Provided by: systemd-container_253.5-1ubuntu6.1_amd64 bug

NAME

       systemd-nspawn - Spawn a command or OS in a light-weight container

SYNOPSIS

       systemd-nspawn [OPTIONS...] [COMMAND [ARGS...]]

       systemd-nspawn --boot [OPTIONS...] [ARGS...]

DESCRIPTION

       systemd-nspawn may be used to run a command or OS in a light-weight namespace container.
       In many ways it is similar to chroot(1), but more powerful since it fully virtualizes the
       file system hierarchy, as well as the process tree, the various IPC subsystems and the
       host and domain name.

       systemd-nspawn may be invoked on any directory tree containing an operating system tree,
       using the --directory= command line option. By using the --machine= option an OS tree is
       automatically searched for in a couple of locations, most importantly in
       /var/lib/machines/, the suggested directory to place OS container images installed on the
       system.

       In contrast to chroot(1) systemd-nspawn may be used to boot full Linux-based operating
       systems in a container.

       systemd-nspawn limits access to various kernel interfaces in the container to read-only,
       such as /sys/, /proc/sys/ or /sys/fs/selinux/. The host's network interfaces and the
       system clock may not be changed from within the container. Device nodes may not be
       created. The host system cannot be rebooted and kernel modules may not be loaded from
       within the container.

       Use a tool like dnf(8), debootstrap(8), or pacman(8) to set up an OS directory tree
       suitable as file system hierarchy for systemd-nspawn containers. See the Examples section
       below for details on suitable invocation of these commands.

       As a safety check systemd-nspawn will verify the existence of /usr/lib/os-release or
       /etc/os-release in the container tree before booting a container (see os-release(5)). It
       might be necessary to add this file to the container tree manually if the OS of the
       container is too old to contain this file out-of-the-box.

       systemd-nspawn may be invoked directly from the interactive command line or run as system
       service in the background. In this mode each container instance runs as its own service
       instance; a default template unit file systemd-nspawn@.service is provided to make this
       easy, taking the container name as instance identifier. Note that different default
       options apply when systemd-nspawn is invoked by the template unit file than interactively
       on the command line. Most importantly the template unit file makes use of the --boot
       option which is not the default in case systemd-nspawn is invoked from the interactive
       command line. Further differences with the defaults are documented along with the various
       supported options below.

       The machinectl(1) tool may be used to execute a number of operations on containers. In
       particular it provides easy-to-use commands to run containers as system services using the
       systemd-nspawn@.service template unit file.

       Along with each container a settings file with the .nspawn suffix may exist, containing
       additional settings to apply when running the container. See systemd.nspawn(5) for
       details. Settings files override the default options used by the systemd-nspawn@.service
       template unit file, making it usually unnecessary to alter this template file directly.

       Note that systemd-nspawn will mount file systems private to the container to /dev/, /run/
       and similar. These will not be visible outside of the container, and their contents will
       be lost when the container exits.

       Note that running two systemd-nspawn containers from the same directory tree will not make
       processes in them see each other. The PID namespace separation of the two containers is
       complete and the containers will share very few runtime objects except for the underlying
       file system. Rather use machinectl(1)'s login or shell commands to request an additional
       login session in a running container.

       systemd-nspawn implements the Container Interface[1] specification.

       While running, containers invoked with systemd-nspawn are registered with the systemd-
       machined(8) service that keeps track of running containers, and provides programming
       interfaces to interact with them.

OPTIONS

       If option --boot is specified, the arguments are used as arguments for the init program.
       Otherwise, COMMAND specifies the program to launch in the container, and the remaining
       arguments are used as arguments for this program. If --boot is not used and no arguments
       are specified, a shell is launched in the container.

       The following options are understood:

       -q, --quiet
           Turns off any status output by the tool itself. When this switch is used, the only
           output from nspawn will be the console output of the container OS itself.

       --settings=MODE
           Controls whether systemd-nspawn shall search for and use additional per-container
           settings from .nspawn files. Takes a boolean or the special values override or
           trusted.

           If enabled (the default), a settings file named after the machine (as specified with
           the --machine= setting, or derived from the directory or image file name) with the
           suffix .nspawn is searched in /etc/systemd/nspawn/ and /run/systemd/nspawn/. If it is
           found there, its settings are read and used. If it is not found there, it is
           subsequently searched in the same directory as the image file or in the immediate
           parent of the root directory of the container. In this case, if the file is found, its
           settings will be also read and used, but potentially unsafe settings are ignored. Note
           that in both these cases, settings on the command line take precedence over the
           corresponding settings from loaded .nspawn files, if both are specified. Unsafe
           settings are considered all settings that elevate the container's privileges or grant
           access to additional resources such as files or directories of the host. For details
           about the format and contents of .nspawn files, consult systemd.nspawn(5).

           If this option is set to override, the file is searched, read and used the same way,
           however, the order of precedence is reversed: settings read from the .nspawn file will
           take precedence over the corresponding command line options, if both are specified.

           If this option is set to trusted, the file is searched, read and used the same way,
           but regardless of being found in /etc/systemd/nspawn/, /run/systemd/nspawn/ or next to
           the image file or container root directory, all settings will take effect, however,
           command line arguments still take precedence over corresponding settings.

           If disabled, no .nspawn file is read and no settings except the ones on the command
           line are in effect.

   Image Options
       -D, --directory=
           Directory to use as file system root for the container.

           If neither --directory=, nor --image= is specified the directory is determined by
           searching for a directory named the same as the machine name specified with
           --machine=. See machinectl(1) section "Files and Directories" for the precise search
           path.

           If neither --directory=, --image=, nor --machine= are specified, the current directory
           will be used. May not be specified together with --image=.

       --template=
           Directory or "btrfs" subvolume to use as template for the container's root directory.
           If this is specified and the container's root directory (as configured by
           --directory=) does not yet exist it is created as "btrfs" snapshot (if supported) or
           plain directory (otherwise) and populated from this template tree. Ideally, the
           specified template path refers to the root of a "btrfs" subvolume, in which case a
           simple copy-on-write snapshot is taken, and populating the root directory is instant.
           If the specified template path does not refer to the root of a "btrfs" subvolume (or
           not even to a "btrfs" file system at all), the tree is copied (though possibly in a
           'reflink' copy-on-write scheme — if the file system supports that), which can be
           substantially more time-consuming. Note that the snapshot taken is of the specified
           directory or subvolume, including all subdirectories and subvolumes below it, but
           excluding any sub-mounts. May not be specified together with --image= or --ephemeral.

           Note that this switch leaves hostname, machine ID and all other settings that could
           identify the instance unmodified.

       -x, --ephemeral
           If specified, the container is run with a temporary snapshot of its file system that
           is removed immediately when the container terminates. May not be specified together
           with --template=.

           Note that this switch leaves hostname, machine ID and all other settings that could
           identify the instance unmodified. Please note that — as with --template= — taking the
           temporary snapshot is more efficient on file systems that support subvolume snapshots
           or 'reflinks' natively ("btrfs" or new "xfs") than on more traditional file systems
           that do not ("ext4"). Note that the snapshot taken is of the specified directory or
           subvolume, including all subdirectories and subvolumes below it, but excluding any
           sub-mounts.

           With this option no modifications of the container image are retained. Use --volatile=
           (described below) for other mechanisms to restrict persistency of container images
           during runtime.

       -i, --image=
           Disk image to mount the root directory for the container from. Takes a path to a
           regular file or to a block device node. The file or block device must contain either:

           •   An MBR partition table with a single partition of type 0x83 that is marked
               bootable.

           •   A GUID partition table (GPT) with a single partition of type
               0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4.

           •   A GUID partition table (GPT) with a marked root partition which is mounted as the
               root directory of the container. Optionally, GPT images may contain a home and/or
               a server data partition which are mounted to the appropriate places in the
               container. All these partitions must be identified by the partition types defined
               by the Discoverable Partitions Specification[2].

           •   No partition table, and a single file system spanning the whole image.

