containers-storage 1 August 2016

NAME
containers-storage - Manage layer/image/container storage

SYNOPSIS
containers-storage [subcommand] [--help]

DESCRIPTION
The containers-storage command is a front-end for the containers/storage library. While it can be used to manage storage for filesystem layers, images, and containers directly, its main use cases are centered around troubleshooting and querying the state of storage which is being managed by other processes.

Notionally, a complete filesystem layer is composed of a container filesystem and some bookkeeping information. Other layers, children of that layer, default to sharing its contents, but any changes made to the contents of the children are not reflected in the parent. This arrangement is intended to save disk space: by storing the child layer only as a set of changes relative to its parent, the parent's contents should not need to be duplicated for each of the parent's children. Of course, each child can have its own children. The contents of parent layers should not be modified.

An image is a reference to a particular layer, along with some bookkeeping information. Presumably, the image points to a layer which has been modified, possibly in multiple steps, from some general-purpose parent, so that it is suitable for running an intended application. Multiple images can reference a single layer, while differing only in the additional bookkeeping information that they carry. The contents of images should be considered read-only.

A container is essentially a layer which is a child of a layer which is referred to by an image (put another way, a container is instantiated from an image), along with some bookkeeping information. They do not have children and their layers can not be directly referred to by images. This ensures that changes to the contents of a container's layer do not affect other images or layers, so they are considered writeable.

All of layers, images, and containers can have metadata which containers-storage manages attached to them. Generally this metadata is not expected to be large, as it is cached in memory.

Images and containers can also have arbitrarily-named data items attached to them. Generally, this data can be larger than metadata, and is not kept in memory unless it is being retrieved or written.

It is expected that signatures which can be used to verify an image's contents will be stored as data items for that image, along with any template configuration data which is recommended for use in containers which derive from the image. It is also expected that a container's run-time configuration will be stored as data items.

SUB-COMMANDS
The containers-storage command's features are broken down into several subcommands:
 containers-storage add-names(1) Add layer, image, or container name or names

containers-storage applydiff(1) Apply a diff to a layer

containers-storage applydiff-using-staging-dir(1) Apply a diff to a layer staging the new content first.

containers-storage changes(1) Compare two layers

containers-storage check(1) Check for and possibly remove damaged layers/images/containers

containers-storage container(1) Examine a container

containers-storage containers(1) List containers

containers-storage create-container(1) Create a new container from an image

containers-storage create-image(1) Create a new image using layers

containers-storage create-layer(1) Create a new layer

containers-storage create-storage-layer(1) Create a new layer in the lower-level storage driver

containers-storage delete(1) Delete a layer or image or container, with no safety checks

containers-storage delete-container(1) Delete a container, with safety checks

containers-storage delete-image(1) Delete an image, with safety checks

containers-storage delete-layer(1) Delete a layer, with safety checks

containers-storage diff(1) Compare two layers

containers-storage diffsize(1) Compare two layers

containers-storage exists(1) Check if a layer or image or container exists

containers-storage get-container-data(1) Get data that is attached to a container

containers-storage get-image-data(1) Get data that is attached to an image

containers-storage image(1) Examine an image

containers-storage images(1) List images

containers-storage layers(1) List layers

containers-storage list-container-data(1) List data items that are attached to a container

containers-storage list-image-data(1) List data items that are attached to an image

containers-storage metadata(1) Retrieve layer, image, or container metadata

containers-storage mount(1) Mount a layer or container

containers-storage mounted(1) Check if a file system is mounted

containers-storage set-container-data(1) Set data that is attached to a container

containers-storage set-image-data(1) Set data that is attached to an image

containers-storage set-metadata(1) Set layer, image, or container metadata

containers-storage set-names(1) Set layer, image, or container name or names

containers-storage shutdown(1) Shut down graph driver

containers-storage status(1) Check on graph driver status

containers-storage unmount(1) Unmount a layer or container

containers-storage unshare(1) Run a command in a user namespace

containers-storage version(1) Return containers-storage version information

containers-storage wipe(1) Wipe all layers, images, and containers

OPTIONS
--help

Print the list of available sub-commands. When a sub-command is specified, provide information about that command.

--debug, -D

Increases the amount of debugging information which is printed.

--graph, -g=/var/lib/containers/storage

Overrides the root of the storage tree, used for storing layer contents and information about layers, images, and containers.

--run, -R=/run/containers/storage

Overrides the root of the runtime state tree, currently used mainly for noting the location where a given layer is mounted (see containers-storage mount) so that it can be unmounted by path name as an alternative to unmounting by ID or name.

--storage-driver, -s

Specifies which storage driver to use. If not set, but $STORAGE_DRIVER is set in the environment, its value is used. If the storage tree has previously been initialized, neither needs to be provided. If the tree has not previously been initialized and neither is set, a hard-coded default is selected.

--storage-opt=[]

Set options which will be passed to the storage driver. If not set, but $STORAGE_OPTS is set in the environment, its value is treated as a comma-separated list and used instead. If the storage tree has previously been initialized, these need not be provided.

--unshare, -U

When started by a non-root user, run inside of a new user namespace configured using the system's default ID mappings for the non-root user.

ENVIRONMENT OVERRIDES
CONTAINERS_STORAGE_CONF

If set will use the configuration file path provided in $CONTAINERS_STORAGE_CONF instead of the default /etc/containers/storage.conf.

EXAMPLES
    containers-storage layers -t

BUGS
This is still a work in progress, so some functionality may not yet be implemented, and some will be removed if it is found to be unnecessary. That said, if anything isn't working correctly, please report it to the project's issue tracker ⟨https://github.com/containers/storage/issues⟩.

FOOTNOTES
The Containers Storage project is committed to inclusivity, a core value of open source. The master and slave mount propagation terminology is used in this repository. This language is problematic and divisive, and should be changed. However, these terms are currently used within the Linux kernel and must be used as-is at this time. When the kernel maintainers rectify this usage, Containers Storage will follow suit immediately.