apptainer(1)

💖 apptainer(1) — the inspect glow-up 💖

okay so real quick before we dive in: this page lives in the apptainer(1) manual fam, and it's all about one iconic little subcommand. grab a snack, bestie, we're getting into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

apptainer-inspect — literally just shows you the metadata for an image. that's the whole vibe check 📋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

apptainer inspect [inspect options...]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so inspect is gonna show you the labels, the environment variables, the apps, and the scripts that are associated with whatever image you're poking at — and which image that is? determined by the flags you pass, no cap ✨

by default, all of this comes out in plain text, super chill, very readable. but if you'd rather have it in json format, you should use the --json flag. that's it, that's the whole thing 💅

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• --all[=false] — shows all the available data (imply --json option) 👑
• --app="" — inspect one specific app, like your fave
• -d, --deffile[=false] — shows the Apptainer definition file that was used to generate the image 📜
• -e, --environment[=false] — shows the environment settings for the image 🌱
• -h, --help[=false] — help for inspect (the classic)
• -H, --helpfile[=false] — inspects the runscript helpfile, if it exists
• -j, --json[=false] — prints structured json instead of sections 🧚
• -l, --labels[=false] — shows the labels for the image (this one's the default, iykyk) 🏷️
• --list-apps[=false] — lists all the apps in a container
• -r, --runscript[=false] — shows the runscript for the image
• -s, --startscript[=false] — shows the startscript for the image
• -t, --test[=false] — shows the test script for the image

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🌈 EXAMPLE 🌈

okay here's the moment you've been waiting for, the live demos 💖

$ apptainer inspect ubuntu.sif

if you want to list the applications (apps) installed in a container (they live at /scif/apps), you should run the inspect command with the --list-apps <container-image> flag. (peep https://sci-f.github.io for more info on SCIF apps, fr fr)

so when you're called from the shell inside the container, the following environment variables are available to you. the top ones are relevant to the active app (--app <app>), and the bottom ones are available for all apps regardless of which app is active. and guess what — both sets are also available during development (at build time) ⭐

ACTIVE APP ENVIRONMENT:

• SCIF_APPNAME — the name for the active application
• SCIF_APPROOT — the installation folder for the application created at /scif/apps/<app>
• SCIF_APPMETA — the application metadata folder
• SCIF_APPDATA — the data folder created for the application at /scif/data/<app>
  • SCIF_APPINPUT — expected input folder within data base folder
  • SCIF_APPOUTPUT — the output data folder within data base folder
• SCIF_APPENV — points to the application's custom environment.sh file in its metadata folder
• SCIF_APPLABELS — is the application's labels.json in the metadata folder
• SCIF_APPBIN — is the bin folder for the app, which is automatically added to the $PATH when the app is active
• SCIF_APPLIB — is the application's library folder that is added to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH
• SCIF_APPRUN — is the runscript
• SCIF_APPSTART — is the startscript
• SCIF_APPHELP — is the help file for the runscript
• SCIF_APPTEST — is the testing script (test.sh) associated with the application
• SCIF_APPNAME — the name for the active application
• SCIF_APPFILES — the files section associated with the application that are added to

GLOBAL APP ENVIRONMENT:

• SCIF_DATA — scif defined data base for all apps (/scif/data)
• SCIF_APPS — scif defined install bases for all apps (/scif/apps)
• SCIF_APPROOT_<app> — root for application <app>
• SCIF_APPDATA_<app> — data root for application <app>

and to list ALL your apps:

$ apptainer inspect --list-apps ubuntu.sif

to list only the labels, in the json format, from an image:

$ apptainer inspect --json --labels ubuntu.sif

and to verify you own a single application on your container image, use the --app <appname> flag:

$ apptainer inspect --app <appname> ubuntu.sif

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🐚 SEE ALSO 🐚

• apptainer(1)

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💜 HISTORY 💜

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

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okay that's the whole page, go forth and inspect bestie 💅✨ — this was the Oct 2026 drop of the apptainer(1) manual, Auto generated by spf13/cobra, mwah 🎀