           On GPT images, if an EFI System Partition (ESP) is discovered, it is automatically
           mounted to /efi (or /boot as fallback) in case a directory by this name exists and is
           empty.

           Partitions encrypted with LUKS are automatically decrypted. Also, on GPT images
           dm-verity data integrity hash partitions are set up if the root hash for them is
           specified using the --root-hash= option.

           Single file system images (i.e. file systems without a surrounding partition table)
           can be opened using dm-verity if the integrity data is passed using the --root-hash=
           and --verity-data= (and optionally --root-hash-sig=) options.

           Any other partitions, such as foreign partitions or swap partitions are not mounted.
           May not be specified together with --directory=, --template=.

       --oci-bundle=
           Takes the path to an OCI runtime bundle to invoke, as specified in the OCI Runtime
           Specification[3]. In this case no .nspawn file is loaded, and the root directory and
           various settings are read from the OCI runtime JSON data (but data passed on the
           command line takes precedence).

       --read-only
           Mount the container's root file system (and any other file systems container in the
           container image) read-only. This has no effect on additional mounts made with --bind=,
           --tmpfs= and similar options. This mode is implied if the container image file or
           directory is marked read-only itself. It is also implied if --volatile= is used. In
           this case the container image on disk is strictly read-only, while changes are
           permitted but kept non-persistently in memory only. For further details, see below.

       --volatile, --volatile=MODE
           Boots the container in volatile mode. When no mode parameter is passed or when mode is
           specified as yes, full volatile mode is enabled. This means the root directory is
           mounted as a mostly unpopulated "tmpfs" instance, and /usr/ from the OS tree is
           mounted into it in read-only mode (the system thus starts up with read-only OS image,
           but pristine state and configuration, any changes are lost on shutdown). When the mode
           parameter is specified as state, the OS tree is mounted read-only, but /var/ is
           mounted as a writable "tmpfs" instance into it (the system thus starts up with
           read-only OS resources and configuration, but pristine state, and any changes to the
           latter are lost on shutdown). When the mode parameter is specified as overlay the
           read-only root file system is combined with a writable tmpfs instance through
           "overlayfs", so that it appears at it normally would, but any changes are applied to
           the temporary file system only and lost when the container is terminated. When the
           mode parameter is specified as no (the default), the whole OS tree is made available
           writable (unless --read-only is specified, see above).

           Note that if one of the volatile modes is chosen, its effect is limited to the root
           file system (or /var/ in case of state), and any other mounts placed in the hierarchy
           are unaffected — regardless if they are established automatically (e.g. the EFI system
           partition that might be mounted to /efi/ or /boot/) or explicitly (e.g. through an
           additional command line option such as --bind=, see below). This means, even if
           --volatile=overlay is used changes to /efi/ or /boot/ are prohibited in case such a
           partition exists in the container image operated on, and even if --volatile=state is
           used the hypothetical file /etc/foobar is potentially writable if --bind=/etc/foobar
           if used to mount it from outside the read-only container /etc/ directory.

           The --ephemeral option is closely related to this setting, and provides similar
           behaviour by making a temporary, ephemeral copy of the whole OS image and executing
           that. For further details, see above.

           The --tmpfs= and --overlay= options provide similar functionality, but for specific
           sub-directories of the OS image only. For details, see below.

           This option provides similar functionality for containers as the "systemd.volatile="
           kernel command line switch provides for host systems. See kernel-command-line(7) for
           details.

           Note that setting this option to yes or state will only work correctly with operating
           systems in the container that can boot up with only /usr/ mounted, and are able to
           automatically populate /var/ (and /etc/ in case of "--volatile=yes"). Specifically,
           this means that operating systems that follow the historic split of /bin/ and /lib/
           (and related directories) from /usr/ (i.e. where the former are not symlinks into the
           latter) are not supported by "--volatile=yes" as container payload. The overlay option
           does not require any particular preparations in the OS, but do note that "overlayfs"
           behaviour differs from regular file systems in a number of ways, and hence
           compatibility is limited.

       --root-hash=
           Takes a data integrity (dm-verity) root hash specified in hexadecimal. This option
           enables data integrity checks using dm-verity, if the used image contains the
           appropriate integrity data (see above). The specified hash must match the root hash of
           integrity data, and is usually at least 256 bits (and hence 64 formatted hexadecimal
           characters) long (in case of SHA256 for example). If this option is not specified, but
           the image file carries the "user.verity.roothash" extended file attribute (see
           xattr(7)), then the root hash is read from it, also as formatted hexadecimal
           characters. If the extended file attribute is not found (or is not supported by the
           underlying file system), but a file with the .roothash suffix is found next to the
           image file, bearing otherwise the same name (except if the image has the .raw suffix,
           in which case the root hash file must not have it in its name), the root hash is read
           from it and automatically used, also as formatted hexadecimal characters.

           Note that this configures the root hash for the root file system. Disk images may also
           contain separate file systems for the /usr/ hierarchy, which may be Verity protected
           as well. The root hash for this protection may be configured via the
           "user.verity.usrhash" extended file attribute or via a .usrhash file adjacent to the
           disk image, following the same format and logic as for the root hash for the root file
           system described here. Note that there's currently no switch to configure the root
           hash for the /usr/ from the command line.

           Also see the RootHash= option in systemd.exec(5).

       --root-hash-sig=
           Takes a PKCS7 signature of the --root-hash= option. The semantics are the same as for
           the RootHashSignature= option, see systemd.exec(5).

       --verity-data=
           Takes the path to a data integrity (dm-verity) file. This option enables data
           integrity checks using dm-verity, if a root-hash is passed and if the used image
           itself does not contain the integrity data. The integrity data must be matched by the
           root hash. If this option is not specified, but a file with the .verity suffix is
           found next to the image file, bearing otherwise the same name (except if the image has
           the .raw suffix, in which case the verity data file must not have it in its name), the
           verity data is read from it and automatically used.

       --pivot-root=
           Pivot the specified directory to / inside the container, and either unmount the
           container's old root, or pivot it to another specified directory. Takes one of: a path
           argument — in which case the specified path will be pivoted to / and the old root will
           be unmounted; or a colon-separated pair of new root path and pivot destination for the
           old root. The new root path will be pivoted to /, and the old / will be pivoted to the
           other directory. Both paths must be absolute, and are resolved in the container's file
           system namespace.

           This is for containers which have several bootable directories in them; for example,
           several OSTree[4] deployments. It emulates the behavior of the boot loader and the
           initrd which normally select which directory to mount as the root and start the
           container's PID 1 in.

   Execution Options
       -a, --as-pid2
           Invoke the shell or specified program as process ID (PID) 2 instead of PID 1 (init).
           By default, if neither this option nor --boot is used, the selected program is run as
           the process with PID 1, a mode only suitable for programs that are aware of the
           special semantics that the process with PID 1 has on UNIX. For example, it needs to
           reap all processes reparented to it, and should implement sysvinit compatible signal
           handling (specifically: it needs to reboot on SIGINT, reexecute on SIGTERM, reload
           configuration on SIGHUP, and so on). With --as-pid2 a minimal stub init process is run
           as PID 1 and the selected program is executed as PID 2 (and hence does not need to
           implement any special semantics). The stub init process will reap processes as
           necessary and react appropriately to signals. It is recommended to use this mode to
           invoke arbitrary commands in containers, unless they have been modified to run
           correctly as PID 1. Or in other words: this switch should be used for pretty much all
           commands, except when the command refers to an init or shell implementation, as these
           are generally capable of running correctly as PID 1. This option may not be combined
           with --boot.

       -b, --boot
           Automatically search for an init program and invoke it as PID 1, instead of a shell or
           a user supplied program. If this option is used, arguments specified on the command
           line are used as arguments for the init program. This option may not be combined with
           --as-pid2.

