, if "bind" is used, the file
1047 is bind mounted from the host into the container. If set to
1048 "symlink", a symlink is created pointing from /etc/localtime in the
1049 container to the timezone file in the container that matches the
1050 timezone setting on the host. If set to "delete", the file in the
1051 container is deleted, should it exist. If set to "auto" and the
1052 /etc/localtime file of the host is a symlink, then "symlink" mode
1053 is used, and "copy" otherwise, except if the image is read-only in
1054 which case "bind" is used instead. Defaults to "auto".
1055 --link-journal=
1057 Control whether the container's journal shall be made visible to
1058 the host system. If enabled, allows viewing the container's journal
1059 files from the host (but not vice versa). Takes one of "no",
1060 "host", "try-host", "guest", "try-guest", "auto". If "no", the
1061 journal is not linked. If "host", the journal files are stored on
1062 the host file system (beneath /var/log/journal/machine-id) and the
1063 subdirectory is bind-mounted into the container at the same
1064 location. If "guest", the journal files are stored on the guest
1065 file system (beneath /var/log/journal/machine-id) and the
1066 subdirectory is symlinked into the host at the same location.
1067 "try-host" and "try-guest" do the same but do not fail if the host
1068 does not have persistent journaling enabled. If "auto" (the
1069 default), and the right subdirectory of /var/log/journal exists, it
1070 will be bind mounted into the container. If the subdirectory does
1071 not exist, no linking is performed. Effectively, booting a
1072 container once with "guest" or "host" will link the journal
1073 persistently if further on the default of "auto" is used.
1074 Note that --link-journal=try-guest is the default if the
1076 systemd-nspawn@.service template unit file is used.
1077 -j
1079 Equivalent to --link-journal=try-guest.
1080 Mount Options
1082 --bind=, --bind-ro=
1083 Bind mount a file or directory from the host into the container.
1084 Takes one of: a path argument — in which case the specified path
1085 will be mounted from the host to the same path in the container, or
1086 a colon-separated pair of paths — in which case the first specified
1087 path is the source in the host, and the second path is the
1088 destination in the container, or a colon-separated triple of source
1089 path, destination path and mount options. The source path may
1090 optionally be prefixed with a "+" character. If so, the source path
1091 is taken relative to the image's root directory. This permits
1092 setting up bind mounts within the container image. The source path
1093 may be specified as empty string, in which case a temporary
1094 directory below the host's /var/tmp/ directory is used. It is
1095 automatically removed when the container is shut down. Mount
1096 options are comma-separated and currently, only rbind and norbind
1097 are allowed, controlling whether to create a recursive or a regular
1098 bind mount. Defaults to "rbind". Backslash escapes are interpreted,
1099 so "\:" may be used to embed colons in either path. This option may
1100 be specified multiple times for creating multiple independent bind
1101 mount points. The --bind-ro= option creates read-only bind mounts.
1102 Note that when this option is used in combination with
1104 --private-users, the resulting mount points will be owned by the
1105 nobody user. That's because the mount and its files and directories
1106 continue to be owned by the relevant host users and groups, which
1107 do not exist in the container, and thus show up under the wildcard
1108 UID 65534 (nobody). If such bind mounts are created, it is
1109 recommended to make them read-only, using --bind-ro=.
1110 --bind-user=
1112 Binds the home directory of the specified user on the host into the
1113 container. Takes the name of an existing user on the host as
1114 argument. May be used multiple times to bind multiple users into
1115 the container. This does three things:
1116 1. The user's home directory is bind mounted from the host into
1118 /run/hosts/home/.
1119 2. An additional UID/GID mapping is added that maps the host
1121 user's UID/GID to a container UID/GID, allocated from the
1122 60514...60577 range.
1123 3. A JSON user and group record is generated in /run/userdb/ that
1125 describes the mapped user. It contains a minimized
1126 representation of the host's user record, adjusted to the
1127 UID/GID and home directory path assigned to the user in the
1128 container. The nss-systemd(8) glibc NSS module will pick up
1129 these records from there and make them available in the
1130 container's user/group databases.
1131 The combination of the three operations above ensures that it is
1133 possible to log into the container using the same account
1134 information as on the host. The user is only mapped transiently,
1135 while the container is running, and the mapping itself does not
1136 result in persistent changes to the container (except maybe for log
1137 messages generated at login time, and similar). Note that in
1138 particular the UID/GID assignment in the container is not made
1139 persistently. If the user is mapped transiently, it is best to not
1140 allow the user to make persistent changes to the container. If the
1141 user leaves files or directories owned by the user, and those
1142 UIDs/GIDs are reused during later container invocations (possibly
1143 with a different --bind-user= mapping), those files and directories
1144 will be accessible to the "new" user.
