1NAMESPACES(7)              Linux Programmer's Manual             NAMESPACES(7)
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NAME

6       namespaces - overview of Linux namespaces
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DESCRIPTION

9       A namespace wraps a global system resource in an abstraction that makes
10       it appear to the processes within the namespace that  they  have  their
11       own  isolated  instance  of the global resource.  Changes to the global
12       resource are visible to other processes that are members of  the  name‐
13       space,  but are invisible to other processes.  One use of namespaces is
14       to implement containers.
15
16       This page provides pointers to information  on  the  various  namespace
17       types,  describes  the  associated /proc files, and summarizes the APIs
18       for working with namespaces.
19
20   Namespace types
21       The following table shows the namespace types available on Linux.   The
22       second column of the table shows the flag value that is used to specify
23       the namespace type in various APIs.  The third  column  identifies  the
24       manual page that provides details on the namespace type.  The last col‐
25       umn is a summary of the resources that are isolated  by  the  namespace
26       type.
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28       Namespace Flag            Page                  Isolates
29       Cgroup    CLONE_NEWCGROUP cgroup_namespaces(7)  Cgroup root
30                                                       directory
31       IPC       CLONE_NEWIPC    ipc_namespaces(7)     System V IPC,
32                                                       POSIX message
33                                                       queues
34       Network   CLONE_NEWNET    network_namespaces(7) Network devices,
35                                                       stacks, ports,
36                                                       etc.
37       Mount     CLONE_NEWNS     mount_namespaces(7)   Mount points
38       PID       CLONE_NEWPID    pid_namespaces(7)     Process IDs
39       Time      CLONE_NEWTIME   time_namespaces(7)    Boot and
40                                                       monotonic clocks
41       User      CLONE_NEWUSER   user_namespaces(7)    User and group
42                                                       IDs
43       UTS       CLONE_NEWUTS    uts_namespaces(7)     Hostname and NIS
44                                                       domain name
45
46   The namespaces API
47       As  well as various /proc files described below, the namespaces API in‐
48       cludes the following system calls:
49
50       clone(2)
51              The clone(2) system call creates a new process.   If  the  flags
52              argument  of  the  call  specifies one or more of the CLONE_NEW*
53              flags listed above, then new namespaces  are  created  for  each
54              flag,  and  the  child  process  is made a member of those name‐
55              spaces.  (This system call also implements a number of  features
56              unrelated to namespaces.)
57
58       setns(2)
59              The  setns(2)  system call allows the calling process to join an
60              existing namespace.  The namespace to join is  specified  via  a
61              file  descriptor  that refers to one of the /proc/[pid]/ns files
62              described below.
63
64       unshare(2)
65              The unshare(2) system call moves the calling process  to  a  new
66              namespace.   If  the flags argument of the call specifies one or
67              more of the CLONE_NEW* flags listed above, then  new  namespaces
68              are  created  for  each  flag, and the calling process is made a
69              member of those namespaces.  (This system call also implements a
70              number of features unrelated to namespaces.)
71
72       ioctl(2)
73              Various  ioctl(2) operations can be used to discover information
74              about   namespaces.    These   operations   are   described   in
75              ioctl_ns(2).
76
77       Creation  of new namespaces using clone(2) and unshare(2) in most cases
78       requires the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability, since, in the new namespace, the
79       creator will have the power to change global resources that are visible
80       to other processes that are subsequently created in, or join the  name‐
81       space.   User  namespaces are the exception: since Linux 3.8, no privi‐
82       lege is required to create a user namespace.
83
84   The /proc/[pid]/ns/ directory
85       Each process has a /proc/[pid]/ns/ subdirectory  containing  one  entry
86       for each namespace that supports being manipulated by setns(2):
87
88           $ ls -l /proc/$$/ns | awk '{print $1, $9, $10, $11}'
89           total 0
90           lrwxrwxrwx. cgroup -> cgroup:[4026531835]
91           lrwxrwxrwx. ipc -> ipc:[4026531839]
