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NAME

       lxc.conf - linux container configuration file

DESCRIPTION

       The  linux  containers (lxc) are always created before being used. This
       creation defines a set of system resources to be virtualized / isolated
       when  a  process is using the container. By default, the pids, sysv ipc
       and mount  points  are  virtualized  and  isolated.  The  other  system
       resources  are  shared  across  containers,  until  they are explicitly
       defined in the configuration file. For example, if there is no  network
       configuration,  the  network  will be shared between the creator of the
       container and the container itself, but if the network is specified,  a
       new network stack is created for the container and the container can no
       longer use the network of its ancestor.

       The configuration file defines the different  system  resources  to  be
       assigned  for  the container. At present, the utsname, the network, the
       mount  points,  the  root  file  system  and  the  control  groups  are
       supported.

       Each  option in the configuration file has the form key = value fitting
       in one line. The '#' character means the line is a comment.

   HOSTNAME
       The utsname section defines the hostname to be set for  the  container.
       That  means the container can set its own hostname without changing the
       one from the system. That makes the hostname private for the container.

            lxc.utsname
              specify the hostname for the container

   NETWORK
       The  network  section  defines  how  the  network is virtualized in the
       container. The network virtualization acts at layer two.  In  order  to
       use  the network virtualization, parameters must be specified to define
       the network interfaces of the container. Several virtual interfaces can
       be  assigned  and  used  in a container even if the system has only one
       physical network interface.

            lxc.network.type
              specify what kind of network virtualization to be used  for  the
              container.  Each  time  a  lxc.network.type field is found a new
              round of network configuration  begins.  In  this  way,  several
              network  virtualization  types  can  be  specified  for the same
              container, as well as assigning several network  interfaces  for
              one container. The different virtualization types can be:

              empty: will create only the loopback interface.

              veth: a peer network device is created with one side assigned to
              the container and  the  other  side  is  attached  to  a  bridge
              specified   by  the  lxc.network.link.  If  the  bridge  is  not
              specified, then the veth pair device will  be  created  but  not
              attached  to  any  bridge. Otherwise, the bridge has to be setup
              before on the system, lxc won't handle any configuration outside
              of  the container.  By default lxc choose a name for the network
              device belonging to the outside of the container, this  name  is
              handled  by  lxc,  but if you wish to handle this name yourself,
              you  can  tell  lxc  to   set   a   specific   name   with   the
              lxc.network.veth.pair option.

              vlan: a vlan interface is linked with the interface specified by
              the lxc.network.link and assigned to  the  container.  The  vlan
              identifier is specified with the option lxc.network.vlan.id.

              macvlan:  a  macvlan  interface  is  linked  with  the interface
              specified by the lxc.network.link and assigned to the container.
              lxc.network.macvlan.mode specifies the mode the macvlan will use
              to communicate between  different  macvlan  on  the  same  upper
              device.  The  accepted  modes  are  private,  the  device  never
              communicates  with  any  other  device  on  the  same  upper_dev
              (default), vepa, the new Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator (VEPA)
              mode, it assumes that the adjacent  bridge  returns  all  frames
              where both source and destination are local to the macvlan port,
              i.e. the bridge is set up  as  a  reflective  relay.   Broadcast
              frames  coming  in from the upper_dev get flooded to all macvlan
              interfaces  in  VEPA  mode,  local  frames  are  not   delivered
              locallay, or bridge, it provides the behavior of a simple bridge
              between different macvlan interfaces on the  same  port.  Frames
              from one interface to another one get delivered directly and are
              not sent out externally. Broadcast frames  get  flooded  to  all
              other  bridge ports and to the external interface, but when they
              come back from a reflective relay, we don't deliver them  again.
              Since  we  know  all  the MAC addresses, the macvlan bridge mode
              does not require learning or STP like the bridge module does.

              phys:  an  already   existing   interface   specified   by   the
              lxc.network.link is assigned to the container.

            lxc.network.flags
              specify an action to do for the network.

              up: activates the interface.