1145 The user/group record mapping only works if the container contains
1147 systemd 249 or newer, with nss-systemd properly configured in
1148 nsswitch.conf. See nss-systemd(8) for details.
1149 Note that the user record propagated from the host into the
1151 container will contain the UNIX password hash of the user, so that
1152 seamless logins in the container are possible. If the container is
1153 less trusted than the host it's hence important to use a strong
1154 UNIX password hash function (e.g. yescrypt or similar, with the
1155 "$y$" hash prefix).
1156 When binding a user from the host into the container checks are
1158 executed to ensure that the username is not yet known in the
1159 container. Moreover, it is checked that the UID/GID allocated for
1160 it is not currently defined in the user/group databases of the
1161 container. Both checks directly access the container's /etc/passwd
1162 and /etc/group, and thus might not detect existing accounts in
1163 other databases.
1164 This operation is only supported in combination with
1166 --private-users=/-U.
1167 --inaccessible=
1169 Make the specified path inaccessible in the container. This
1170 over-mounts the specified path (which must exist in the container)
1171 with a file node of the same type that is empty and has the most
1172 restrictive access mode supported. This is an effective way to mask
1173 files, directories and other file system objects from the container
1174 payload. This option may be used more than once in case all
1175 specified paths are masked.
1176 --tmpfs=
1178 Mount a tmpfs file system into the container. Takes a single
1179 absolute path argument that specifies where to mount the tmpfs
1180 instance to (in which case the directory access mode will be chosen
1181 as 0755, owned by root/root), or optionally a colon-separated pair
1182 of path and mount option string that is used for mounting (in which
1183 case the kernel default for access mode and owner will be chosen,
1184 unless otherwise specified). Backslash escapes are interpreted in
1185 the path, so "\:" may be used to embed colons in the path.
1186 Note that this option cannot be used to replace the root file
1188 system of the container with a temporary file system. However, the
1189 --volatile= option described below provides similar functionality,
1190 with a focus on implementing stateless operating system images.
1191 --overlay=, --overlay-ro=
1193 Combine multiple directory trees into one overlay file system and
1194 mount it into the container. Takes a list of colon-separated paths
1195 to the directory trees to combine and the destination mount point.
1196 Backslash escapes are interpreted in the paths, so "\:" may be used
1198 to embed colons in the paths.
1199 If three or more paths are specified, then the last specified path
1201 is the destination mount point in the container, all paths
1202 specified before refer to directory trees on the host and are
1203 combined in the specified order into one overlay file system. The
1204 left-most path is hence the lowest directory tree, the
1205 second-to-last path the highest directory tree in the stacking
1206 order. If --overlay-ro= is used instead of --overlay=, a read-only
1207 overlay file system is created. If a writable overlay file system
1208 is created, all changes made to it are written to the highest
1209 directory tree in the stacking order, i.e. the second-to-last
1210 specified.
1211 If only two paths are specified, then the second specified path is
1213 used both as the top-level directory tree in the stacking order as
1214 seen from the host, as well as the mount point for the overlay file
1215 system in the container. At least two paths have to be specified.
1216 The source paths may optionally be prefixed with "+" character. If
1218 so they are taken relative to the image's root directory. The
1219 uppermost source path may also be specified as an empty string, in
1220 which case a temporary directory below the host's /var/tmp/ is
1221 used. The directory is removed automatically when the container is
1222 shut down. This behaviour is useful in order to make read-only
1223 container directories writable while the container is running. For
1224 example, use "--overlay=+/var::/var" in order to automatically
1225 overlay a writable temporary directory on a read-only /var/
1226 directory.
1227 For details about overlay file systems, see overlayfs.txt[5]. Note
1229 that the semantics of overlay file systems are substantially
1230 different from normal file systems, in particular regarding
1231 reported device and inode information. Device and inode information
1232 may change for a file while it is being written to, and processes
1233 might see out-of-date versions of files at times. Note that this
1234 switch automatically derives the "workdir=" mount option for the
1235 overlay file system from the top-level directory tree, making it a
1236 sibling of it. It is hence essential that the top-level directory
1237 tree is not a mount point itself (since the working directory must
1238 be on the same file system as the top-most directory tree). Also
1239 note that the "lowerdir=" mount option receives the paths to stack
1240 in the opposite order of this switch.
1241 Note that this option cannot be used to replace the root file
1243 system of the container with an overlay file system. However, the
1244 --volatile= option described above provides similar functionality,
1245 with a focus on implementing stateless operating system images.
