apptainer(1)

💅 apptainer(1) — the manual, bestie edition 🎀

okay so you opened the apptainer(1) man page and honestly? slay, you're in the right place. this is the apptainer man page, and we're about to go through the whole thing together, no skips, no gatekeeping 💖

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✨ NAME ✨

apptainer-test — run the user-defined tests that live inside a container. yes, containers can have feelings AND tests 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

apptainer test [exec options...]

that's the whole vibe. apptainer test plus whatever exec options your heart desires ✨

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

the test command lets you execute a testscript (if available) inside of a given container. like, if the container brought a testscript, this is how you run it 💅

NOTE: for instances — if there's a daemon process running inside the container, then subsequent container commands will all run within the same namespaces. this means the --writable and --contain options will not be honored, because the namespaces have already been configured by the 'apptainer start' command. not me getting ignored by my own flags 😭

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⭐ OPTIONS ⭐

• --add-caps="" — a comma separated capability list to add 👑
• --allow-setuid[=false] — allow setuid binaries in container (root only) 🔥
• --app="" — set an application to run inside a container
• --apply-cgroups="" — apply cgroups from file for container processes (root only)
• --authfile="" — Docker-style authentication file to use for writing/reading OCI registry credentials 🔐
• -B, --bind=[] — a user-bind path specification. spec has the format src[:dest[:opts]], where src and dest are outside and inside paths. if dest is not given, it is set equal to src. mount options ('opts') may be specified as 'ro' (read-only) or 'rw' (read/write, which is the default). multiple bind paths can be given by a comma separated list 💫
• --blkio-weight=0 — Block IO relative weight in range 10-1000, 0 to disable
• --blkio-weight-device=[] — Device specific block IO relative weight
• --cdi-dirs=[] — comma-separated list of directories in which CDI should look for device definition JSON files. if omitted and not set in apptainer.conf, default will be: /etc/cdi,/var/run/cdi. not allowed in suid mode by non-root users 🙈
• -e, --cleanenv[=false] — clean environment before running container 🧼
• --compat[=false] — apply settings for increased OCI/Docker compatibility. infers --containall, --no-init, --no-umask, --no-eval, --writable-tmpfs. it's giving "just make it work" energy ✨
• -c, --contain[=false] — use minimal /dev and empty other directories (e.g. /tmp and $HOME) instead of sharing filesystems from your host
• -C, --containall[=false] — contain not only file systems, but also PID, IPC, and environment. the full lockdown, no cap 🔒
• --cpu-shares=-1 — CPU shares for container
• --cpus="" — Number of CPUs available to container
• --cpuset-cpus="" — List of host CPUs available to container
• --cpuset-mems="" — List of host memory nodes available to container
• --cwd="" — initial working directory for payload process inside the container (synonym for --pwd)
• --device=[] — fully-qualified CDI device name(s). a fully-qualified CDI device name consists of a VENDOR, CLASS, and NAME, which are combined as follows: /= (e.g. vendor.com/device=mydevice). multiple fully-qualified CDI device names can be given as a comma separated list.
• --disable-cache[=false] — do not use or create cache 💀
• --dns="" — list of DNS server separated by commas to add in resolv.conf
• --docker-host="" — specify a custom Docker daemon host
• --docker-login[=false] — login to a Docker Repository interactively
• --drop-caps="" — a comma separated capability list to drop
• --env=[] — pass environment variable to contained process
• --env-file=[] — pass environment variables from file to contained process
• -f, --fakeroot[=false] — run container with the appearance of running as root 👑 (main character energy, but make it fake)
• --fusemount=[] — a FUSE filesystem mount specification of the form ':' - where is `'container'` or `'host'`, specifying where the mount will be performed (`'container-daemon'` or `'host-daemon'` will run the FUSE process detached). is the path to the FUSE executable, plus options for the mount. `` is the location in the container to which the FUSE mount will be attached. e.g. 'container:sshfs 10.0.0.1:/ /sshfs'. implies --pid 🧚
