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NAME | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLE | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
NAMESPACES(7) Linux Programmer's Manual NAMESPACES(7)
namespaces - overview of Linux namespaces
A namespace wraps a global system resource in an abstraction that
makes it appear to the processes within the namespace that they have
their own isolated instance of the global resource. Changes to the
global resource are visible to other processes that are members of
the namespace, but are invisible to other processes. One use of
namespaces is to implement containers.
Linux provides the following namespaces:
Namespace Constant Isolates
Cgroup CLONE_NEWCGROUP Cgroup root directory
IPC CLONE_NEWIPC System V IPC, POSIX message queues
Network CLONE_NEWNET Network devices, stacks, ports, etc.
Mount CLONE_NEWNS Mount points
PID CLONE_NEWPID Process IDs
User CLONE_NEWUSER User and group IDs
UTS CLONE_NEWUTS Hostname and NIS domain name
This page describes the various namespaces and the associated /proc
files, and summarizes the APIs for working with namespaces.
The namespaces API
As well as various /proc files described below, the namespaces API
includes the following system calls:
clone(2)
The clone(2) system call creates a new process. If the flags
argument of the call specifies one or more of the CLONE_NEW*
flags listed below, then new namespaces are created for each
flag, and the child process is made a member of those
namespaces. (This system call also implements a number of
features unrelated to namespaces.)
setns(2)
The setns(2) system call allows the calling process to join an
existing namespace. The namespace to join is specified via a
file descriptor that refers to one of the /proc/[pid]/ns files
described below.
unshare(2)
The unshare(2) system call moves the calling process to a new
namespace. If the flags argument of the call specifies one or
more of the CLONE_NEW* flags listed below, then new namespaces
are created for each flag, and the calling process is made a
member of those namespaces. (This system call also implements
a number of features unrelated to namespaces.)
Creation of new namespaces using clone(2) and unshare(2) in most
cases requires the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability. User namespaces are the
exception: since Linux 3.8, no privilege is required to create a user
namespace.
The /proc/[pid]/ns/ directory
Each process has a /proc/[pid]/ns/ subdirectory containing one entry
for each namespace that supports being manipulated by setns(2):
$ ls -l /proc/$$/ns
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 mtk mtk 0 Apr 28 12:46 cgroup -> cgroup:[4026531835]
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 mtk mtk 0 Apr 28 12:46 ipc -> ipc:[4026531839]
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 mtk mtk 0 Apr 28 12:46 mnt -> mnt:[4026531840]
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 mtk mtk 0 Apr 28 12:46 net -> net:[4026531969]
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 mtk mtk 0 Apr 28 12:46 pid -> pid:[4026531836]
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 mtk mtk 0 Apr 28 12:46 pid_for_children -> pid:[4026531834]
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 mtk mtk 0 Apr 28 12:46 user -> user:[4026531837]
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 mtk mtk 0 Apr 28 12:46 uts -> uts:[4026531838]
Bind mounting (see mount(2)) one of the files in this directory to
somewhere else in the filesystem keeps the corresponding namespace of
the process specified by pid alive even if all processes currently in
the namespace terminate.
Opening one of the files in this directory (or a file that is bind
mounted to one of these files) returns a file handle for the
corresponding namespace of the process specified by pid. As long as
this file descriptor remains open, the namespace will remain alive,
even if all processes in the namespace terminate. The file
descriptor can be passed to setns(2).
In Linux 3.7 and earlier, these files were visible as hard links.
Since Linux 3.8, they appear as symbolic links. If two processes are
in the same namespace, then the inode numbers of their
/proc/[pid]/ns/xxx symbolic links will be the same; an application
can check this using the stat.st_ino field returned by stat(2). The
content of this symbolic link is a string containing the namespace
type and inode number as in the following example:
$ readlink /proc/$$/ns/uts
uts:[4026531838]
The symbolic links in this subdirectory are as follows:
/proc/[pid]/ns/cgroup (since Linux 4.6)
This file is a handle for the cgroup namespace of the process.
/proc/[pid]/ns/ipc (since Linux 3.0)
This file is a handle for the IPC namespace of the process.
/proc/[pid]/ns/mnt (since Linux 3.8)
This file is a handle for the mount namespace of the process.
/proc/[pid]/ns/net (since Linux 3.0)
This file is a handle for the network namespace of the
process.
/proc/[pid]/ns/pid (since Linux 3.8)
This file is a handle for the PID namespace of the process.
This handle is permanent for the lifetime of the process
(i.e., a process's PID namespace membership never changes).
/proc/[pid]/ns/pid_for_children (since Linux 4.12)
This file is a handle for the PID namespace of child processes
created by this process. This can change as a consequence of
calls to unshare(2) and setns(2) (see pid_namespaces(7)), so
the file may differ from /proc/[pid]/ns/pid.
/proc/[pid]/ns/user (since Linux 3.8)
This file is a handle for the user namespace of the process.
/proc/[pid]/ns/uts (since Linux 3.0)
This file is a handle for the UTS namespace of the process.
Permission to dereference or read (readlink(2)) these symbolic links
is governed by a ptrace access mode PTRACE_MODE_READ_FSCREDS check;
see ptrace(2).
