.TH UNSHARE 1 "February 2016" "util-linux" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
unshare \- run program in new namespaces
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B unshare
[options]
.RI [ program
.RI [ arguments ]]
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B unshare
command creates new namespaces
(as specified by the command-line options described below)
and then executes the specified \fIprogram\fR.
If \fIprogram\fR is not given, then ``${SHELL}'' is
run (default: /bin/sh).
.PP
By default, a new namespace persists only as long as it has member processes.
A new namespace can be made persistent even when it has no member processes
by bind mounting
/proc/\fIpid\fR/ns/\fItype\fR files to a filesystem path.
A namespace that has been made persistent in this way can subsequently
be entered with
.BR \%nsenter (1)
even after the \fIprogram\fR terminates (except PID namespaces where
a permanently running init process is required).
Once a persistent \%namespace is no longer needed,
it can be unpersisted by using
.BR umount (8)
to remove the bind mount.
See the \fBEXAMPLES\fR section for more details.
.PP
.B unshare
since util-linux version 2.36 uses /\fIproc/[pid]/ns/pid_for_children\fP and \fI/proc/[pid]/ns/time_for_children\fP
files for persistent PID and TIME namespaces. This change requires Linux kernel 4.17 or newer.
.PP
The following types of namespaces can be created with
.BR unshare :
.TP
.B mount namespace
Mounting and unmounting filesystems will not affect the rest of the system,
except for filesystems which are explicitly marked as
shared (with \fBmount \-\-make-shared\fP; see \fI/proc/self/mountinfo\fP or
\fBfindmnt \-o+PROPAGATION\fP for the \fBshared\fP flags).
For further details, see
.BR mount_namespaces (7).
.IP
.B unshare
since util-linux version 2.27 automatically sets propagation to \fBprivate\fP
in a new mount namespace to make sure that the new namespace is really
unshared.  It's possible to disable this feature with option
\fB\-\-propagation unchanged\fP.
Note that \fBprivate\fP is the kernel default.
.TP
.B UTS namespace
Setting hostname or domainname will not affect the rest of the system.
For further details, see
.BR uts_namespaces (7).
.TP
.B IPC namespace
The process will have an independent namespace for POSIX message queues
as well as System V \%message queues,
semaphore sets and shared memory segments.
For further details, see
.BR ipc_namespaces (7).
.TP
.B network namespace
The process will have independent IPv4 and IPv6 stacks, IP routing tables,
firewall rules, the \fI/proc/net\fP and \fI/sys/class/net\fP directory trees,
sockets, etc.
For further details, see
.BR network_namespaces (7).
.TP
.B PID namespace
Children will have a distinct set of PID-to-process mappings from their parent.
For further details, see
.BR pid_namespaces (7).
.TP
.B cgroup namespace
The process will have a virtualized view of \fI/proc\:/self\:/cgroup\fP, and new
cgroup mounts will be rooted at the namespace cgroup root.
For further details, see
.BR cgroup_namespaces (7).
.TP
.B user namespace
The process will have a distinct set of UIDs, GIDs and capabilities.
For further details, see
.BR user_namespaces (7).
.TP
.B time namespace
The process can have a distinct view of
.B CLOCK_MONOTONIC
and/or
.B CLOCK_BOOTTIME
which can be changed using \fI/proc/self/timens_offsets\fP.
For further details, see
.BR time_namespaces (7).
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.BR \-i , " \-\-ipc" [ =\fIfile ]
Unshare the IPC namespace.  If \fIfile\fP is specified, then a persistent
namespace is created by a bind mount.
.TP
.BR \-m , " \-\-mount" [ =\fIfile ]
Unshare the mount namespace.  If \fIfile\fP is specified, then a persistent
namespace is created by a bind mount.
Note that \fIfile\fP must be located on a mount whose propagation type
is not \fBshared\fP (or an error results).
Use the command \fBfindmnt \-o+PROPAGATION\fP
when not sure about the current setting.  See also the examples below.
.TP
.BR \-n , " \-\-net" [ =\fIfile ]
Unshare the network namespace.  If \fIfile\fP is specified, then a persistent
namespace is created by a bind mount.
.TP
.BR \-p , " \-\-pid" [ =\fIfile ]
Unshare the PID namespace.  If \fIfile\fP is specified, then a persistent
namespace is created by a bind mount.
(Creation of a persistent PID namespace will fail if the
.B \-\-fork
option is not also specified.)
.IP
See also the \fB\-\-fork\fP and
\fB\-\-mount-proc\fP options.
.TP
.BR \-u , " \-\-uts" [ =\fIfile ]
Unshare the UTS namespace.  If \fIfile\fP is specified, then a persistent
namespace is created by a bind mount.
.TP
.BR \-U , " \-\-user" [ =\fIfile ]
Unshare the user namespace.  If \fIfile\fP is specified, then a persistent
namespace is created by a bind mount.
.TP
.BR \-C , " \-\-cgroup" [ =\fIfile ]
Unshare the cgroup namespace. If \fIfile\fP is specified then persistent namespace is created
by bind mount.