            lxc.network.link
              specify the interface to be used for real network traffic.

            lxc.network.name
              the interface name is dynamically allocated, but if another name
              is needed because the configuration  files  being  used  by  the
              container  use a generic name, eg. eth0, this option will rename
              the interface in the container.

            lxc.network.hwaddr
              the interface mac address is dynamically allocated by default to
              the  virtual  interface,  but  in  some cases, this is needed to
              resolve a mac address conflict or to always have the same  link-
              local ipv6 address

            lxc.network.ipv4
              specify the ipv4 address to assign to the virtualized interface.
              Several lines specify several ipv4 addresses.  The address is in
              format x.y.z.t/m, eg. 192.168.1.123/24.

            lxc.network.ipv6
              specify the ipv6 address to assign to the virtualized interface.
              Several lines specify several ipv6 addresses.  The address is in
              format x::y/m, eg. 2003:db8:1:0:214:1234:fe0b:3596/64

   NEW PSEUDO TTY INSTANCE (DEVPTS)
       For  stricter isolation the container can have its own private instance
       of the pseudo tty.

            lxc.pts
              If set, the container will  have  a  new  pseudo  tty  instance,
              making  this  private  to  it.  The  value specifies the maximum
              number  of  pseudo  ttys  allowed  for  a  pts  instance   (this
              limitation is not implemented yet).

   CONTAINER SYSTEM CONSOLE
       If  the  container is configured with a root filesystem and the inittab
       file is setup to use the console, you may want to  specify  where  goes
       the output of this console.

            lxc.console
              Specify  a  path  to  a  file  where  the console output will be
              written.

   CONSOLE THROUGH THE TTYS
       If the container is configured with a root filesystem and  the  inittab
       file  is  setup to launch a getty on the ttys. This option will specify
       the number of ttys to be available for the  container.  The  number  of
       getty  in  the inittab file of the container should not be greater than
       the number of ttys specified in this configuration file, otherwise  the
       excess  getty sessions will die and respawn indefinitly giving annoying
       messages on the console.

            lxc.tty
              Specify the number of tty to make available to the container.

   MOUNT POINTS
       The mount points section specifies the different places to be  mounted.
       These  mount  points  will  be  private  to  the container and won't be
       visible by the processes running outside  of  the  container.  This  is
       useful to mount /etc, /var or /home for examples.

            lxc.mount
              specify  a  file  location  in  the fstab format, containing the
              mount informations.

            lxc.mount.entry
              specify a mount point corresponding  to  a  line  in  the  fstab
              format.

   ROOT FILE SYSTEM
       The root file system of the container can be different than that of the
       host system.

            lxc.rootfs
              specify a directory to become the root of the container.  If not
              specified,  the  container  shares its root file system with the
              host.

            lxc.rootfs.mount
              where to recursively bind lxc.rootfs before pivoting.   This  is
              to  ensure  success of the pivot_root(8) syscall.  Any directory
              suffices, the default should generally work.

            lxc.pivotdir
              where to pivot the original root file system  under  lxc.rootfs,
              specified  relatively  to  that.   The  default  is  mnt.  It is
              created  if  necessary,  and  also  removed   after   unmounting
              everything from it during container setup.

   CONTROL GROUP
       The  control group section contains the configuration for the different
       subsystem. lxc does not check the correctness of  the  subsystem  name.
       This  has  the disadvantage of not detecting configuration errors until
       the container is started, but  has  the  advantage  of  permitting  any
       future subsystem.

            lxc.cgroup.[subsystem name]
              specify  the  control group value to be set.  The subsystem name
              is the  literal  name  of  the  control  group  subsystem.   The
              permitted  names  and the syntax of their values is not dictated
              by LXC, instead it depends on the features of the  Linux  kernel
              running   at   the   time   the   container   is   started,  eg.
              lxc.cgroup.cpuset.cpus

   CAPABILITIES
       The capabilities can be dropped in the container if this one is run  as
       root.