           The following table explains the different modes of invocation and relationship to
           --as-pid2 (see above):

           Table 1. Invocation Mode
           ┌─────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
           │SwitchExplanation                      │
           ├─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
           │Neither --as-pid2 nor --boot │ The passed parameters are        │
           │specified                    │ interpreted as the command line, │
           │                             │ which is executed as PID 1 in    │
           │                             │ the container.                   │
           ├─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
           │--as-pid2 specified          │ The passed parameters are        │
           │                             │ interpreted as the command line, │
           │                             │ which is executed as PID 2 in    │
           │                             │ the container. A stub init       │
           │                             │ process is run as PID 1.         │
           ├─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
           │--boot specified             │ An init program is automatically │
           │                             │ searched for and run as PID 1 in │
           │                             │ the container. The passed        │
           │                             │ parameters are used as           │
           │                             │ invocation parameters for this   │
           │                             │ process.                         │
           └─────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
           Note that --boot is the default mode of operation if the systemd-nspawn@.service
           template unit file is used.

       --chdir=
           Change to the specified working directory before invoking the process in the
           container. Expects an absolute path in the container's file system namespace.

       -E NAME[=VALUE], --setenv=NAME[=VALUE]
           Specifies an environment variable to pass to the init process in the container. This
           may be used to override the default variables or to set additional variables. It may
           be used more than once to set multiple variables. When "=" and VALUE are omitted, the
           value of the variable with the same name in the program environment will be used.

       -u, --user=
           After transitioning into the container, change to the specified user defined in the
           container's user database. Like all other systemd-nspawn features, this is not a
           security feature and provides protection against accidental destructive operations
           only.

       --kill-signal=
           Specify the process signal to send to the container's PID 1 when nspawn itself
           receives SIGTERM, in order to trigger an orderly shutdown of the container. Defaults
           to SIGRTMIN+3 if --boot is used (on systemd-compatible init systems SIGRTMIN+3
           triggers an orderly shutdown). If --boot is not used and this option is not specified
           the container's processes are terminated abruptly via SIGKILL. For a list of valid
           signals, see signal(7).

       --notify-ready=
           Configures support for notifications from the container's init process.
           --notify-ready= takes a boolean (no and yes). With option no systemd-nspawn notifies
           systemd with a "READY=1" message when the init process is created. With option yes
           systemd-nspawn waits for the "READY=1" message from the init process in the container
           before sending its own to systemd. For more details about notifications see
           sd_notify(3).

       --suppress-sync=
           Expects a boolean argument. If true, turns off any form of on-disk file system
           synchronization for the container payload. This means all system calls such as
           sync(2), fsync(), syncfs(), ... will execute no operation, and the O_SYNC/O_DSYNC
           flags to open(2) and related calls will be made unavailable. This is potentially
           dangerous, as assumed data integrity guarantees to the container payload are not
           actually enforced (i.e. data assumed to have been written to disk might be lost if the
           system is shut down abnormally). However, this can dramatically improve container
           runtime performance – as long as these guarantees are not required or desirable, for
           example because any data written by the container is of temporary, redundant nature,
           or just an intermediary artifact that will be further processed and finalized by a
           later step in a pipeline. Defaults to false.

   System Identity Options
       -M, --machine=
           Sets the machine name for this container. This name may be used to identify this
           container during its runtime (for example in tools like machinectl(1) and similar),
           and is used to initialize the container's hostname (which the container can choose to
           override, however). If not specified, the last component of the root directory path of
           the container is used, possibly suffixed with a random identifier in case --ephemeral
           mode is selected. If the root directory selected is the host's root directory the
           host's hostname is used as default instead.

       --hostname=
           Controls the hostname to set within the container, if different from the machine name.
           Expects a valid hostname as argument. If this option is used, the kernel hostname of
           the container will be set to this value, otherwise it will be initialized to the
           machine name as controlled by the --machine= option described above. The machine name
           is used for various aspect of identification of the container from the outside, the
           kernel hostname configurable with this option is useful for the container to identify
           itself from the inside. It is usually a good idea to keep both forms of identification
           synchronized, in order to avoid confusion. It is hence recommended to avoid usage of
           this option, and use --machine= exclusively. Note that regardless whether the
           container's hostname is initialized from the name set with --hostname= or the one set
           with --machine=, the container can later override its kernel hostname freely on its
           own as well.

       --uuid=
           Set the specified UUID for the container. The init system will initialize
           /etc/machine-id from this if this file is not set yet. Note that this option takes
           effect only if /etc/machine-id in the container is unpopulated.

   Property Options
       -S, --slice=
           Make the container part of the specified slice, instead of the default machine.slice.
           This applies only if the machine is run in its own scope unit, i.e. if --keep-unit
           isn't used.

       --property=
           Set a unit property on the scope unit to register for the machine. This applies only
           if the machine is run in its own scope unit, i.e. if --keep-unit isn't used. Takes
           unit property assignments in the same format as systemctl set-property. This is useful
           to set memory limits and similar for the container.

       --register=
           Controls whether the container is registered with systemd-machined(8). Takes a boolean
           argument, which defaults to "yes". This option should be enabled when the container
           runs a full Operating System (more specifically: a system and service manager as PID
           1), and is useful to ensure that the container is accessible via machinectl(1) and
           shown by tools such as ps(1). If the container does not run a service manager, it is
           recommended to set this option to "no".

       --keep-unit
           Instead of creating a transient scope unit to run the container in, simply use the
           service or scope unit systemd-nspawn has been invoked in. If --register=yes is set
           this unit is registered with systemd-machined(8). This switch should be used if
           systemd-nspawn is invoked from within a service unit, and the service unit's sole
           purpose is to run a single systemd-nspawn container. This option is not available if
           run from a user session.

           Note that passing --keep-unit disables the effect of --slice= and --property=. Use
           --keep-unit and --register=no in combination to disable any kind of unit allocation or
           registration with systemd-machined.

   User Namespacing Options
       --private-users=
           Controls user namespacing. If enabled, the container will run with its own private set
           of UNIX user and group ids (UIDs and GIDs). This involves mapping the private
           UIDs/GIDs used in the container (starting with the container's root user 0 and up) to
           a range of UIDs/GIDs on the host that are not used for other purposes (usually in the
           range beyond the host's UID/GID 65536). The parameter may be specified as follows:

            1. If one or two colon-separated numbers are specified, user namespacing is turned
               on. The first parameter specifies the first host UID/GID to assign to the
               container, the second parameter specifies the number of host UIDs/GIDs to assign
               to the container. If the second parameter is omitted, 65536 UIDs/GIDs are
               assigned.

            2. If the parameter is "yes", user namespacing is turned on. The UID/GID range to use
               is determined automatically from the file ownership of the root directory of the
               container's directory tree. To use this option, make sure to prepare the directory
               tree in advance, and ensure that all files and directories in it are owned by
               UIDs/GIDs in the range you'd like to use. Also, make sure that used file ACLs
               exclusively reference UIDs/GIDs in the appropriate range. In this mode, the number
               of UIDs/GIDs assigned to the container is 65536, and the owner UID/GID of the root
               directory must be a multiple of 65536.

            3. If the parameter is "no", user namespacing is turned off. This is the default.

            4. If the parameter is "identity", user namespacing is employed with an identity
               mapping for the first 65536 UIDs/GIDs. This is mostly equivalent to
               --private-users=0:65536. While it does not provide UID/GID isolation, since all
               host and container UIDs/GIDs are chosen identically it does provide process
               capability isolation, and hence is often a good choice if proper user namespacing
               with distinct UID maps is not appropriate.

            5. The special value "pick" turns on user namespacing. In this case the UID/GID range
               is automatically chosen. As first step, the file owner UID/GID of the root
               directory of the container's directory tree is read, and it is checked that no
               other container is currently using it. If this check is successful, the UID/GID
               range determined this way is used, similarly to the behavior if "yes" is
               specified. If the check is not successful (and thus the UID/GID range indicated in
               the root directory's file owner is already used elsewhere) a new – currently
               unused – UID/GID range of 65536 UIDs/GIDs is randomly chosen between the host
               UID/GIDs of 524288 and 1878982656, always starting at a multiple of 65536, and, if
               possible, consistently hashed from the machine name. This setting implies
               --private-users-ownership=auto (see below), which possibly has the effect that the
               files and directories in the container's directory tree will be owned by the
               appropriate users of the range picked. Using this option makes user namespace
               behavior fully automatic. Note that the first invocation of a previously unused
               container image might result in picking a new UID/GID range for it, and thus in
               the (possibly expensive) file ownership adjustment operation. However, subsequent
               invocations of the container will be cheap (unless of course the picked UID/GID
               range is assigned to a different use by then).