1246 Input/Output Options
1248 --console=MODE
1249 Configures how to set up standard input, output and error output
1250 for the container payload, as well as the /dev/console device for
1251 the container. Takes one of interactive, read-only, passive, pipe
1252 or autopipe. If interactive, a pseudo-TTY is allocated and made
1253 available as /dev/console in the container. It is then
1254 bi-directionally connected to the standard input and output passed
1255 to systemd-nspawn. read-only is similar but only the output of the
1256 container is propagated and no input from the caller is read. If
1257 passive, a pseudo TTY is allocated, but it is not connected
1258 anywhere. In pipe mode no pseudo TTY is allocated, but the standard
1259 input, output and error output file descriptors passed to
1260 systemd-nspawn are passed on — as they are — to the container
1261 payload, see the following paragraph. Finally, autopipe mode
1262 operates like interactive when systemd-nspawn is invoked on a
1263 terminal, and like pipe otherwise. Defaults to interactive if
1264 systemd-nspawn is invoked from a terminal, and read-only otherwise.
1265 In pipe mode, /dev/console will not exist in the container. This
1267 means that the container payload generally cannot be a full init
1268 system as init systems tend to require /dev/console to be
1269 available. On the other hand, in this mode container invocations
1270 can be used within shell pipelines. This is because intermediary
1271 pseudo TTYs do not permit independent bidirectional propagation of
1272 the end-of-file (EOF) condition, which is necessary for shell
1273 pipelines to work correctly. Note that the pipe mode should be
1274 used carefully, as passing arbitrary file descriptors to less
1275 trusted container payloads might open up unwanted interfaces for
1276 access by the container payload. For example, if a passed file
1277 descriptor refers to a TTY of some form, APIs such as TIOCSTI may
1278 be used to synthesize input that might be used for escaping the
1279 container. Hence pipe mode should only be used if the payload is
1280 sufficiently trusted or when the standard input/output/error output
1281 file descriptors are known safe, for example pipes.
1282 --pipe, -P
1284 Equivalent to --console=pipe.
1285 Credentials
1287 --load-credential=ID:PATH, --set-credential=ID:VALUE
1288 Pass a credential to the container. These two options correspond to
1289 the LoadCredential= and SetCredential= settings in unit files. See
1290 systemd.exec(5) for details about these concepts, as well as the
1291 syntax of the option's arguments.
1292 Note: when systemd-nspawn runs as systemd system service it can
1294 propagate the credentials it received via
1295 LoadCredential=/SetCredential= to the container payload. A systemd
1296 service manager running as PID 1 in the container can further
1297 propagate them to the services it itself starts. It is thus
1298 possible to easily propagate credentials from a parent service
1299 manager to a container manager service and from there into its
1300 payload. This can even be done recursively.
1301 In order to embed binary data into the credential data for
1303 --set-credential= use C-style escaping (i.e. "\n" to embed a
1304 newline, or "\x00" to embed a NUL byte. Note that the invoking
1305 shell might already apply unescaping once, hence this might require
1306 double escaping!).
1307 The systemd-sysusers.service(8) and systemd-firstboot(1) services
1309 read credentials configured this way for the purpose of configuring
1310 the container's root user's password and shell, as well as system
1311 locale, keymap and timezone during the first boot process of the
1312 container. This is particularly useful in combination with
1313 --volatile=yes where every single boot appears as first boot, since
1314 configuration applied to /etc/ is lost on container reboot cycles.
1315 See the respective man pages for details. Example:
1316 # systemd-nspawn -i image.raw \
1318 --volatile=yes \
1319 --set-credential=firstboot.locale:de_DE.UTF-8 \
1320 --set-credential=passwd.hashed-password.root:'$y$j9T$yAuRJu1o5HioZAGDYPU5d.$F64ni6J2y2nNQve90M/p0ZP0ECP/qqzipNyaY9fjGpC' \
1321 -b
1322 The above command line will invoke the specified image file
1324 image.raw in volatile mode, i.e. with empty /etc/ and /var/. The
1325 container payload will recognize this as a first boot, and will
1326 invoke systemd-firstboot.service, which then reads the two passed
1327 credentials to configure the system's initial locale and root
1328 password.
1329 Other
1331 --no-pager
1332 Do not pipe output into a pager.
1333 -h, --help
1335 Print a short help text and exit.
1336 --version
1338 Print a short version string and exit.
1339
1341 $SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL
1342 The maximum log level of emitted messages (messages with a higher
1343 log level, i.e. less important ones, will be suppressed). Either
1344 one of (in order of decreasing importance) emerg, alert, crit, err,
1345 warning, notice, info, debug, or an integer in the range 0...7. See
1346 syslog(3) for more information.
