runc(8)

💖 runc — bestie's guide to the Open Container Initiative runtime 💖

okay so this is the runc(8) page from the System Manager's Manual, and honestly? it's giving main character energy. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

runc — the Open Container Initiative runtime 🌈

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

runc [global-option ...] command [command-option ...] [argument ...]

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so runc is a command line client for running applications that are packaged according to the Open Container Initiative (OCI) format, and it's a compliant implementation of the Open Container Initiative specification. yes bestie, it actually follows the spec, no cap 💅

runc integrates so well with your existing process supervisors — like, it just fits right in — and it gives you a production container runtime environment for your apps. you can use it with whatever process monitoring tools you already have, and the container will be spawned as a direct child of the process supervisor. iconic behaviour fr fr 👑

containers get configured using bundles. a bundle for a container is a directory that includes:

• a specification file named config.json
• a root filesystem

and that root filesystem contains the contents of the container. periodt.

to run a new instance of a container:

# runc run [ -b bundle ] container-id

where container-id is your name for the instance of the container you're starting. and heads up: the name you give the container instance must be unique on your host. no duplicates allowed, that's the vibe check 🚫

providing the bundle directory using -b is optional — the default value for bundle is the current directory. easy peasy 🍓

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✨ COMMANDS ✨

• checkpoint — Checkpoint a running container. See runc-checkpoint(8).
• create — Create a container. See runc-create(8).
• delete — Delete any resources held by the container; often used with detached containers. See runc-delete(8).
• events — Display container events, such as OOM notifications, CPU, memory, I/O and network statistics. See runc-events(8).
• exec — Execute a new process inside the container. See runc-exec(8).
• kill — Send a specified signal to the container's init process. See runc-kill(8).
• list — List containers started by runc with the given --root. See runc-list(8).
• pause — Suspend all processes inside the container. See runc-pause(8).
• ps — Show processes running inside the container. See runc-ps(8).
• restore — Restore a container from a previous checkpoint. See runc-restore(8).
• resume — Resume all processes that have been previously paused. See runc-resume(8).
• run — Create and start a container. See runc-run(8).
• spec — Create a new specification file (config.json). See runc-spec(8).
• start — Start a container previously created by runc create. See runc-start(8).
• state — Show the container state. See runc-state(8).
• update — Update container resource constraints. See runc-update(8).
• help, h — Show a list of commands or help for a particular command.

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✨ GLOBAL OPTIONS ✨

okay so these options work with any command, but listen — they must precede the command. order matters, bestie 😤

• --debug — Enable debug logging.
• --log path — Set the log destination to path. The default is to log to stderr.
• --log-format text|json — Set the log format (default is text).
• --root path — Set the root directory to store containers' state. The path should be located on tmpfs. Default is /run/runc, or $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/runc for rootless containers.
• --systemd-cgroup — Enable systemd cgroup support. If this is set, the container spec (config.json) is expected to have cgroupsPath value in the slice:prefix:name form (e.g. system.slice:runc:434234).
• --rootless true|false|auto — Enable or disable rootless mode. Default is auto, meaning to auto-detect whether rootless should be enabled.
• --help|-h — Show help.
• --version|-v — Show version.

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

runc-checkpoint(8), runc-create(8), runc-delete(8), runc-events(8), runc-exec(8), runc-kill(8), runc-list(8), runc-pause(8), runc-ps(8), runc-restore(8), runc-resume(8), runc-run(8), runc-spec(8), runc-start(8), runc-state(8), runc-update(8). 🦋

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and that's the whole page bestie!! the source line at the bottom just reads runc(8) — that's the source/version-and-date footer, no extra version digits or date hiding in there, so this is literally the entire thing, start to finish 💜✨ go run some containers, you absolute legend 🌸🎀