           It is recommended to assign at least 65536 UIDs/GIDs to each container, so that the
           usable UID/GID range in the container covers 16 bit. For best security, do not assign
           overlapping UID/GID ranges to multiple containers. It is hence a good idea to use the
           upper 16 bit of the host 32-bit UIDs/GIDs as container identifier, while the lower 16
           bit encode the container UID/GID used. This is in fact the behavior enforced by the
           --private-users=pick option.

           When user namespaces are used, the GID range assigned to each container is always
           chosen identical to the UID range.

           In most cases, using --private-users=pick is the recommended option as it enhances
           container security massively and operates fully automatically in most cases.

           Note that the picked UID/GID range is not written to /etc/passwd or /etc/group. In
           fact, the allocation of the range is not stored persistently anywhere, except in the
           file ownership of the files and directories of the container.

           Note that when user namespacing is used file ownership on disk reflects this, and all
           of the container's files and directories are owned by the container's effective user
           and group IDs. This means that copying files from and to the container image requires
           correction of the numeric UID/GID values, according to the UID/GID shift applied.

       --private-users-ownership=
           Controls how to adjust the container image's UIDs and GIDs to match the UID/GID range
           chosen with --private-users=, see above. Takes one of "off" (to leave the image as
           is), "chown" (to recursively chown() the container's directory tree as needed), "map"
           (in order to use transparent ID mapping mounts) or "auto" for automatically using
           "map" where available and "chown" where not.

           If "chown" is selected, all files and directories in the container's directory tree
           will be adjusted so that they are owned by the appropriate UIDs/GIDs selected for the
           container (see above). This operation is potentially expensive, as it involves
           iterating through the full directory tree of the container. Besides actual file
           ownership, file ACLs are adjusted as well.

           Typically "map" is the best choice, since it transparently maps UIDs/GIDs in memory as
           needed without modifying the image, and without requiring an expensive recursive
           adjustment operation. However, it is not available for all file systems, currently.

           The --private-users-ownership=auto option is implied if --private-users=pick is used.
           This option has no effect if user namespacing is not used.

       -U
           If the kernel supports the user namespaces feature, equivalent to --private-users=pick
           --private-users-ownership=auto, otherwise equivalent to --private-users=no.

           Note that -U is the default if the systemd-nspawn@.service template unit file is used.

           Note: it is possible to undo the effect of --private-users-ownership=chown (or -U) on
           the file system by redoing the operation with the first UID of 0:

               systemd-nspawn ... --private-users=0 --private-users-ownership=chown

   Networking Options
       --private-network
           Disconnect networking of the container from the host. This makes all network
           interfaces unavailable in the container, with the exception of the loopback device and
           those specified with --network-interface= and configured with --network-veth. If this
           option is specified, the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability will be added to the set of
           capabilities the container retains. The latter may be disabled by using
           --drop-capability=. If this option is not specified (or implied by one of the options
           listed below), the container will have full access to the host network.

       --network-interface=
           Assign the specified network interface to the container. This will remove the
           specified interface from the calling namespace and place it in the container. When the
           container terminates, it is moved back to the calling namespace. Note that
           --network-interface= implies --private-network. This option may be used more than once
           to add multiple network interfaces to the container.

           Note that any network interface specified this way must already exist at the time the
           container is started. If the container shall be started automatically at boot via a
           systemd-nspawn@.service unit file instance, it might hence make sense to add a unit
           file drop-in to the service instance (e.g.
           /etc/systemd/system/systemd-nspawn@foobar.service.d/50-network.conf) with contents
           like the following:

               [Unit]
               Wants=sys-subsystem-net-devices-ens1.device
               After=sys-subsystem-net-devices-ens1.device

           This will make sure that activation of the container service will be delayed until the
           "ens1" network interface has shown up. This is required since hardware probing is
           fully asynchronous, and network interfaces might be discovered only later during the
           boot process, after the container would normally be started without these explicit
           dependencies.

       --network-macvlan=
           Create a "macvlan" interface of the specified Ethernet network interface and add it to
           the container. A "macvlan" interface is a virtual interface that adds a second MAC
           address to an existing physical Ethernet link. The interface in the container will be
           named after the interface on the host, prefixed with "mv-". Note that
           --network-macvlan= implies --private-network. This option may be used more than once
           to add multiple network interfaces to the container.

           As with --network-interface=, the underlying Ethernet network interface must already
           exist at the time the container is started, and thus similar unit file drop-ins as
           described above might be useful.

       --network-ipvlan=
           Create an "ipvlan" interface of the specified Ethernet network interface and add it to
           the container. An "ipvlan" interface is a virtual interface, similar to a "macvlan"
           interface, which uses the same MAC address as the underlying interface. The interface
           in the container will be named after the interface on the host, prefixed with "iv-".
           Note that --network-ipvlan= implies --private-network. This option may be used more
           than once to add multiple network interfaces to the container.

           As with --network-interface=, the underlying Ethernet network interface must already
           exist at the time the container is started, and thus similar unit file drop-ins as
           described above might be useful.

       -n, --network-veth
           Create a virtual Ethernet link ("veth") between host and container. The host side of
           the Ethernet link will be available as a network interface named after the container's
           name (as specified with --machine=), prefixed with "ve-". The container side of the
           Ethernet link will be named "host0". The --network-veth option implies
           --private-network.

           Note that systemd-networkd.service(8) includes by default a network file
           /lib/systemd/network/80-container-ve.network matching the host-side interfaces created
           this way, which contains settings to enable automatic address provisioning on the
           created virtual link via DHCP, as well as automatic IP routing onto the host's
           external network interfaces. It also contains
           /lib/systemd/network/80-container-host0.network matching the container-side interface
           created this way, containing settings to enable client side address assignment via
           DHCP. In case systemd-networkd is running on both the host and inside the container,
           automatic IP communication from the container to the host is thus available, with
           further connectivity to the external network.

           Note that --network-veth is the default if the systemd-nspawn@.service template unit
           file is used.

           Note that on Linux network interface names may have a length of 15 characters at
           maximum, while container names may have a length up to 64 characters. As this option
           derives the host-side interface name from the container name the name is possibly
           truncated. Thus, care needs to be taken to ensure that interface names remain unique
           in this case, or even better container names are generally not chosen longer than 12
           characters, to avoid the truncation. If the name is truncated, systemd-nspawn will
           automatically append a 4-digit hash value to the name to reduce the chance of
           collisions. However, the hash algorithm is not collision-free. (See systemd.net-
           naming-scheme(7) for details on older naming algorithms for this interface).
           Alternatively, the --network-veth-extra= option may be used, which allows free
           configuration of the host-side interface name independently of the container name —
           but might require a bit more additional configuration in case bridging in a fashion
           similar to --network-bridge= is desired.

       --network-veth-extra=
           Adds an additional virtual Ethernet link between host and container. Takes a
           colon-separated pair of host interface name and container interface name. The latter
           may be omitted in which case the container and host sides will be assigned the same
           name. This switch is independent of --network-veth, and — in contrast — may be used
           multiple times, and allows configuration of the network interface names. Note that
           --network-bridge= has no effect on interfaces created with --network-veth-extra=.

       --network-bridge=
           Adds the host side of the Ethernet link created with --network-veth to the specified
           Ethernet bridge interface. Expects a valid network interface name of a bridge device
           as argument. Note that --network-bridge= implies --network-veth. If this option is
           used, the host side of the Ethernet link will use the "vb-" prefix instead of "ve-".
           Regardless of the used naming prefix the same network interface name length limits
           imposed by Linux apply, along with the complications this creates (for details see
           above).

           As with --network-interface=, the underlying bridge network interface must already
           exist at the time the container is started, and thus similar unit file drop-ins as
           described above might be useful.

