apptainer(1)

💅 apptainer pull — the manual page, but make it make sense ✨

okay bestie, so you know how the apptainer manual lives at apptainer(1)? yeah. this is that. well — specifically the pull page of it. it's the one you're gonna be living in, so grab a snack 🍓

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🌸 NAME 🌸

apptainer-pull — pull an image from a URI. that's it. that's the whole vibe. you give it a URI, you get an image. iconic behavior honestly 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

apptainer pull [pull options...] [output file]

short, sweet, and absolutely ate. options in the middle, output file at the end if you want one, no cap.

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so the pull command literally lets you download or build a container from a given URI. like, one command, image acquired, main character energy 🔥

here's the URIs it supports, and yes i'm listing every single one because we don't do gatekeeping here:

• library — pulls an image from the currently configured library ✨

library://user/collection/container[:tag]

• docker — pulls a Docker/OCI image from Docker Hub, or honestly any other OCI registry 🐳

docker://user/image:tag

• shub — pulls an image from Singularity Hub 🎀

shub://user/image:tag

• oras — pulls a SIF image from an OCI registry that supports ORAS 🌈

oras://registry/namespace/image:tag

• ipfs — pulls a SIF image from an IPFS cluster, using a HTTP gateway 🧚

ipfs://cid

• http, https — pulls an image using the http(s?) protocol, classic behavior 💜

https://example.com/alpine.sif

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

okay so here's the full menu, no skips, no cuts, we're covering all of them 🫶

• --arch="amd64" — architecture to pull from library. default's amd64, so if that's you, you're already slaying by doing nothing.
• --arch-variant="" — architecture variant to pull from library. empty by default, iykyk.
• --authfile="" — Docker-style authentication file to use for writing/reading OCI registry credentials. your little key to the registry 🔑
• --dir="" — download images to the specific directory. tell it where to put the goods.
• --disable-cache[=false] — do not use or create cached images/blobs. cache? never met her 💀
• --docker-host="" — specify a custom Docker daemon host.
• --docker-login[=false] — login to a Docker Repository interactively. it will literally talk to you.
• -F, --force[=false] — overwrite an image file if it exists. yes, for real, it will steamroll that existing file. be aware 😭
• -h, --help[=false] — help for pull. classic. never not useful.
• --library="" — download images from the provided library.
• --no-cleanup[=false] — do NOT clean up bundle after failed build, can be helpful for debugging. like leaving the crime scene intact for the investigators 🕵️
• --no-https[=false] — use http instead of https for docker://, oras:// and library:///... URIs. lowercase http. unsecured. chaotic but sometimes necessary.
• --reproducible[=false] — creates a reproducible build by using the creation date of the source image. same image, same date, every time. consistent queen 👑
• --sandbox[=false] — pull image as sandbox format (chroot directory structure). not a .sif girlie today, we're doing a whole directory.

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🌟 EXAMPLE 🌟

okay this is the part you actually came for, let's go 🏃‍♀️💨

From a library

$ apptainer pull alpine.sif library://alpine:latest

From Docker

$ apptainer pull tensorflow.sif docker://tensorflow/tensorflow:latest
$ apptainer pull --arch arm --arch-variant 6 alpine.sif docker://alpine:latest

From Shub

$ apptainer pull apptainer-images.sif shub://vsoch/apptainer-images

From supporting OCI registry (e.g. Azure Container Registry)

$ apptainer pull image.sif oras://<username>.azurecr.io/namespace/image:tag

From available IPFS cluster (using a local HTTP IPFS gateway)

$ apptainer pull lolcow.sif ipfs://bafybeice667c6gxovimsb6gnk6vex7vhzluhkl5hjv4ac4lhilxn52c43m

look at that IPFS CID. it's giving base32 final boss 💀 but it's literally copy-paste-able so you're fine.

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• apptainer(1) — the mothership. go there if you need the big picture 🛸

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📜 HISTORY 📜

22-Oct-2026 — Auto generated by spf13/cobra. yeah the robots wrote this one, but we made it cute 🌸

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ngl if this was a whole lot, just remember: URI in, image out, read the options before you --force something you love 💖

okay bye bestie, go pull something iconic 🎀✨🦋 — this little rewrite is your sign-off: Auto generated by spf13/cobra · Oct 2026 · apptainer(1) 🫶💜