apptainer(1)

💅 apptainer(1) — run-help, the vibe edition 🎀

okay so bestie, you're looking at the apptainer(1) manual, and specifically the apptainer-run-help page — the one that shows you the user-defined help for an image. it's giving "read the room, then read the container" ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

apptainer-run-help — show the user-defined help for an image 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

apptainer run-help

that's it. that's the whole mood. 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the help text you get back? it comes from the %help section of the definition file. literally where the container's author tucked their lil notes. 💌

but wait — if you're using the --apps option, then the help text is instead from that app's %apphelp section. different section, different slay. 👑

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• --app="" — show the help for an app 💖 (default is "", empty, nothing, the void)
• -h, --help[=false] — help for run-help 🥺 (default is false — help within help, we stay meta)

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🍓 EXAMPLE 🍓

okay this is the part where it eats, watch:

$ cat my_container.def
Bootstrap: docker
From: busybox

%help
    Some help for this container

%apphelp foo
    Some help for application 'foo' in this container

$ sudo apptainer build my_container.sif my_container.def
Using container recipe deffile: my_container.def
[...snip...]
Cleaning up...

$ apptainer run-help my_container.sif

  Some help for this container

$ apptainer run-help --app foo my_container.sif

  Some help for application in this container

see how the first call give you the %help text and the second one, with --app foo, swings over to the %apphelp text? that's the whole trick bestie, no cap. 🌈 be careful with that sudo apptainer build line though, it does exactly what it says 💀

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• apptainer(1) — the mothership, the main character, go read it 👑

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⭐ HISTORY ⭐

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

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and that's the page, bestie!! Auto generated by spf13/cobra, Oct 2026 — go help some containers, ily, bye 💜🦋