       --network-zone=
           Creates a virtual Ethernet link ("veth") to the container and adds it to an
           automatically managed Ethernet bridge interface. The bridge interface is named after
           the passed argument, prefixed with "vz-". The bridge interface is automatically
           created when the first container configured for its name is started, and is
           automatically removed when the last container configured for its name exits. Hence,
           each bridge interface configured this way exists only as long as there's at least one
           container referencing it running. This option is very similar to --network-bridge=,
           besides this automatic creation/removal of the bridge device.

           This setting makes it easy to place multiple related containers on a common, virtual
           Ethernet-based broadcast domain, here called a "zone". Each container may only be part
           of one zone, but each zone may contain any number of containers. Each zone is
           referenced by its name. Names may be chosen freely (as long as they form valid network
           interface names when prefixed with "vz-"), and it is sufficient to pass the same name
           to the --network-zone= switch of the various concurrently running containers to join
           them in one zone.

           Note that systemd-networkd.service(8) includes by default a network file
           /lib/systemd/network/80-container-vz.network matching the bridge interfaces created
           this way, which contains settings to enable automatic address provisioning on the
           created virtual network via DHCP, as well as automatic IP routing onto the host's
           external network interfaces. Using --network-zone= is hence in most cases fully
           automatic and sufficient to connect multiple local containers in a joined broadcast
           domain to the host, with further connectivity to the external network.

       --network-namespace-path=
           Takes the path to a file representing a kernel network namespace that the container
           shall run in. The specified path should refer to a (possibly bind-mounted) network
           namespace file, as exposed by the kernel below /proc/$PID/ns/net. This makes the
           container enter the given network namespace. One of the typical use cases is to give a
           network namespace under /run/netns created by ip-netns(8), for example,
           --network-namespace-path=/run/netns/foo. Note that this option cannot be used together
           with other network-related options, such as --private-network or --network-interface=.

       -p, --port=
           If private networking is enabled, maps an IP port on the host onto an IP port on the
           container. Takes a protocol specifier (either "tcp" or "udp"), separated by a colon
           from a host port number in the range 1 to 65535, separated by a colon from a container
           port number in the range from 1 to 65535. The protocol specifier and its separating
           colon may be omitted, in which case "tcp" is assumed. The container port number and
           its colon may be omitted, in which case the same port as the host port is implied.
           This option is only supported if private networking is used, such as with
           --network-veth, --network-zone= --network-bridge=.

   Security Options
       --capability=
           List one or more additional capabilities to grant the container. Takes a
           comma-separated list of capability names, see capabilities(7) for more information.
           Note that the following capabilities will be granted in any way: CAP_AUDIT_CONTROL,
           CAP_AUDIT_WRITE, CAP_CHOWN, CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE, CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH, CAP_FOWNER,
           CAP_FSETID, CAP_IPC_OWNER, CAP_KILL, CAP_LEASE, CAP_LINUX_IMMUTABLE, CAP_MKNOD,
           CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE, CAP_NET_BROADCAST, CAP_NET_RAW, CAP_SETFCAP, CAP_SETGID,
           CAP_SETPCAP, CAP_SETUID, CAP_SYS_ADMIN, CAP_SYS_BOOT, CAP_SYS_CHROOT, CAP_SYS_NICE,
           CAP_SYS_PTRACE, CAP_SYS_RESOURCE, CAP_SYS_TTY_CONFIG. Also CAP_NET_ADMIN is retained
           if --private-network is specified. If the special value "all" is passed, all
           capabilities are retained.

           If the special value of "help" is passed, the program will print known capability
           names and exit.

           This option sets the bounding set of capabilities which also limits the ambient
           capabilities as given with the --ambient-capability=.

       --drop-capability=
           Specify one or more additional capabilities to drop for the container. This allows
           running the container with fewer capabilities than the default (see above).

           If the special value of "help" is passed, the program will print known capability
           names and exit.

           This option sets the bounding set of capabilities which also limits the ambient
           capabilities as given with the --ambient-capability=.

       --ambient-capability=
           Specify one or more additional capabilities to pass in the inheritable and ambient set
           to the program started within the container. The value "all" is not supported for this
           setting.

           All capabilities specified here must be in the set allowed with the --capability= and
           --drop-capability= options. Otherwise, an error message will be shown.

           This option cannot be combined with the boot mode of the container (as requested via
           --boot).

           If the special value of "help" is passed, the program will print known capability
           names and exit.

       --no-new-privileges=
           Takes a boolean argument. Specifies the value of the PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS flag for the
           container payload. Defaults to off. When turned on the payload code of the container
           cannot acquire new privileges, i.e. the "setuid" file bit as well as file system
           capabilities will not have an effect anymore. See prctl(2) for details about this
           flag.

       --system-call-filter=
           Alter the system call filter applied to containers. Takes a space-separated list of
           system call names or group names (the latter prefixed with "@", as listed by the
           syscall-filter command of systemd-analyze(1)). Passed system calls will be permitted.
           The list may optionally be prefixed by "~", in which case all listed system calls are
           prohibited. If this command line option is used multiple times the configured lists
           are combined. If both a positive and a negative list (that is one system call list
           without and one with the "~" prefix) are configured, the negative list takes
           precedence over the positive list. Note that systemd-nspawn always implements a system
           call allow list (as opposed to a deny list!), and this command line option hence adds
           or removes entries from the default allow list, depending on the "~" prefix. Note that
           the applied system call filter is also altered implicitly if additional capabilities
           are passed using the --capabilities=.

       -Z, --selinux-context=
           Sets the SELinux security context to be used to label processes in the container.

       -L, --selinux-apifs-context=
           Sets the SELinux security context to be used to label files in the virtual API file
           systems in the container.

   Resource Options
       --rlimit=
           Sets the specified POSIX resource limit for the container payload. Expects an
           assignment of the form "LIMIT=SOFT:HARD" or "LIMIT=VALUE", where LIMIT should refer to
           a resource limit type, such as RLIMIT_NOFILE or RLIMIT_NICE. The SOFT and HARD fields
           should refer to the numeric soft and hard resource limit values. If the second form is
           used, VALUE may specify a value that is used both as soft and hard limit. In place of
           a numeric value the special string "infinity" may be used to turn off resource
           limiting for the specific type of resource. This command line option may be used
           multiple times to control limits on multiple limit types. If used multiple times for
           the same limit type, the last use wins. For details about resource limits see
           setrlimit(2). By default resource limits for the container's init process (PID 1) are
           set to the same values the Linux kernel originally passed to the host init system.
           Note that some resource limits are enforced on resources counted per user, in
           particular RLIMIT_NPROC. This means that unless user namespacing is deployed (i.e.
           --private-users= is used, see above), any limits set will be applied to the resource
           usage of the same user on all local containers as well as the host. This means
           particular care needs to be taken with these limits as they might be triggered by
           possibly less trusted code. Example: "--rlimit=RLIMIT_NOFILE=8192:16384".

       --oom-score-adjust=
           Changes the OOM ("Out Of Memory") score adjustment value for the container payload.
           This controls /proc/self/oom_score_adj which influences the preference with which this
           container is terminated when memory becomes scarce. For details see proc(5). Takes an
           integer in the range -1000...1000.

       --cpu-affinity=
           Controls the CPU affinity of the container payload. Takes a comma separated list of
           CPU numbers or number ranges (the latter's start and end value separated by dashes).
           See sched_setaffinity(2) for details.

       --personality=
           Control the architecture ("personality") reported by uname(2) in the container.
           Currently, only "x86" and "x86-64" are supported. This is useful when running a 32-bit
           container on a 64-bit host. If this setting is not used, the personality reported in
           the container is the same as the one reported on the host.

   Integration Options
       --resolv-conf=
           Configures how /etc/resolv.conf inside of the container shall be handled (i.e. DNS
           configuration synchronization from host to container). Takes one of "off",
           "copy-host", "copy-static", "copy-uplink", "copy-stub", "replace-host",
           "replace-static", "replace-uplink", "replace-stub", "bind-host", "bind-static",
           "bind-uplink", "bind-stub", "delete" or "auto".

