1toolbox-init-container(1) General Commands Manual toolbox-init-container(1)
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6 toolbox-init-container - Initialize a running container
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10 toolbox init-container --gid GID
11 --home HOME
12 --home-link
13 --media-link
14 --mnt-link
15 --shell SHELL
16 --uid UID
17 --user USER
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21 Initializes a newly created container that's running. It is primarily
22 meant to be used as the entry point for all toolbox containers, and
23 must be run inside the container that's to be initialized. It is not
24 expected to be directly invoked by humans, and cannot be used on the
25 host.
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28 A key feature of toolbox containers is their entry point, the toolbox
29 init-container command.
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32 OCI containers are inherently immutable. Configuration options passed
33 through podman create are baked into the definition of the OCI con‐
34 tainer, and can't be changed later. This means that changes and im‐
35 provements made in newer versions of Toolbox can't be applied to pre-
36 existing toolbox containers created by older versions of Toolbox. This
37 is avoided by using the entry point to configure the container at run‐
38 time.
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41 The entry point of a toolbox container customizes the container to fit
42 the current user by ensuring that it has a user that matches the one on
43 the host, and grants it sudo and root access.
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46 Crucial configuration files, such as /etc/host.conf, /etc/hosts,
47 /etc/localtime, /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/timezone, inside the con‐
48 tainer are kept synchronized with the host. The entry point also bind
49 mounts various subsets of the host's filesystem hierarchy to their cor‐
50 responding locations inside the container to provide seamless integra‐
51 tion with the host. This includes /run/libvirt, /run/systemd/journal,
52 /run/udev/data, /var/lib/libvirt, /var/lib/systemd/coredump,
53 /var/log/journal and others.
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56 On some host operating systems, important paths like /home, /media or
57 /mnt are symbolic links to other locations. The entry point ensures
58 that paths inside the container match those on the host, to avoid need‐
59 less confusion.
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63 The following options are understood:
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66 --gid GID
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69 Pass GID as the user's numerical group ID from the host to the toolbox
70 container.
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73 --home HOME
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76 Create a user inside the toolbox container whose login directory is
77 HOME. This option is required.
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80 --home-link
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83 Make /home a symbolic link to /var/home.
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86 --media-link
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89 Make /media a symbolic link to /run/media.
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92 --mnt-link
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95 Make /mnt a symbolic link to /var/mnt.
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98 --monitor-host
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101 Deprecated, does nothing.
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104 Crucial configuration files inside the toolbox container are always
105 kept synchronized with their counterparts on the host, and various sub‐
106 sets of the host's file system hierarchy are always bind mounted to
107 their corresponding locations inside the toolbox container.
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110 --shell SHELL
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113 Create a user inside the toolbox container whose login shell is SHELL.
114 This option is required.
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117 --uid UID
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120 Create a user inside the toolbox container whose numerical user ID is
121 UID. This option is required.
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124 --user USER
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127 Create a user inside the toolbox container whose login name is LOGIN.
128 This option is required.
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132 toolbox(1), podman(1), podman-create(1), podman-start(1)
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136 toolbox-init-container(1)