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authorLennart Poettering <lennart@poettering.net>2016-06-22 23:30:36 +0200
committerMartin Pitt <martin.pitt@ubuntu.com>2016-06-22 23:30:36 +0200
commitb09c0bbad831a11e2200a6ebb48908a10ce29305 (patch)
tree43d82d087480005b77bed1c0fad6b515d7b33007 /man
parentd1562103fbdf3ab34cbef747390de85bb411d9f8 (diff)
nspawn: improve man page (#3577)
This change documents the existance of the systemd-nspawn@.service template unit file, which was previously not mentioned at all. Since the unit file uses slightly different default than nspawn invoked from the command line, these defaults are now explicitly documented too. A couple of further additions and changes are made, too. Replaces: #3497
Diffstat (limited to 'man')
-rw-r--r--man/systemd-nspawn.xml155
-rw-r--r--man/systemd.nspawn.xml18
2 files changed, 99 insertions, 74 deletions
diff --git a/man/systemd-nspawn.xml b/man/systemd-nspawn.xml
index 08122795f4..c436f42948 100644
--- a/man/systemd-nspawn.xml
+++ b/man/systemd-nspawn.xml
@@ -67,69 +67,82 @@
<refsect1>
<title>Description</title>
- <para><command>systemd-nspawn</command> may be used to run a
- command or OS in a light-weight namespace container. In many ways
- it is similar to
- <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
- but more powerful since it fully virtualizes the file system
- hierarchy, as well as the process tree, the various IPC subsystems
- and the host and domain name.</para>
-
- <para><command>systemd-nspawn</command> limits access to various
- kernel interfaces in the container to read-only, such as
- <filename>/sys</filename>, <filename>/proc/sys</filename> or
- <filename>/sys/fs/selinux</filename>. Network interfaces and the
- system clock may not be changed from within the container. Device
- nodes may not be created. The host system cannot be rebooted and
- kernel modules may not be loaded from within the container.</para>
-
- <para>Note that even though these security precautions are taken
- <command>systemd-nspawn</command> is not suitable for fully secure
- container setups. Many of the security features may be
- circumvented and are hence primarily useful to avoid accidental
- changes to the host system from the container.</para>
-
- <para>In contrast to
- <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> <command>systemd-nspawn</command>
- may be used to boot full Linux-based operating systems in a
+ <para><command>systemd-nspawn</command> may be used to run a command or OS in a light-weight namespace
+ container. In many ways it is similar to <citerefentry
+ project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, but more powerful
+ since it fully virtualizes the file system hierarchy, as well as the process tree, the various IPC subsystems and
+ the host and domain name.</para>
+
+ <para>Like <citerefentry
+ project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> the
+ <command>systemd-nspawn</command> command may be invoked on any directory tree containing an operating system tree,
+ using the <option>--directory=</option> command line option. By using the <option>--machine=</option> option an OS
+ tree is automatically searched in a couple of locations, most importantly in
+ <filename>/var/lib/machines</filename>, the suggested directory to place container images installed on the
+ system.</para>
+
+ <para>In contrast to <citerefentry
+ project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>chroot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> <command>systemd-nspawn</command>
+ may be used to boot full Linux-based operating systems in a container.</para>
+
+ <para><command>systemd-nspawn</command> limits access to various kernel interfaces in the container to read-only,
+ such as <filename>/sys</filename>, <filename>/proc/sys</filename> or <filename>/sys/fs/selinux</filename>. The
+ host's network interfaces and the system clock may not be changed from within the container. Device nodes may not
+ be created. The host system cannot be rebooted and kernel modules may not be loaded from within the
container.</para>
- <para>Use a tool like
- <citerefentry project='mankier'><refentrytitle>dnf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
- <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>debootstrap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
- or
- <citerefentry project='archlinux'><refentrytitle>pacman</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
- to set up an OS directory tree suitable as file system hierarchy
- for <command>systemd-nspawn</command> containers.</para>
-
- <para>Note that <command>systemd-nspawn</command> will mount file
- systems private to the container to <filename>/dev</filename>,
- <filename>/run</filename> and similar. These will not be visible
- outside of the container, and their contents will be lost when the
- container exits.</para>
-
- <para>Note that running two <command>systemd-nspawn</command>
- containers from the same directory tree will not make processes in
- them see each other. The PID namespace separation of the two
- containers is complete and the containers will share very few