           If set to "off" the /etc/resolv.conf file in the container is left as it is included
           in the image, and neither modified nor bind mounted over.

           If set to "copy-host", the /etc/resolv.conf file from the host is copied into the
           container, unless the file exists already and is not a regular file (e.g. a symlink).
           Similarly, if "replace-host" is used the file is copied, replacing any existing inode,
           including symlinks. Similarly, if "bind-host" is used, the file is bind mounted from
           the host into the container.

           If set to "copy-static", "replace-static" or "bind-static" the static resolv.conf file
           supplied with systemd-resolved.service(8) (specifically: /usr/lib/systemd/resolv.conf)
           is copied or bind mounted into the container.

           If set to "copy-uplink", "replace-uplink" or "bind-uplink" the uplink resolv.conf file
           managed by systemd-resolved.service (specifically: /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf)
           is copied or bind mounted into the container.

           If set to "copy-stub", "replace-stub" or "bind-stub" the stub resolv.conf file managed
           by systemd-resolved.service (specifically: /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf) is
           copied or bind mounted into the container.

           If set to "delete" the /etc/resolv.conf file in the container is deleted if it exists.

           Finally, if set to "auto" the file is left as it is if private networking is turned on
           (see --private-network). Otherwise, if systemd-resolved.service is running its stub
           resolv.conf file is used, and if not the host's /etc/resolv.conf file. In the latter
           cases the file is copied if the image is writable, and bind mounted otherwise.

           It's recommended to use "copy-..."  or "replace-..."  if the container shall be able
           to make changes to the DNS configuration on its own, deviating from the host's
           settings. Otherwise "bind" is preferable, as it means direct changes to
           /etc/resolv.conf in the container are not allowed, as it is a read-only bind mount
           (but note that if the container has enough privileges, it might simply go ahead and
           unmount the bind mount anyway). Note that both if the file is bind mounted and if it
           is copied no further propagation of configuration is generally done after the one-time
           early initialization (this is because the file is usually updated through copying and
           renaming). Defaults to "auto".

       --timezone=
           Configures how /etc/localtime inside of the container (i.e. local timezone
           synchronization from host to container) shall be handled. Takes one of "off", "copy",
           "bind", "symlink", "delete" or "auto". If set to "off" the /etc/localtime file in the
           container is left as it is included in the image, and neither modified nor bind
           mounted over. If set to "copy" the /etc/localtime file of the host is copied into the
           container. Similarly, if "bind" is used, the file is bind mounted from the host into
           the container. If set to "symlink", a symlink is created pointing from /etc/localtime
           in the container to the timezone file in the container that matches the timezone
           setting on the host. If set to "delete", the file in the container is deleted, should
           it exist. If set to "auto" and the /etc/localtime file of the host is a symlink, then
           "symlink" mode is used, and "copy" otherwise, except if the image is read-only in
           which case "bind" is used instead. Defaults to "auto".

       --link-journal=
           Control whether the container's journal shall be made visible to the host system. If
           enabled, allows viewing the container's journal files from the host (but not vice
           versa). Takes one of "no", "host", "try-host", "guest", "try-guest", "auto". If "no",
           the journal is not linked. If "host", the journal files are stored on the host file
           system (beneath /var/log/journal/machine-id) and the subdirectory is bind-mounted into
           the container at the same location. If "guest", the journal files are stored on the
           guest file system (beneath /var/log/journal/machine-id) and the subdirectory is
           symlinked into the host at the same location.  "try-host" and "try-guest" do the same
           but do not fail if the host does not have persistent journaling enabled. If "auto"
           (the default), and the right subdirectory of /var/log/journal exists, it will be bind
           mounted into the container. If the subdirectory does not exist, no linking is
           performed. Effectively, booting a container once with "guest" or "host" will link the
           journal persistently if further on the default of "auto" is used.

           Note that --link-journal=try-guest is the default if the systemd-nspawn@.service
           template unit file is used.

       -j
           Equivalent to --link-journal=try-guest.

   Mount Options
       --bind=, --bind-ro=
           Bind mount a file or directory from the host into the container. Takes one of: a path
           argument — in which case the specified path will be mounted from the host to the same
           path in the container, or a colon-separated pair of paths — in which case the first
           specified path is the source in the host, and the second path is the destination in
           the container, or a colon-separated triple of source path, destination path and mount
           options. The source path may optionally be prefixed with a "+" character. If so, the
           source path is taken relative to the image's root directory. This permits setting up
           bind mounts within the container image. The source path may be specified as empty
           string, in which case a temporary directory below the host's /var/tmp/ directory is
           used. It is automatically removed when the container is shut down. If the source path
           is not absolute, it is resolved relative to the current working directory. The
           --bind-ro= option creates read-only bind mounts. Backslash escapes are interpreted, so
           "\:" may be used to embed colons in either path. This option may be specified multiple
           times for creating multiple independent bind mount points.

           Mount options are comma-separated.  rbind and norbind control whether to create a
           recursive or a regular bind mount. Defaults to "rbind".  noidmap, idmap, and rootidmap
           control ID mapping.

           Using idmap or rootidmap requires support by the source filesystem for user/group ID
           mapped mounts. Defaults to "noidmap". With x being the container's UID range offset, y
           being the length of the container's UID range, and p being the owner UID of the bind
           mount source inode on the host:

           •   If noidmap is used, any user z in the range 0 ... y seen from inside of the
               container is mapped to x + z in the x ... x + y range on the host. Other host
               users are mapped to nobody inside the container.

           •   If idmap is used, any user z in the UID range 0 ... y as seen from inside the
               container is mapped to the same z in the same 0 ... y range on the host. Other
               host users are mapped to nobody inside the container.

           •   If rootidmap is used, the user 0 seen from inside of the container is mapped to p
               on the host. Other host users are mapped to nobody inside the container.

           Whichever ID mapping option is used, the same mapping will be used for users and
           groups IDs. If rootidmap is used, the group owning the bind mounted directory will
           have no effect.

           Note that when this option is used in combination with --private-users, the resulting
           mount points will be owned by the nobody user. That's because the mount and its files
           and directories continue to be owned by the relevant host users and groups, which do
           not exist in the container, and thus show up under the wildcard UID 65534 (nobody). If
           such bind mounts are created, it is recommended to make them read-only, using
           --bind-ro=. Alternatively you can use the "idmap" mount option to map the filesystem
           IDs.

       --bind-user=
           Binds the home directory of the specified user on the host into the container. Takes
           the name of an existing user on the host as argument. May be used multiple times to
           bind multiple users into the container. This does three things:

            1. The user's home directory is bind mounted from the host into /run/host/home/.

            2. An additional UID/GID mapping is added that maps the host user's UID/GID to a
               container UID/GID, allocated from the 60514...60577 range.

            3. A JSON user and group record is generated in /run/userdb/ that describes the
               mapped user. It contains a minimized representation of the host's user record,
               adjusted to the UID/GID and home directory path assigned to the user in the
               container. The nss-systemd(8) glibc NSS module will pick up these records from
               there and make them available in the container's user/group databases.

           The combination of the three operations above ensures that it is possible to log into
           the container using the same account information as on the host. The user is only
           mapped transiently, while the container is running, and the mapping itself does not
           result in persistent changes to the container (except maybe for log messages generated
           at login time, and similar). Note that in particular the UID/GID assignment in the
           container is not made persistently. If the user is mapped transiently, it is best to
           not allow the user to make persistent changes to the container. If the user leaves
           files or directories owned by the user, and those UIDs/GIDs are reused during later
           container invocations (possibly with a different --bind-user= mapping), those files
           and directories will be accessible to the "new" user.

           The user/group record mapping only works if the container contains systemd 249 or
           newer, with nss-systemd properly configured in nsswitch.conf. See nss-systemd(8) for
           details.

           Note that the user record propagated from the host into the container will contain the
           UNIX password hash of the user, so that seamless logins in the container are possible.
           If the container is less trusted than the host it's hence important to use a strong
           UNIX password hash function (e.g. yescrypt or similar, with the "$y$" hash prefix).