The /proc/sys/user directory
The files in the /proc/sys/user directory (which is present since
Linux 4.9) expose limits on the number of namespaces of various types
that can be created. The files are as follows:
max_cgroup_namespaces
The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number
of cgroup namespaces that may be created in the user
namespace.
max_ipc_namespaces
The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number
of ipc namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
max_mnt_namespaces
The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number
of mount namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
max_net_namespaces
The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number
of network namespaces that may be created in the user
namespace.
max_pid_namespaces
The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number
of pid namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
max_user_namespaces
The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number
of user namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
max_uts_namespaces
The value in this file defines a per-user limit on the number
of user namespaces that may be created in the user namespace.
Note the following details about these files:
* The values in these files are modifiable by privileged processes.
* The values exposed by these files are the limits for the user
namespace in which the opening process resides.
* The limits are per-user. Each user in the same user namespace can
create namespaces up to the defined limit.
* The limits apply to all users, including UID 0.
* These limits apply in addition to any other per-namespace limits
(such as those for PID and user namespaces) that may be enforced.
* Upon encountering these limits, clone(2) and unshare(2) fail with
the error ENOSPC.
* For the initial user namespace, the default value in each of these
files is half the limit on the number of threads that may be
created (/proc/sys/kernel/threads-max). In all descendant user
namespaces, the default value in each file is MAXINT.
* When a namespace is created, the object is also accounted against
ancestor namespaces. More precisely:
+ Each user namespace has a creator UID.
+ When a namespace is created, it is accounted against the
creator UIDs in each of the ancestor user namespaces, and the
kernel ensures that the corresponding namespace limit for the
creator UID in the ancestor namespace is not exceeded.
+ The aforementioned point ensures that creating a new user
namespace cannot be used as a means to escape the limits in
force in the current user namespace.
Cgroup namespaces (CLONE_NEWCGROUP)
See cgroup_namespaces(7).
IPC namespaces (CLONE_NEWIPC)
IPC namespaces isolate certain IPC resources, namely, System V IPC
objects (see svipc(7)) and (since Linux 2.6.30) POSIX message queues
(see mq_overview(7)). The common characteristic of these IPC
mechanisms is that IPC objects are identified by mechanisms other
than filesystem pathnames.
Each IPC namespace has its own set of System V IPC identifiers and
its own POSIX message queue filesystem. Objects created in an IPC
namespace are visible to all other processes that are members of that
namespace, but are not visible to processes in other IPC namespaces.
The following /proc interfaces are distinct in each IPC namespace:
* The POSIX message queue interfaces in /proc/sys/fs/mqueue.
* The System V IPC interfaces in /proc/sys/kernel, namely: msgmax,
msgmnb, msgmni, sem, shmall, shmmax, shmmni, and shm_rmid_forced.
* The System V IPC interfaces in /proc/sysvipc.
When an IPC namespace is destroyed (i.e., when the last process that
is a member of the namespace terminates), all IPC objects in the
namespace are automatically destroyed.
Use of IPC namespaces requires a kernel that is configured with the
CONFIG_IPC_NS option.
Network namespaces (CLONE_NEWNET)
Network namespaces provide isolation of the system resources
associated with networking: network devices, IPv4 and IPv6 protocol
stacks, IP routing tables, firewalls, the /proc/net directory, the
/sys/class/net directory, port numbers (sockets), and so on. A
physical network device can live in exactly one network namespace. A
virtual network device ("veth") pair provides a pipe-like abstraction
that can be used to create tunnels between network namespaces, and
can be used to create a bridge to a physical network device in
another namespace.
When a network namespace is freed (i.e., when the last process in the
namespace terminates), its physical network devices are moved back to
the initial network namespace (not to the parent of the process).
Use of network namespaces requires a kernel that is configured with
the CONFIG_NET_NS option.
Mount namespaces (CLONE_NEWNS)
See mount_namespaces(7).
PID namespaces (CLONE_NEWPID)
See pid_namespaces(7).
User namespaces (CLONE_NEWUSER)
See user_namespaces(7).
UTS namespaces (CLONE_NEWUTS)
UTS namespaces provide isolation of two system identifiers: the
hostname and the NIS domain name. These identifiers are set using
sethostname(2) and setdomainname(2), and can be retrieved using
uname(2), gethostname(2), and getdomainname(2).
Use of UTS namespaces requires a kernel that is configured with the
CONFIG_UTS_NS option.
See user_namespaces(7).
nsenter(1), readlink(1), unshare(1), clone(2), ioctl_ns(2), setns(2),
unshare(2), proc(5), capabilities(7), cgroup_namespaces(7),
cgroups(7), credentials(7), pid_namespaces(7), user_namespaces(7),
ip-netns(8), lsns(8), switch_root(8)
This page is part of release 4.12 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
latest version of this page, can be found at
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2017-05-03 NAMESPACES(7)
Pages that refer to this page: nsenter(1), systemd-detect-virt(1), unshare(1), clone(2), getdomainname(2), gethostname(2), ioctl_ns(2), setns(2), uname(2), unshare(2), proc(5), systemd.exec(5), cgroup_namespaces(7), cgroups(7), credentials(7), mount_namespaces(7), mq_overview(7), pid_namespaces(7), svipc(7), user_namespaces(7), lsns(8)