- runtime objects except for the underlying file system. Use
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machinectl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>'s
- <command>login</command> command to request an additional login
- prompt in a running container.</para>
-
- <para><command>systemd-nspawn</command> implements the
- <ulink
- url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/ContainerInterface">Container
- Interface</ulink> specification.</para>
-
- <para>As a safety check <command>systemd-nspawn</command> will
- verify the existence of <filename>/usr/lib/os-release</filename>
- or <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> in the container tree
- before starting the container (see
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>os-release</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
- It might be necessary to add this file to the container tree
- manually if the OS of the container is too old to contain this
+ <para>Use a tool like <citerefentry
+ project='mankier'><refentrytitle>dnf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry
+ project='die-net'><refentrytitle>debootstrap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, or
+ <citerefentry project='archlinux'><refentrytitle>pacman</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> to
+ set up an OS directory tree suitable as file system hierarchy for <command>systemd-nspawn</command> containers. See
+ the Examples section below for details on suitable invocation of these commands.</para>
+
+ <para>As a safety check <command>systemd-nspawn</command> will verify the existence of
+ <filename>/usr/lib/os-release</filename> or <filename>/etc/os-release</filename> in the container tree before
+ starting the container (see
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>os-release</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>). It might be
+ necessary to add this file to the container tree manually if the OS of the container is too old to contain this
file out-of-the-box.</para>
+
+ <para><command>systemd-nspawn</command> may be invoked directly from the interactive command line or run as system
+ service in the background. In this mode each container instance runs as its own service instance; a default
+ template unit file <filename>systemd-nspawn@.service</filename> is provided to make this easy, taking the container
+ name as instance identifier. Note that different default options apply when <command>systemd-nspawn</command> is
+ invoked by the template unit file than interactively on the commnd line. Most importanly the template unit file
+ makes use of the <option>--boot</option> which is not the default in case <command>systemd-nspawn</command> is
+ invoked from the interactive command line. Further differences with the defaults are documented dalong with the
+ various supported options below.</para>
+
+ <para>The <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machinectl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> tool may
+ be used to execute a number of operations on containers. In particular it provides easy-to-use commands to run
+ containers as system services using the <filename>systemd-nspawn@.service</filename> template unit
+ file.</para>
+
+ <para>Along with each container a settings file with the <filename>.nspawn</filename> suffix may exist, containing
+ additional settings to apply when running the container. See
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
+ details. Settings files override the default options used by the <filename>systemd-nspawn@.service</filename>
+ template unit file, making it usually unnecessary to alter this template file directly.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that <command>systemd-nspawn</command> will mount file systems private to the container to
+ <filename>/dev</filename>, <filename>/run</filename> and similar. These will not be visible outside of the
+ container, and their contents will be lost when the container exits.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that running two <command>systemd-nspawn</command> containers from the same directory tree will not make
+ processes in them see each other. The PID namespace separation of the two containers is complete and the containers
+ will share very few runtime objects except for the underlying file system. Use
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machinectl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>'s
+ <command>login</command> or <command>shell</command> commands to request an additional login session in a running
+ container.</para>
+
+ <para><command>systemd-nspawn</command> implements the <ulink
+ url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/ContainerInterface">Container Interface</ulink>
+ specification.</para>
+
+ <para>While running, containers invoked with <command>systemd-nspawn</command> are registered with the
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-machined</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> service that