           When binding a user from the host into the container checks are executed to ensure
           that the username is not yet known in the container. Moreover, it is checked that the
           UID/GID allocated for it is not currently defined in the user/group databases of the
           container. Both checks directly access the container's /etc/passwd and /etc/group, and
           thus might not detect existing accounts in other databases.

           This operation is only supported in combination with --private-users=/-U.

       --inaccessible=
           Make the specified path inaccessible in the container. This over-mounts the specified
           path (which must exist in the container) with a file node of the same type that is
           empty and has the most restrictive access mode supported. This is an effective way to
           mask files, directories and other file system objects from the container payload. This
           option may be used more than once in case all specified paths are masked.

       --tmpfs=
           Mount a tmpfs file system into the container. Takes a single absolute path argument
           that specifies where to mount the tmpfs instance to (in which case the directory
           access mode will be chosen as 0755, owned by root/root), or optionally a
           colon-separated pair of path and mount option string that is used for mounting (in
           which case the kernel default for access mode and owner will be chosen, unless
           otherwise specified). Backslash escapes are interpreted in the path, so "\:" may be
           used to embed colons in the path.

           Note that this option cannot be used to replace the root file system of the container
           with a temporary file system. However, the --volatile= option described below provides
           similar functionality, with a focus on implementing stateless operating system images.

       --overlay=, --overlay-ro=
           Combine multiple directory trees into one overlay file system and mount it into the
           container. Takes a list of colon-separated paths to the directory trees to combine and
           the destination mount point.

           Backslash escapes are interpreted in the paths, so "\:" may be used to embed colons in
           the paths.

           If three or more paths are specified, then the last specified path is the destination
           mount point in the container, all paths specified before refer to directory trees on
           the host and are combined in the specified order into one overlay file system. The
           left-most path is hence the lowest directory tree, the second-to-last path the highest
           directory tree in the stacking order. If --overlay-ro= is used instead of --overlay=,
           a read-only overlay file system is created. If a writable overlay file system is
           created, all changes made to it are written to the highest directory tree in the
           stacking order, i.e. the second-to-last specified.

           If only two paths are specified, then the second specified path is used both as the
           top-level directory tree in the stacking order as seen from the host, as well as the
           mount point for the overlay file system in the container. At least two paths have to
           be specified.

           The source paths may optionally be prefixed with "+" character. If so they are taken
           relative to the image's root directory. The uppermost source path may also be
           specified as an empty string, in which case a temporary directory below the host's
           /var/tmp/ is used. The directory is removed automatically when the container is shut
           down. This behaviour is useful in order to make read-only container directories
           writable while the container is running. For example, use "--overlay=+/var::/var" in
           order to automatically overlay a writable temporary directory on a read-only /var/
           directory. If a source path is not absolute, it is resolved relative to the current
           working directory.

           For details about overlay file systems, see Overlay Filesystem[5]. Note that the
           semantics of overlay file systems are substantially different from normal file
           systems, in particular regarding reported device and inode information. Device and
           inode information may change for a file while it is being written to, and processes
           might see out-of-date versions of files at times. Note that this switch automatically
           derives the "workdir=" mount option for the overlay file system from the top-level
           directory tree, making it a sibling of it. It is hence essential that the top-level
           directory tree is not a mount point itself (since the working directory must be on the
           same file system as the top-most directory tree). Also note that the "lowerdir=" mount
           option receives the paths to stack in the opposite order of this switch.

           Note that this option cannot be used to replace the root file system of the container
           with an overlay file system. However, the --volatile= option described above provides
           similar functionality, with a focus on implementing stateless operating system images.

   Input/Output Options
       --console=MODE
           Configures how to set up standard input, output and error output for the container
           payload, as well as the /dev/console device for the container. Takes one of
           interactive, read-only, passive, pipe or autopipe. If interactive, a pseudo-TTY is
           allocated and made available as /dev/console in the container. It is then
           bi-directionally connected to the standard input and output passed to systemd-nspawn.
           read-only is similar but only the output of the container is propagated and no input
           from the caller is read. If passive, a pseudo TTY is allocated, but it is not
           connected anywhere. In pipe mode no pseudo TTY is allocated, but the standard input,
           output and error output file descriptors passed to systemd-nspawn are passed on — as
           they are — to the container payload, see the following paragraph. Finally, autopipe
           mode operates like interactive when systemd-nspawn is invoked on a terminal, and like
           pipe otherwise. Defaults to interactive if systemd-nspawn is invoked from a terminal,
           and read-only otherwise.

           In pipe mode, /dev/console will not exist in the container. This means that the
           container payload generally cannot be a full init system as init systems tend to
           require /dev/console to be available. On the other hand, in this mode container
           invocations can be used within shell pipelines. This is because intermediary pseudo
           TTYs do not permit independent bidirectional propagation of the end-of-file (EOF)
           condition, which is necessary for shell pipelines to work correctly.  Note that the
           pipe mode should be used carefully, as passing arbitrary file descriptors to less
           trusted container payloads might open up unwanted interfaces for access by the
           container payload. For example, if a passed file descriptor refers to a TTY of some
           form, APIs such as TIOCSTI may be used to synthesize input that might be used for
           escaping the container. Hence pipe mode should only be used if the payload is
           sufficiently trusted or when the standard input/output/error output file descriptors
           are known safe, for example pipes.

       --pipe, -P
           Equivalent to --console=pipe.

   Credentials
       --load-credential=ID:PATH, --set-credential=ID:VALUE
           Pass a credential to the container. These two options correspond to the
           LoadCredential= and SetCredential= settings in unit files. See systemd.exec(5) for
           details about these concepts, as well as the syntax of the option's arguments.

           Note: when systemd-nspawn runs as systemd system service it can propagate the
           credentials it received via LoadCredential=/SetCredential= to the container payload. A
           systemd service manager running as PID 1 in the container can further propagate them
           to the services it itself starts. It is thus possible to easily propagate credentials
           from a parent service manager to a container manager service and from there into its
           payload. This can even be done recursively.

           In order to embed binary data into the credential data for --set-credential= use
           C-style escaping (i.e.  "\n" to embed a newline, or "\x00" to embed a NUL byte. Note
           that the invoking shell might already apply unescaping once, hence this might require
           double escaping!).

           The systemd-sysusers.service(8) and systemd-firstboot(1) services read credentials
           configured this way for the purpose of configuring the container's root user's
           password and shell, as well as system locale, keymap and timezone during the first
           boot process of the container. This is particularly useful in combination with
           --volatile=yes where every single boot appears as first boot, since configuration
           applied to /etc/ is lost on container reboot cycles. See the respective man pages for
           details. Example:

               # systemd-nspawn -i image.raw \
                       --volatile=yes \
                       --set-credential=firstboot.locale:de_DE.UTF-8 \
                       --set-credential=passwd.hashed-password.root:'$y$j9T$yAuRJu1o5HioZAGDYPU5d.$F64ni6J2y2nNQve90M/p0ZP0ECP/qqzipNyaY9fjGpC' \
                       -b

           The above command line will invoke the specified image file image.raw in volatile
           mode, i.e. with empty /etc/ and /var/. The container payload will recognize this as a
           first boot, and will invoke systemd-firstboot.service, which then reads the two passed
           credentials to configure the system's initial locale and root password.

   Other
       --no-pager
           Do not pipe output into a pager.

       -h, --help
           Print a short help text and exit.

       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.

ENVIRONMENT

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL
           The maximum log level of emitted messages (messages with a higher log level, i.e. less
           important ones, will be suppressed). Either one of (in order of decreasing importance)
           emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice, info, debug, or an integer in the range
           0...7. See syslog(3) for more information.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR
           A boolean. If true, messages written to the tty will be colored according to priority.

           This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to the terminal,
           because journalctl(1) and other tools that display logs will color messages based on
           the log level on their own.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TIME
           A boolean. If true, console log messages will be prefixed with a timestamp.