92           lrwxrwxrwx. mnt -> mnt:[4026531840]
93           lrwxrwxrwx. net -> net:[4026531969]
94           lrwxrwxrwx. pid -> pid:[4026531836]
95           lrwxrwxrwx. pid_for_children -> pid:[4026531834]
96           lrwxrwxrwx. time -> time:[4026531834]
97           lrwxrwxrwx. time_for_children -> time:[4026531834]
98           lrwxrwxrwx. user -> user:[4026531837]
99           lrwxrwxrwx. uts -> uts:[4026531838]
100
101       Bind  mounting  (see  mount(2))  one  of the files in this directory to
102       somewhere else in the filesystem keeps the corresponding  namespace  of
103       the  process  specified by pid alive even if all processes currently in
104       the namespace terminate.
105
106       Opening one of the files in this directory (or  a  file  that  is  bind
107       mounted  to  one  of  these files) returns a file handle for the corre‐
108       sponding namespace of the process specified by pid.  As  long  as  this
109       file  descriptor remains open, the namespace will remain alive, even if
110       all processes in the namespace terminate.  The file descriptor  can  be
111       passed to setns(2).
112
113       In  Linux  3.7  and  earlier,  these  files were visible as hard links.
114       Since Linux 3.8, they appear as symbolic links.  If two  processes  are
115       in  the  same namespace, then the device IDs and inode numbers of their
116       /proc/[pid]/ns/xxx symbolic links will be the same; an application  can
117       check  this  using  the  stat.st_dev and stat.st_ino fields returned by
118       stat(2).  The content of this symbolic link is a string containing  the
119       namespace type and inode number as in the following example:
120
121           $ readlink /proc/$$/ns/uts
122           uts:[4026531838]
123
124       The symbolic links in this subdirectory are as follows:
125
126       /proc/[pid]/ns/cgroup (since Linux 4.6)
127              This file is a handle for the cgroup namespace of the process.
128
129       /proc/[pid]/ns/ipc (since Linux 3.0)
130              This file is a handle for the IPC namespace of the process.
131
132       /proc/[pid]/ns/mnt (since Linux 3.8)
133              This file is a handle for the mount namespace of the process.
134
135       /proc/[pid]/ns/net (since Linux 3.0)
136              This file is a handle for the network namespace of the process.
137
138       /proc/[pid]/ns/pid (since Linux 3.8)
139              This  file  is  a  handle  for the PID namespace of the process.
140              This handle is permanent for the lifetime of the process  (i.e.,
141              a process's PID namespace membership never changes).
142
143       /proc/[pid]/ns/pid_for_children (since Linux 4.12)
144              This  file  is a handle for the PID namespace of child processes
145              created by this process.  This can change as  a  consequence  of
146              calls to unshare(2) and setns(2) (see pid_namespaces(7)), so the
147              file may differ  from  /proc/[pid]/ns/pid.   The  symbolic  link
148              gains  a  value only after the first child process is created in
149              the namespace.  (Beforehand, readlink(2) of  the  symbolic  link
150              will return an empty buffer.)
151
152       /proc/[pid]/ns/time (since Linux 5.6)
153              This file is a handle for the time namespace of the process.
154
155       /proc/[pid]/ns/time_for_children (since Linux 5.6)
156              This  file is a handle for the time namespace of child processes
157              created by this process.  This can change as  a  consequence  of
158              calls  to  unshare(2)  and setns(2) (see time_namespaces(7)), so
159              the file may differ from /proc/[pid]/ns/time.
160
161       /proc/[pid]/ns/user (since Linux 3.8)
162              This file is a handle for the user namespace of the process.
163
164       /proc/[pid]/ns/uts (since Linux 3.0)
165              This file is a handle for the UTS namespace of the process.
166
167       Permission to dereference or read (readlink(2)) these symbolic links is
168       governed  by  a  ptrace access mode PTRACE_MODE_READ_FSCREDS check; see
169       ptrace(2).
170
171   The /proc/sys/user directory
172       The files in the /proc/sys/user directory (which is present since Linux
173       4.9)  expose  limits  on the number of namespaces of various types that
174       can be created.  The files are as follows:
175
176       max_cgroup_namespaces
177              The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number of
178              cgroup namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
179
180       max_ipc_namespaces
181              The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number of
182              ipc namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
183
184       max_mnt_namespaces
185              The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number of
186              mount namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