• -h, --help[=false] — help for test
• -H, --home="/builddir" — a home directory specification. spec can either be a src path or src:dest pair. src is the source path of the home directory outside the container and dest overrides the home directory within the container 🏠
• --hostname="" — set container hostname
• --intel-hpu[=false] — enable Intel(R) Gaudi accelerator support while using a minimal /dev 🔥
• -i, --ipc[=false] — run container in a new IPC namespace
• --keep-privs[=false] — let root user keep privileges in container (root only)
• --memory="" — Memory limit in bytes
• --memory-reservation="" — Memory soft limit in bytes
• --memory-swap="" — Swap limit, use -1 for unlimited swap
• --mount=[] — a mount specification e.g. 'type=bind,src=/opt,dst=/hostopt'.
• -n, --net[=false] — run container in a new network namespace (sets up a bridge network interface by default) 🌐
• --netns-path="" — join the network namespace at the specified path (as root, or if permitted in apptainer.conf)
• --network="" — specify desired network type separated by commas, each network will bring up a dedicated interface inside container
• --network-args=[] — specify network arguments to pass to CNI plugins
• --no-env=[] — list of environment variables to block from import into container from host environment 🚫
• --no-eval[=false] — do not shell evaluate env vars or OCI container CMD/ENTRYPOINT/ARGS
• --no-home[=false] — do NOT mount users home directory if /home is not the current working directory
• --no-https[=false] — use http instead of https for docker://, oras:// and library:///... URIs
• --no-init[=false] — do NOT start shim process with --pid
• --no-mount=[] — disable one or more 'mount xxx' options set in apptainer.conf and/or specify absolute destination path to disable a bind path entry, or 'bind-paths' to disable all bind path entries.
• --no-pid[=false] — do not run container in a new PID namespace
• --no-privs[=false] — drop all privileges from root user in container
• --no-umask[=false] — do not propagate umask to the container, set default 0022 umask
• --nv[=false] — enable Nvidia support (gamer girl GPU moment 💜)
• --nvccli[=false] — use nvidia-container-cli for GPU setup (experimental) 🧪
• --oom-kill-disable[=false] — Disable OOM killer
• -o, --overlay=[] — use an overlayFS image for persistent data storage or as read-only layer of container
• --passphrase[=false] — prompt for an encryption passphrase 🔐
• --pem-path="" — enter an path to a PEM formatted RSA key for an encrypted container
• -p, --pid[=false] — run container in a new PID namespace
• --pids-limit=0 — Limit number of container PIDs, use -1 for unlimited
• --rocm[=false] — enable experimental Rocm support
• -S, --scratch=[] — include a scratch directory within the container that is linked to a temporary dir (use -W to force location)
• --security=[] — enable security features (SELinux, Apparmor, Seccomp) 🛡️
• --sharens[=false] — share the namespace and image with other containers launched from the same parent process
• --unsquash[=false] — Convert SIF file to temporary sandbox before running
• -u, --userns[=false] — run container in a new user namespace
• --uts[=false] — run container in a new UTS namespace
• -W, --workdir="" — working directory to be used for /tmp, /var/tmp and $HOME (if -c/--contain was also used)
• -w, --writable[=false] — by default all Apptainer containers are available as read only. this option makes the file system accessible as read/write ✍️
• --writable-tmpfs[=false] — makes the file system accessible as read-write with non persistent data (with overlay support only)

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🌈 EXAMPLE 🌈

set the '%test' section with a definition file like so:

   %test
       echo "hello from test" "$@"

   $ apptainer test /tmp/debian.sif command
       hello from test command

for additional help, please visit our public documentation pages which are found at:

   https://apptainer.org/docs/

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• apptainer(1) — the mothership, the blueprint, the icon 👑

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🎀 HISTORY 🎀

22-Oct-2026 — Auto generated by spf13/cobra

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okay bestie that's literally the whole page, you ate that 💅 and yeah — this apptainer(1) page was Auto generated by spf13/cobra, dated Oct 2026, manual apptainer(1), and it's iconic, periodt 🦋✨🍓