1347 $SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR
1349 A boolean. If true, messages written to the tty will be colored
1350 according to priority.
1351 This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
1353 the terminal, because journalctl(1) and other tools that display
1354 logs will color messages based on the log level on their own.
1355 $SYSTEMD_LOG_TIME
1357 A boolean. If true, console log messages will be prefixed with a
1358 timestamp.
1359 This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
1361 the terminal or a file, because journalctl(1) and other tools that
1362 display logs will attach timestamps based on the entry metadata on
1363 their own.
1364 $SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION
1366 A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with a filename and
1367 line number in the source code where the message originates.
1368 Note that the log location is often attached as metadata to journal
1370 entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
1371 nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.
1372 $SYSTEMD_LOG_TID
1374 A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with the current
1375 numerical thread ID (TID).
1376 Note that the this information is attached as metadata to journal
1378 entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
1379 nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.
1380 $SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET
1382 The destination for log messages. One of console (log to the
1383 attached tty), console-prefixed (log to the attached tty but with
1384 prefixes encoding the log level and "facility", see syslog(3), kmsg
1385 (log to the kernel circular log buffer), journal (log to the
1386 journal), journal-or-kmsg (log to the journal if available, and to
1387 kmsg otherwise), auto (determine the appropriate log target
1388 automatically, the default), null (disable log output).
1389 $SYSTEMD_PAGER
1391 Pager to use when --no-pager is not given; overrides $PAGER. If
1392 neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER nor $PAGER are set, a set of well-known
1393 pager implementations are tried in turn, including less(1) and
1394 more(1), until one is found. If no pager implementation is
1395 discovered no pager is invoked. Setting this environment variable
1396 to an empty string or the value "cat" is equivalent to passing
1397 --no-pager.
1398 $SYSTEMD_LESS
1400 Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").
1401 Users might want to change two options in particular:
1403 K
1405 This option instructs the pager to exit immediately when Ctrl+C
1406 is pressed. To allow less to handle Ctrl+C itself to switch
1407 back to the pager command prompt, unset this option.
1408 If the value of $SYSTEMD_LESS does not include "K", and the
1410 pager that is invoked is less, Ctrl+C will be ignored by the
1411 executable, and needs to be handled by the pager.
1412 X
1414 This option instructs the pager to not send termcap
1415 initialization and deinitialization strings to the terminal. It
1416 is set by default to allow command output to remain visible in
1417 the terminal even after the pager exits. Nevertheless, this
1418 prevents some pager functionality from working, in particular
1419 paged output cannot be scrolled with the mouse.
1420 See less(1) for more discussion.
1422 $SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
1424 Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the
1425 invoking terminal is determined to be UTF-8 compatible).
1426 $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE
1428 Takes a boolean argument. When true, the "secure" mode of the pager
1429 is enabled; if false, disabled. If $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set
1430 at all, secure mode is enabled if the effective UID is not the same
1431 as the owner of the login session, see geteuid(2) and
1432 sd_pid_get_owner_uid(3). In secure mode, LESSSECURE=1 will be set
1433 when invoking the pager, and the pager shall disable commands that
1434 open or create new files or start new subprocesses. When
1435 $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, pagers which are not known
1436 to implement secure mode will not be used. (Currently only less(1)
1437 implements secure mode.)
1438 Note: when commands are invoked with elevated privileges, for
1440 example under sudo(8) or pkexec(1), care must be taken to ensure
1441 that unintended interactive features are not enabled. "Secure" mode
1442 for the pager may be enabled automatically as describe above.
1443 Setting SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=0 or not removing it from the inherited
1444 environment allows the user to invoke arbitrary commands. Note that
1445 if the $SYSTEMD_PAGER or $PAGER variables are to be honoured,
1446 $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE must be set too. It might be reasonable to
1447 completely disable the pager using --no-pager instead.
1448 $SYSTEMD_COLORS
1450 Takes a boolean argument. When true, systemd and related utilities
1451 will use colors in their output, otherwise the output will be
1452 monochrome. Additionally, the variable can take one of the
1453 following special values: "16", "256" to restrict the use of colors
1454 to the base 16 or 256 ANSI colors, respectively. This can be
1455 specified to override the automatic decision based on $TERM and
1456 what the console is connected to.
1457 $SYSTEMD_URLIFY
1459 The value must be a boolean. Controls whether clickable links
1460 should be generated in the output for terminal emulators supporting
1461 this. This can be specified to override the decision that systemd
1462 makes based on $TERM and other conditions.