187
188       max_net_namespaces
189              The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number of
190              network namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
191
192       max_pid_namespaces
193              The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number of
194              PID namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
195
196       max_time_namespaces (since Linux 5.7)
197              The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number of
198              time namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
199
200       max_user_namespaces
201              The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number of
202              user namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
203
204       max_uts_namespaces
205              The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number of
206              uts namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
207
208       Note the following details about these files:
209
210       *  The values in these files are modifiable by privileged processes.
211
212       *  The values exposed by these files are the limits for the user  name‐
213          space in which the opening process resides.
214
215       *  The  limits  are per-user.  Each user in the same user namespace can
216          create namespaces up to the defined limit.
217
218       *  The limits apply to all users, including UID 0.
219
220       *  These limits apply in addition to  any  other  per-namespace  limits
221          (such as those for PID and user namespaces) that may be enforced.
222
223       *  Upon  encountering  these  limits, clone(2) and unshare(2) fail with
224          the error ENOSPC.
225
226       *  For the initial user namespace, the default value in each  of  these
227          files is half the limit on the number of threads that may be created
228          (/proc/sys/kernel/threads-max).  In all descendant user  namespaces,
229          the default value in each file is MAXINT.
230
231       *  When  a  namespace  is created, the object is also accounted against
232          ancestor namespaces.  More precisely:
233
234          +  Each user namespace has a creator UID.
235
236          +  When a namespace is created, it is accounted against the  creator
237             UIDs  in each of the ancestor user namespaces, and the kernel en‐
238             sures that the corresponding namespace limit for the creator  UID
239             in the ancestor namespace is not exceeded.
240
241          +  The  aforementioned  point ensures that creating a new user name‐
242             space cannot be used as a means to escape the limits in force  in
243             the current user namespace.
244
245   Namespace lifetime
246       Absent  any  other factors, a namespace is automatically torn down when
247       the last process in the namespace terminates or leaves  the  namespace.
248       However,  there  are a number of other factors that may pin a namespace
249       into existence even though it has no member processes.   These  factors
250       include the following:
251
252       *  An open file descriptor or a bind mount exists for the corresponding
253          /proc/[pid]/ns/* file.
254
255       *  The namespace is hierarchical (i.e., a PID or user  namespace),  and
256          has a child namespace.
257
258       *  It is a user namespace that owns one or more nonuser namespaces.
259
260       *  It  is  a  PID  namespace, and there is a process that refers to the
261          namespace via a /proc/[pid]/ns/pid_for_children symbolic link.
262
263       *  It is a time namespace, and there is a process that  refers  to  the
264          namespace via a /proc/[pid]/ns/time_for_children symbolic link.
265
266       *  It  is  an  IPC  namespace,  and  a corresponding mount of an mqueue
267          filesystem (see mq_overview(7)) refers to this namespace.
268
269       *  It is a PID namespace,  and  a  corresponding  mount  of  a  proc(5)
270          filesystem refers to this namespace.
271

EXAMPLES

273       See clone(2) and user_namespaces(7).
274

SEE ALSO

276       nsenter(1),  readlink(1),  unshare(1), clone(2), ioctl_ns(2), setns(2),
277       unshare(2), proc(5), capabilities(7), cgroup_namespaces(7), cgroups(7),
278       credentials(7),   ipc_namespaces(7),  network_namespaces(7),  pid_name‐
279       spaces(7),     user_namespaces(7),     uts_namespaces(7),      lsns(8),
280       switch_root(8)
281

COLOPHON

283       This  page  is  part of release 5.13 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
284       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
285       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
286       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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290Linux                             2021-08-27                     NAMESPACES(7)
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