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NAME
cgroup_namespaces - overview of Linux cgroup namespaces
DESCRIPTION
For an overview of namespaces, see namespaces(7).
Cgroup namespaces virtualize the view of a process's cgroups (see cgroups(7)) as seen via
/proc/[pid]/cgroup and /proc/[pid]/mountinfo.
Each cgroup namespace has its own set of cgroup root directories. These root directories are the base
points for the relative locations displayed in the corresponding records in the /proc/[pid]/cgroup file.
When a process creates a new cgroup namespace using clone(2) or unshare(2) with the CLONE_NEWCGROUP flag,
it enters a new cgroup namespace in which its current cgroups directories become the cgroup root
directories of the new namespace. (This applies both for the cgroups version 1 hierarchies and the
cgroups version 2 unified hierarchy.)
When viewing /proc/[pid]/cgroup, the pathname shown in the third field of each record will be relative to
the reading process's root directory for the corresponding cgroup hierarchy. If the cgroup directory of
the target process lies outside the root directory of the reading process's cgroup namespace, then the
pathname will show ../ entries for each ancestor level in the cgroup hierarchy.
The following shell session demonstrates the effect of creating a new cgroup namespace. First, (as
superuser) we create a child cgroup in the freezer hierarchy, and put the shell into that cgroup:
# mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer/sub
# echo $$ # Show PID of this shell
30655
# sh -c 'echo 30655 > /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer/sub/cgroup.procs'
# cat /proc/self/cgroup | grep freezer
7:freezer:/sub
Next, we use unshare(1) to create a process running a new shell in new cgroup and mount namespaces:
# unshare -Cm bash
We then inspect the /proc/[pid]/cgroup files of, respectively, the new shell process started by the
unshare(1) command, a process that is in the original cgroup namespace (init, with PID 1), and a process
in a sibling cgroup (sub2):
$ cat /proc/self/cgroup | grep freezer
7:freezer:/
$ cat /proc/1/cgroup | grep freezer
7:freezer:/..
$ cat /proc/20124/cgroup | grep freezer
7:freezer:/../sub2
From the output of the first command, we see that the freezer cgroup membership of the new shell (which
is in the same cgroup as the initial shell) is shown defined relative to the freezer cgroup root
directory that was established when the new cgroup namespace was created. (In absolute terms, the new
shell is in the /sub freezer cgroup, and the root directory of the freezer cgroup hierarchy in the new
cgroup namespace is also /sub. Thus, the new shell's cgroup membership is displayed as '/'.)
However, when we look in /proc/self/mountinfo we see the following anomaly:
# cat /proc/self/mountinfo | grep freezer
155 145 0:32 /.. /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer ...
The fourth field of this line (/..) should show the directory in the cgroup filesystem which forms the
root of this mount. Since by the definition of cgroup namespaces, the process's current freezer cgroup
directory became its root freezer cgroup directory, we should see '/' in this field. The problem here is
that we are seeing a mount entry for the cgroup filesystem corresponding to our initial shell process's
cgroup namespace (whose cgroup filesystem is indeed rooted in the parent directory of sub). We need to
remount the freezer cgroup filesystem inside this cgroup namespace, after which we see the expected
results:
# mount --make-rslave / # Don't propagate mount events
# to other namespaces
# umount /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer
# mount -t cgroup -o freezer freezer /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer
# cat /proc/self/mountinfo | grep freezer
155 145 0:32 / /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer rw,relatime ...
Use of cgroup namespaces requires a kernel that is configured with the CONFIG_CGROUPS option.
CONFORMING TO
Namespaces are a Linux-specific feature.
NOTES
Among the purposes served by the virtualization provided by cgroup namespaces are the following:
* It prevents information leaks whereby cgroup directory paths outside of a container would otherwise be
visible to processes in the container. Such leakages could, for example, reveal information about the
container framework to containerized applications.
* It eases tasks such as container migration. The virtualization provided by cgroup namespaces allows
containers to be isolated from knowledge of the pathnames of ancestor cgroups. Without such isolation,
the full cgroup pathnames (displayed in /proc/self/cgroups) would need to be replicated on the target
system when migrating a container; those pathnames would also need to be unique, so that they don't
conflict with other pathnames on the target system.
* It allows better confinement of containerized processes, because it is possible to mount the
container's cgroup filesystems such that the container processes can't gain access to ancestor cgroup
directories. Consider, for example, the following scenario:
• We have a cgroup directory, /cg/1, that is owned by user ID 9000.
• We have a process, X, also owned by user ID 9000, that is namespaced under the cgroup /cg/1/2
(i.e., X was placed in a new cgroup namespace via clone(2) or unshare(2) with the CLONE_NEWCGROUP
flag).
In the absence of cgroup namespacing, because the cgroup directory /cg/1 is owned (and writable) by UID
9000 and process X is also owned by user ID 9000, then process X would be able to modify the contents
of cgroups files (i.e., change cgroup settings) not only in /cg/1/2 but also in the ancestor cgroup
directory /cg/1. Namespacing process X under the cgroup directory /cg/1/2, in combination with
suitable mount operations for the cgroup filesystem (as shown above), prevents it modifying files in
/cg/1, since it cannot even see the contents of that directory (or of further removed cgroup ancestor
directories). Combined with correct enforcement of hierarchical limits, this prevents process X from
escaping the limits imposed by ancestor cgroups.
SEE ALSO
unshare(1), clone(2), setns(2), unshare(2), proc(5), cgroups(7), credentials(7), namespaces(7),
user_namespaces(7)
COLOPHON
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information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2017-09-15 CGROUP_NAMESPACES(7)