1463
1465 Example 1. Download a Fedora image and start a shell in it
1466 # machinectl pull-raw --verify=no \
1468 https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/34/Cloud/x86_64/images/Fedora-Cloud-Base-34-1.2.x86_64.raw.xz \
1469 Fedora-Cloud-Base-34-1.2.x86-64
1470 # systemd-nspawn -M Fedora-Cloud-Base-34-1.2.x86-64
1471 This downloads an image using machinectl(1) and opens a shell in it.
1473 Example 2. Build and boot a minimal Fedora distribution in a container
1475 # dnf -y --releasever=34 --installroot=/var/lib/machines/f34 \
1477 --disablerepo='*' --enablerepo=fedora --enablerepo=updates install \
1478 systemd passwd dnf fedora-release vim-minimal glibc-minimal-langpack
1479 # systemd-nspawn -bD /var/lib/machines/f34
1480 This installs a minimal Fedora distribution into the directory
1482 /var/lib/machines/f34 and then boots that OS in a namespace container.
1483 Because the installation is located underneath the standard
1484 /var/lib/machines/ directory, it is also possible to start the machine
1485 using systemd-nspawn -M f34.
1486 Example 3. Spawn a shell in a container of a minimal Debian unstable
1488 distribution
1489 # debootstrap unstable ~/debian-tree/
1491 # systemd-nspawn -D ~/debian-tree/
1492 This installs a minimal Debian unstable distribution into the directory
1494 ~/debian-tree/ and then spawns a shell from this image in a namespace
1495 container.
1496 debootstrap supports Debian[7], Ubuntu[8], and Tanglu[9] out of the
1498 box, so the same command can be used to install any of those. For other
1499 distributions from the Debian family, a mirror has to be specified, see
1500 debootstrap(8).
1501 Example 4. Boot a minimal Arch Linux distribution in a container
1503 # pacstrap -c ~/arch-tree/ base
1505 # systemd-nspawn -bD ~/arch-tree/
1506 This installs a minimal Arch Linux distribution into the directory
1508 ~/arch-tree/ and then boots an OS in a namespace container in it.
1509 Example 5. Install the OpenSUSE Tumbleweed rolling distribution
1511 # zypper --root=/var/lib/machines/tumbleweed ar -c \
1513 https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss tumbleweed
1514 # zypper --root=/var/lib/machines/tumbleweed refresh
1515 # zypper --root=/var/lib/machines/tumbleweed install --no-recommends \
1516 systemd shadow zypper openSUSE-release vim
1517 # systemd-nspawn -M tumbleweed passwd root
1518 # systemd-nspawn -M tumbleweed -b
1519 Example 6. Boot into an ephemeral snapshot of the host system
1521 # systemd-nspawn -D / -xb
1523 This runs a copy of the host system in a snapshot which is removed
1525 immediately when the container exits. All file system changes made
1526 during runtime will be lost on shutdown, hence.
1527 Example 7. Run a container with SELinux sandbox security contexts
1529 # chcon system_u:object_r:svirt_sandbox_file_t:s0:c0,c1 -R /srv/container
1531 # systemd-nspawn -L system_u:object_r:svirt_sandbox_file_t:s0:c0,c1 \
1532 -Z system_u:system_r:svirt_lxc_net_t:s0:c0,c1 -D /srv/container /bin/sh
1533 Example 8. Run a container with an OSTree deployment
1535 # systemd-nspawn -b -i ~/image.raw \
1537 --pivot-root=/ostree/deploy/$OS/deploy/$CHECKSUM:/sysroot \
1538 --bind=+/sysroot/ostree/deploy/$OS/var:/var
1539
1541 The exit code of the program executed in the container is returned.
1542
1544 systemd(1), systemd.nspawn(5), chroot(1), dnf(8), debootstrap(8),
1545 pacman(8), zypper(8), systemd.slice(5), machinectl(1), btrfs(8)
1546
1548 1. Container Interface
1549 https://systemd.io/CONTAINER_INTERFACE
1550 2. Discoverable Partitions Specification
1552 https://systemd.io/DISCOVERABLE_PARTITIONS
1553 3. OCI Runtime Specification
1555 https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/master/spec.md
1556 4. OSTree
1558 https://ostree.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
1559 5. overlayfs.txt
1561 https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt
1562 6. Fedora
1564 https://getfedora.org
1565 7. Debian
1567 https://www.debian.org
1568 8. Ubuntu
1570 https://www.ubuntu.com
1571 9. Tanglu
1573 https://www.tanglu.org
1574 10. Arch Linux
1576 https://www.archlinux.org
1577 11. OpenSUSE Tumbleweed
1579 https://software.opensuse.org/distributions/tumbleweed
1580systemd 249 SYSTEMD-NSPAWN(1)