container-tools - Manage systemd-nspawn containers
==================================================


1. Description
--------------

  "[A Linux container] is an operating-system-level virtualization environment
  for running multiple isolated Linux systems (containers) on a single Linux
  control host."

    -- Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LXC)

container-tools provides the system integration for managing containers using
systemd-nspawn.


2. Download
-----------

  * Upstream Releases: https://files.open-infrastructure.net/software/container-tools/upstream
  * Upstream Sources: https://sources.open-infrastructure.net/software/container-tools
  * Debian Releases: https://files.open-infrastructure.net/software/container-tools/debian
  * Debian Sources: https://sources.progress-linux.org/users/daniel/debian/packages/open-infrastructure-container-tools


3. Installation
---------------

3.1 Source
----------

  1. sudo apt install asciidoc git docbook-xml docbook-xsl libxml2-utils make xsltproc dbus systemd-container
  2. git clone https://sources.open-infrastructure.net/software/container-tools
  3. cd container-tools && sudo make install

3.2 Debian 9 (stretch) and newer
--------------------------------

  * sudo apt install container-tools


4. Development
--------------

Bug reports, feature requests, help, patches, support and everything else
are welcome on the Open Infrastructure Software Mailing List:

  * https://lists.open-infrastructure.net/listinfo/software

Please base patches against the 'next' Git branch using common sense:

  * https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/SubmittingPatches

Debian specific bugs can also be reported in the Debian Bug Tracking System:

  * https://bugs.debian.org


5. Known Limitations
--------------------

  * This version of container-tools currently do not work with systemd-networkd and depend on ifupdown.
  * Using overlay, the upper directory can not be an NFS mount due to limitations in Linux' overlay filesystem,
    see https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt


6. Usage
--------

  * Create a new container:
    sudo container create -n NAME

  * Start a container:
    sudo container start -n NAME

  * Stop a container:
    sudo container stop -n NAME

  * Remove a container:
    sudo container remove -n NAME

  * List container on the system:
    sudo container list

  * Show container-tools version:
    container version

See container(1) for a list of all container commands.


7. Links
--------

  * 2016-02-24: Systemd vs. Docker
    https://lwn.net/Articles/676831/

  * 2015-06-10: Systemd and containers
    https://lwn.net/Articles/647634/

  * 2014-07-07: Control groups
    https://lwn.net/Articles/604609/

  * 2013-11-13: Systemd-Nspawn is Chroot on Steroids [LinuxCon Europe]
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7LlUs5D9p4

  * 2013-11-03: Creating containers with systemd-nspawn
    https://lwn.net/Articles/572957/

  * 2013-02-06: Systemd lightweight containers
    https://lwn.net/Articles/536033/

  * 2013-01-04: Namespaces in operation
    https://lwn.net/Articles/531114/


8. Authors
----------

  * Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@open-infrastructure.net>