            lxc.cap.drop
              Specify  the capability to be dropped in the container. A single
              line defining several capabilities with a  space  separation  is
              allowed.  The  format  is  the  lower  case  of  the  capability
              definition without the "CAP_" prefix, eg. CAP_SYS_MODULE  should
              be specified as sys_module. See capabilities(7),

EXAMPLES

       In  addition  to the few examples given below, you will find some other
       examples of configuration file in /usr/share/doc/lxc/examples

   NETWORK
       This configuration sets up a container to use a veth pair  device  with
       one  side  plugged to a bridge br0 (which has been configured before on
       the system by the administrator). The virtual network device visible in
       the container is renamed to eth0.

            lxc.utsname = myhostname
            lxc.network.type = veth
            lxc.network.flags = up
            lxc.network.link = br0
            lxc.network.name = eth0
            lxc.network.hwaddr = 4a:49:43:49:79:bf
            lxc.network.ipv4 = 1.2.3.5/24
            lxc.network.ipv6 = 2003:db8:1:0:214:1234:fe0b:3597

   CONTROL GROUP
       This   configuration   will   setup  several  control  groups  for  the
       application, cpuset.cpus restricts usage of the defined cpu, cpus.share
       prioritize  the control group, devices.allow makes usable the specified
       devices.

            lxc.cgroup.cpuset.cpus = 0,1
            lxc.cgroup.cpu.shares = 1234
            lxc.cgroup.devices.deny = a
            lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 1:3 rw
            lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = b 8:0 rw

   COMPLEX CONFIGURATION
       This example show a complex  configuration  making  a  complex  network
       stack,  using the control groups, setting a new hostname, mounting some
       locations and a changing root file system.

            lxc.utsname = complex
            lxc.network.type = veth
            lxc.network.flags = up
            lxc.network.link = br0
            lxc.network.hwaddr = 4a:49:43:49:79:bf
            lxc.network.ipv4 = 1.2.3.5/24
            lxc.network.ipv6 = 2003:db8:1:0:214:1234:fe0b:3597
            lxc.network.ipv6 = 2003:db8:1:0:214:5432:feab:3588
            lxc.network.type = macvlan
            lxc.network.flags = up
            lxc.network.link = eth0
            lxc.network.hwaddr = 4a:49:43:49:79:bd
            lxc.network.ipv4 = 1.2.3.4/24
            lxc.network.ipv4 = 192.168.10.125/24
            lxc.network.ipv6 = 2003:db8:1:0:214:1234:fe0b:3596
            lxc.network.type = phys
            lxc.network.flags = up
            lxc.network.link = dummy0
            lxc.network.hwaddr = 4a:49:43:49:79:ff
            lxc.network.ipv4 = 1.2.3.6/24
            lxc.network.ipv6 = 2003:db8:1:0:214:1234:fe0b:3297
            lxc.cgroup.cpuset.cpus = 0,1
            lxc.cgroup.cpu.shares = 1234
            lxc.cgroup.devices.deny = a
            lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = c 1:3 rw
            lxc.cgroup.devices.allow = b 8:0 rw
            lxc.mount = /etc/fstab.complex
            lxc.mount.entry = /lib /root/myrootfs/lib none ro,bind 0 0
            lxc.rootfs = /mnt/rootfs.complex
            lxc.cap.drop = sys_module mknod setuid net_raw
            lxc.cap.drop = mac_override

SEE ALSO

       chroot(1), pivot_root(8), fstab(5)

SEE ALSO

       lxc(1), lxc-create(1), lxc-destroy(1), lxc-start(1), lxc-stop(1),  lxc-
       execute(1),  lxc-kill(1),  lxc-console(1), lxc-monitor(1), lxc-wait(1),
       lxc-cgroup(1), lxc-ls(1), lxc-ps(1), lxc-info(1),  lxc-freeze(1),  lxc-
       unfreeze(1), lxc.conf(5)

AUTHOR

       Daniel Lezcano <daniel.lezcano@free.fr>

                                 26 July 2010