+ keeps track of running containers, and provides programming interfaces to interact with them.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
@@ -139,7 +152,7 @@
are used as arguments for the init binary. Otherwise,
<replaceable>COMMAND</replaceable> specifies the program to launch
in the container, and the remaining arguments are used as
- arguments for this program. If <option>-b</option> is not used and
+ arguments for this program. If <option>--boot</option> is not used and
no arguments are specified, a shell is launched in the
container.</para>
@@ -310,6 +323,9 @@
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
+
+ <para>Note that <option>--boot</option> is the default mode of operation if the
+ <filename>systemd-nspawn@.service</filename> template unit file is used.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
@@ -446,7 +462,10 @@
<listitem><para>If the kernel supports the user namespaces feature, equivalent to
<option>--private-users=pick</option>, otherwise equivalent to
- <option>--private-users=no</option>.</para></listitem>
+ <option>--private-users=no</option>.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that <option>-U</option> is the default if the <filename>systemd-nspawn@.service</filename> template unit
+ file is used.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
@@ -540,6 +559,9 @@
assignment via DHCP. In case <filename>systemd-networkd</filename> is running on both the host and inside the
container, automatic IP communication from the container to the host is thus available, with further
connectivity to the external network.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that <option>--network-veth</option> is the default if the
+ <filename>systemd-nspawn@.service</filename> template unit file is used.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
@@ -705,7 +727,10 @@
Effectively, booting a container once with
<literal>guest</literal> or <literal>host</literal> will link
the journal persistently if further on the default of
- <literal>auto</literal> is used.</para></listitem>
+ <literal>auto</literal> is used.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that <option>--link-journal=try-guest</option> is the default if the
+ <filename>systemd-nspawn@.service</filename> template unit file is used.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
@@ -981,10 +1006,10 @@
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><varname>--notify-ready=</varname></term>
+ <term><option>--notify-ready=</option></term>
<listitem><para>Configures support for notifications from the container's init process.
- <varname>--notify-ready=</varname> takes a boolean (<option>no</option> and <option>yes</option>).
+ <option>--notify-ready=</option> takes a boolean (<option>no</option> and <option>yes</option>).
With option <option>no</option> systemd-nspawn notifies systemd
with a <literal>READY=1</literal> message when the init process is created.
With option <option>yes</option> systemd-nspawn waits for the
diff --git a/man/systemd.nspawn.xml b/man/systemd.nspawn.xml
index 6df4aeb2a9..b1344d6c10 100644
--- a/man/systemd.nspawn.xml
+++ b/man/systemd.nspawn.xml
@@ -146,7 +146,8 @@
specified parameters using <varname>Parameters=</varname> are passed as additional arguments to the
<filename>init</filename> process. This setting corresponds to the <option>--boot</option> switch on the
<command>systemd-nspawn</command> command line. This option may not be combined with
- <varname>ProcessTwo=yes</varname>.</para></listitem>
+ <varname>ProcessTwo=yes</varname>. This option is the default if the
+ <filename>systemd-nspawn@.service</filename> template unit file is used.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
@@ -257,7 +258,8 @@
<listitem><para>Configures support for usernamespacing. This is equivalent to the
<option>--private-users=</option> command line switch, and takes the same options. This option is privileged
- (see above). </para></listitem>
+ (see above). This option is the default if the <filename>systemd-nspawn@.service</filename> template unit file
+ is used.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
@@ -367,13 +369,11 @@
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>VirtualEthernet=</varname></term>
- <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. Configures whether
- to create a virtual Ethernet connection
- (<literal>veth</literal>) between host and the container. This
- setting implies <varname>Private=yes</varname>. This setting
- corresponds to the <option>--network-veth</option> command
- line switch. This option is privileged (see
- above).</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. Configures whether to create a virtual Ethernet connection
+ (<literal>veth</literal>) between host and the container. This setting implies
+ <varname>Private=yes</varname>. This setting corresponds to the <option>--network-veth</option> command line
+ switch. This option is privileged (see above). This option is the default if the
+ <filename>systemd-nspawn@.service</filename> template unit file is used.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>