.TP
.BR \-T , " \-\-time" [ =\fIfile ]
Unshare the time namespace. If \fIfile\fP is specified then a persistent
namespace is created by a bind mount. The \fB\-\-monotonic\fP and
\fB\-\-boottime\fP options can be used to specify the corresponding
offset in the time namespace.
.TP
.BR \-f , " \-\-fork"
Fork the specified \fIprogram\fR as a child process of \fBunshare\fR rather
than running it directly.  This is useful when creating a new PID namespace.
Note that when \fBunshare\fR is waiting for the child process,
then it ignores SIGINT and SIGTERM and does not forward any signals to the
child.  It is necessary to send signals to the child process.
.TP
.B \-\-keep\-caps
When the \fB\-\-user\fP option is given, ensure that capabilities granted
in the user namespace are preserved in the child process.
.TP
.BR \-\-kill\-child [ =\fIsigname ]
When \fBunshare\fR terminates, have \fIsigname\fP be sent to the forked child process.
Combined with \fB\-\-pid\fR this allows for an easy and reliable killing of the entire
process tree below \fBunshare\fR.
If not given, \fIsigname\fP defaults to \fBSIGKILL\fR.
This option implies \fB\-\-fork\fR.
.TP
.BR \-\-mount\-proc [ =\fImountpoint ]
Just before running the program, mount the proc filesystem at \fImountpoint\fP
(default is /proc).  This is useful when creating a new PID namespace.  It also
implies creating a new mount namespace since the /proc mount would otherwise
mess up existing programs on the system.  The new proc filesystem is explicitly
mounted as private (with MS_PRIVATE|MS_REC).
.TP
.BI \-\-map\-user= uid|name
Run the program only after the current effective user ID has been mapped to \fIuid\fP.
If this option is specified multiple times, the last occurrence takes precedence.
This option implies \fB\-\-user\fR.
.TP
.BI \-\-map\-group= gid|name
Run the program only after the current effective group ID has been mapped to \fIgid\fP.
If this option is specified multiple times, the last occurrence takes precedence.
This option implies \fB\-\-setgroups=deny\fR and \fB\-\-user\fR.
.TP
.BR \-r , " \-\-map\-root\-user"
Run the program only after the current effective user and group IDs have been mapped to
the superuser UID and GID in the newly created user namespace.  This makes it possible to
conveniently gain capabilities needed to manage various aspects of the newly created
namespaces (such as configuring interfaces in the network namespace or mounting filesystems in
the mount namespace) even when run unprivileged.  As a mere convenience feature, it does not support
more sophisticated use cases, such as mapping multiple ranges of UIDs and GIDs.
This option implies \fB\-\-setgroups=deny\fR and \fB\-\-user\fR.
This option is equivalent to \fB\-\-map-user=0 \-\-map-group=0\fR.
.TP
.BR \-c , " \-\-map\-current\-user"
Run the program only after the current effective user and group IDs have been mapped to
the same UID and GID in the newly created user namespace. This option implies
\fB\-\-setgroups=deny\fR and \fB\-\-user\fR.
This option is equivalent to \fB\-\-map-user=$(id -ru) \-\-map-group=$(id -rg)\fR.
.TP
.BR "\-\-propagation private" | shared | slave | unchanged
Recursively set the mount propagation flag in the new mount namespace.  The default
is to set the propagation to \fIprivate\fP.  It is possible to disable this feature
with the argument \fBunchanged\fR.  The option is silently ignored when the mount
namespace (\fB\-\-mount\fP) is not requested.
.TP
.BR "\-\-setgroups allow" | deny
Allow or deny the
.BR setgroups (2)
system call in a user namespace.
.sp
To be able to call
.BR setgroups (2),
the calling process must at least have CAP_SETGID.
But since Linux 3.19 a further restriction applies:
the kernel gives permission to call
.BR \%setgroups (2)
only after the GID map (\fB/proc/\fIpid\fB/gid_map\fR) has been set.
The GID map is writable by root when
.BR \%setgroups (2)
is enabled (i.e., \fBallow\fR, the default), and
the GID map becomes writable by unprivileged processes when
.BR \%setgroups (2)
is permanently disabled (with \fBdeny\fR).
.TP
.BR \-R , " \-\-root=\fIdir"
run the command with root directory set to \fIdir\fP.
.TP
.BR \-w , " \-\-wd=\fIdir"
change working directory to \fIdir\fP.
.TP
.BR \-S , " \-\-setuid \fIuid"
Set the user ID which will be used in the entered namespace.
.TP
.BR \-G , " \-\-setgid \fIgid"
Set the group ID which will be used in the entered namespace and drop
supplementary groups.
.TP
.BI \-\-monotonic " offset"
Set the offset of
.B CLOCK_MONOTONIC
which will be used in the entered time namespace. This option requires
unsharing a time namespace with \fB\-\-time\fP.
.TP
.BI \-\-boottime " offset"
Set the offset of
.B CLOCK_BOOTTIME
which will be used in the entered time namespace. This option requires
unsharing a time namespace with \fB\-\-time\fP.