           This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to the terminal or a
           file, because journalctl(1) and other tools that display logs will attach timestamps
           based on the entry metadata on their own.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION
           A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with a filename and line number in the
           source code where the message originates.

           Note that the log location is often attached as metadata to journal entries anyway.
           Including it directly in the message text can nevertheless be convenient when
           debugging programs.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TID
           A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with the current numerical thread ID
           (TID).

           Note that the this information is attached as metadata to journal entries anyway.
           Including it directly in the message text can nevertheless be convenient when
           debugging programs.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET
           The destination for log messages. One of console (log to the attached tty),
           console-prefixed (log to the attached tty but with prefixes encoding the log level and
           "facility", see syslog(3), kmsg (log to the kernel circular log buffer), journal (log
           to the journal), journal-or-kmsg (log to the journal if available, and to kmsg
           otherwise), auto (determine the appropriate log target automatically, the default),
           null (disable log output).

       $SYSTEMD_PAGER
           Pager to use when --no-pager is not given; overrides $PAGER. If neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER
           nor $PAGER are set, a set of well-known pager implementations are tried in turn,
           including less(1) and more(1), until one is found. If no pager implementation is
           discovered no pager is invoked. Setting this environment variable to an empty string
           or the value "cat" is equivalent to passing --no-pager.

           Note: if $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set, $SYSTEMD_PAGER (as well as $PAGER) will be
           silently ignored.

       $SYSTEMD_LESS
           Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").

           Users might want to change two options in particular:

           K
               This option instructs the pager to exit immediately when Ctrl+C is pressed. To
               allow less to handle Ctrl+C itself to switch back to the pager command prompt,
               unset this option.

               If the value of $SYSTEMD_LESS does not include "K", and the pager that is invoked
               is less, Ctrl+C will be ignored by the executable, and needs to be handled by the
               pager.

           X
               This option instructs the pager to not send termcap initialization and
               deinitialization strings to the terminal. It is set by default to allow command
               output to remain visible in the terminal even after the pager exits. Nevertheless,
               this prevents some pager functionality from working, in particular paged output
               cannot be scrolled with the mouse.

           See less(1) for more discussion.

       $SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
           Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the invoking terminal is
           determined to be UTF-8 compatible).

       $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE
           Takes a boolean argument. When true, the "secure" mode of the pager is enabled; if
           false, disabled. If $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, secure mode is enabled if
           the effective UID is not the same as the owner of the login session, see geteuid(2)
           and sd_pid_get_owner_uid(3). In secure mode, LESSSECURE=1 will be set when invoking
           the pager, and the pager shall disable commands that open or create new files or start
           new subprocesses. When $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, pagers which are not
           known to implement secure mode will not be used. (Currently only less(1) implements
           secure mode.)

           Note: when commands are invoked with elevated privileges, for example under sudo(8) or
           pkexec(1), care must be taken to ensure that unintended interactive features are not
           enabled. "Secure" mode for the pager may be enabled automatically as describe above.
           Setting SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=0 or not removing it from the inherited environment allows
           the user to invoke arbitrary commands. Note that if the $SYSTEMD_PAGER or $PAGER
           variables are to be honoured, $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE must be set too. It might be
           reasonable to completely disable the pager using --no-pager instead.

       $SYSTEMD_COLORS
           Takes a boolean argument. When true, systemd and related utilities will use colors in
           their output, otherwise the output will be monochrome. Additionally, the variable can
           take one of the following special values: "16", "256" to restrict the use of colors to
           the base 16 or 256 ANSI colors, respectively. This can be specified to override the
           automatic decision based on $TERM and what the console is connected to.

       $SYSTEMD_URLIFY
           The value must be a boolean. Controls whether clickable links should be generated in
           the output for terminal emulators supporting this. This can be specified to override
           the decision that systemd makes based on $TERM and other conditions.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1. Download a Fedora image and start a shell in it

           # machinectl pull-raw --verify=no \
                 https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/37/Cloud/x86_64/images/Fedora-Cloud-Base-37-1.7.x86_64.raw.xz \
                 Fedora-Cloud-Base-37-1.7.x86-64
           # systemd-nspawn -M Fedora-Cloud-Base-37-1.7.x86-64

       This downloads an image using machinectl(1) and opens a shell in it.

       Example 2. Build and boot a minimal Fedora distribution in a container

           # dnf -y --releasever=37 --installroot=/var/lib/machines/f37 \
                 --repo=fedora --repo=updates --setopt=install_weak_deps=False install \
                 passwd dnf fedora-release vim-minimal util-linux systemd systemd-networkd
           # systemd-nspawn -bD /var/lib/machines/f37

       This installs a minimal Fedora distribution into the directory /var/lib/machines/f37 and
       then boots that OS in a namespace container. Because the installation is located
       underneath the standard /var/lib/machines/ directory, it is also possible to start the
       machine using systemd-nspawn -M f37.

       Example 3. Spawn a shell in a container of a minimal Debian unstable distribution

           # debootstrap unstable ~/debian-tree/
           # systemd-nspawn -D ~/debian-tree/

       This installs a minimal Debian unstable distribution into the directory ~/debian-tree/ and
       then spawns a shell from this image in a namespace container.

       debootstrap supports Debian[7], Ubuntu[8], and Tanglu[9] out of the box, so the same
       command can be used to install any of those. For other distributions from the Debian
       family, a mirror has to be specified, see debootstrap(8).

       Example 4. Boot a minimal Arch Linux distribution in a container

           # pacstrap -c ~/arch-tree/ base
           # systemd-nspawn -bD ~/arch-tree/

       This installs a minimal Arch Linux distribution into the directory ~/arch-tree/ and then
       boots an OS in a namespace container in it.

       Example 5. Install the OpenSUSE Tumbleweed rolling distribution

           # zypper --root=/var/lib/machines/tumbleweed ar -c \
                 https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss tumbleweed
           # zypper --root=/var/lib/machines/tumbleweed refresh
           # zypper --root=/var/lib/machines/tumbleweed install --no-recommends \
                 systemd shadow zypper openSUSE-release vim
           # systemd-nspawn -M tumbleweed passwd root
           # systemd-nspawn -M tumbleweed -b

       Example 6. Boot into an ephemeral snapshot of the host system

           # systemd-nspawn -D / -xb

       This runs a copy of the host system in a snapshot which is removed immediately when the
       container exits. All file system changes made during runtime will be lost on shutdown,
       hence.

       Example 7. Run a container with SELinux sandbox security contexts

           # chcon system_u:object_r:svirt_sandbox_file_t:s0:c0,c1 -R /srv/container
           # systemd-nspawn -L system_u:object_r:svirt_sandbox_file_t:s0:c0,c1 \
                 -Z system_u:system_r:svirt_lxc_net_t:s0:c0,c1 -D /srv/container /bin/sh

       Example 8. Run a container with an OSTree deployment

           # systemd-nspawn -b -i ~/image.raw \
                 --pivot-root=/ostree/deploy/$OS/deploy/$CHECKSUM:/sysroot \
                 --bind=+/sysroot/ostree/deploy/$OS/var:/var

EXIT STATUS

       The exit code of the program executed in the container is returned.

SEE ALSO

       systemd(1), systemd.nspawn(5), chroot(1), dnf(8), debootstrap(8), pacman(8), zypper(8),
       systemd.slice(5), machinectl(1), btrfs(8)

NOTES

        1. Container Interface
           https://systemd.io/CONTAINER_INTERFACE

        2. Discoverable Partitions Specification
           https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification

        3. OCI Runtime Specification
           https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/master/spec.md

        4. OSTree
           https://ostree.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

        5. Overlay Filesystem
           https://docs.kernel.org/filesystems/overlayfs.html

        6. Fedora
           https://getfedora.org

        7. Debian
           https://www.debian.org

        8. Ubuntu
           https://www.ubuntu.com

        9. Tanglu
           https://www.tanglu.org

       10. Arch Linux
           https://www.archlinux.org

       11. OpenSUSE Tumbleweed
           https://software.opensuse.org/distributions/tumbleweed