.TP
.BR \-V , " \-\-version"
Display version information and exit.
.TP
.BR \-h , " \-\-help"
Display help text and exit.
.SH NOTES
The proc and sysfs filesystems mounting as root in a user namespace have to be
restricted so that a less privileged user can not get more access to sensitive
files that a more privileged user made unavailable. In short the rule for proc
and sysfs is as close to a bind mount as possible.
.SH EXAMPLES
The following command creates a PID namespace, using
.B \-\-fork
to ensure that the executed command is performed in a child process
that (being the first process in the namespace) has PID 1.
The
.B \-\-mount-proc
option ensures that a new mount namespace is also simultaneously created
and that a new
.BR proc (5)
filesystem is mounted that contains information corresponding to the new
PID namespace.
When the
.B readlink
command terminates, the new namespaces are automatically torn down.
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
.B # unshare \-\-fork \-\-pid \-\-mount-proc readlink /proc/self
1
.EE
.in
.PP
As an unprivileged user, create a new user namespace where the user's
credentials are mapped to the root IDs inside the namespace:
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
.B $ id \-u; id \-g
1000
1000
.B $ unshare \-\-user \-\-map-root-user \e
.B "        sh \-c \(aqwhoami; cat /proc/self/uid_map /proc/self/gid_map\(aq"
root
         0       1000          1
         0       1000          1
.EE
.in
.PP
The first of the following commands creates a new persistent UTS namespace
and modifies the hostname as seen in that namespace.
The namespace is then entered with
.BR nsenter (1)
in order to display the modified hostname;
this step demonstrates that the UTS namespace continues to exist
even though the namespace had no member processes after the
.B unshare
command terminated.
The namespace is then destroyed by removing the bind mount.
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
.B # touch /root/uts-ns
.B # unshare \-\-uts=/root/uts-ns hostname FOO
.B # nsenter \-\-uts=/root/uts-ns hostname
FOO
.B # umount /root/uts-ns
.EE
.in
.PP
The following commands
establish a persistent mount namespace referenced by the bind mount
.IR /root/namespaces/mnt .
In order to ensure that the creation of that bind mount succeeds,
the parent directory
.RI ( /root/namespaces )
is made a bind mount whose propagation type is not
.BR shared .
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
.B # mount \-\-bind /root/namespaces /root/namespaces
.B # mount \-\-make-private /root/namespaces
.B # touch /root/namespaces/mnt
.B # unshare \-\-mount=/root/namespaces/mnt
.EE
.in
.PP
The following commands demonstrate the use of the
.B \-\-kill-child
option when creating a PID namespace, in order to ensure that when
.B unshare
is killed, all of the processes within the PID namespace are killed.
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
.BR "# set +m                " "# Don't print job status messages"
.B # unshare \-\-pid \-\-fork \-\-mount\-proc \-\-kill\-child \-\- \e
.B "       bash \-\-norc \-c \(aq(sleep 555 &) && (ps a &) && sleep 999\(aq &"
[1] 53456
#     PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
      1 pts/3    S+     0:00 sleep 999
      3 pts/3    S+     0:00 sleep 555
      5 pts/3    R+     0:00 ps a

.BR "# ps h \-o 'comm' $!     " "# Show that background job is unshare(1)"
unshare
.BR "# kill $!               " "# Kill unshare(1)"
.B # pidof sleep
.EE
.in
.PP
The
.B pidof
command prints no output, because the
.B sleep
processes have been killed.
More precisely, when the
.B sleep
process that has PID 1 in the namespace (i.e., the namespace's init process)
was killed, this caused all other processes in the namespace to be killed.
By contrast, a similar series of commands where the
.B \-\-kill\-child
option is not used shows that when
.B unshare
terminates, the processes in the PID namespace are not killed:
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
.B # unshare \-\-pid \-\-fork \-\-mount\-proc \-\- \e
.B "       bash \-\-norc \-c \(aq(sleep 555 &) && (ps a &) && sleep 999\(aq &"
[1] 53479
#     PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
      1 pts/3    S+     0:00 sleep 999
      3 pts/3    S+     0:00 sleep 555
      5 pts/3    R+     0:00 ps a

.B # kill $!
.B # pidof sleep
53482 53480
.EE
.in
.PP
The following example demonstrates the creation of a time namespace
where the boottime clock is set to a point several years in the past:
.PP
.in +4n
.EX
.BR "# uptime \-p             " "# Show uptime in initial time namespace"
up 21 hours, 30 minutes
.B # unshare \-\-time \-\-fork \-\-boottime 300000000 uptime \-p
up 9 years, 28 weeks, 1 day, 2 hours, 50 minutes
.EE
.in
.SH AUTHORS
.UR dottedmag@dottedmag.net
Mikhail Gusarov
.UE
.br
.UR kzak@redhat.com
Karel Zak
.UE
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR clone (2),
.BR unshare (2),
.BR namespaces (7),
.BR mount (8)
.SH AVAILABILITY
The unshare command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.