snr — systemd-nspawn runner

About snr

Simple wrapper to quickly run systemd-nspawn containers with support to:

• run graphical applications inside container
• have full access to videocard
• have working sound input and output
• bind to network bridge
• automatically set x86_32 "personality" when running 32 bit containers
• specify any other options for systemd-nspawn
• automatically uses sudo when being run not as root

CLI syntax

snr CONTAINER_NAME [additional CLI arguements passed directly to systemd-nspawn]

Usage examples

Some usage examples:

• snr rosa-2016.1
• snr rosa-2016.1 -b
• NW=0 rosa-2016.1 -b
• NW=0 rosa-2016.1 --bind=/tmp/rosa

-b (or --boot) means booting the container, not just chrooting into it. All options are passed to systemd-nspawn(1) without changes.

Run specific application, including graphical ones (geany as an example):

• snr rosa-2016.1 -q geany
• snr rosa-2016.1 --bind=/tmp/rosa -q geany
• snr rosa-2016.1 -q "sudo -u user geany"
• snr rosa-2016.1 -q urpmi gedit

where rosa-2016.1 is a directory inside /var/lib/machines or inside the current directory.

Options

All options can be set in /etc/snr.conf or $PWD/snr.conf or defined as environmental variables.

• DIR — directory where to look for containers, /var/lib/machines by default
• NW — reuse an existing network interface (usually a bridge)
  If livbirtd is running, it creates virbr0 interface, which is used by virtual machines. It can be used also for containers to get IP addresses via DHCP from the same network.
  NW=0 - disable binding to network bridge
  NW=1 - enable binding to network bridge
  NW=2 - force binding to network bridge even if not booting
  If the container is not being booted (-b | --boot) and NW is not defined or is 0 or is 1, then it is set to 0.
• BRIDGE — name of the network interface to use
  If not defined, snr tries to use the first virbr* interface.
• bind_options — set a persistent list of mount-binded directories for systemd-nspawn(1)
  Examples:
  --bind=/tmp/444 means "make a directory /tmp/444 inside the container and make /tmp/444 from the host be it"
  --bind=/tmp/444:/root/444 means "make a directory /root/444 inside the container and make /tmp/444 from the host be it"
  --bind=/tmp/444 --bind=/tmp/555:/root/555
• other_options — list of any other CLI options for systemd-nspawn(1) which are always passed to it
  When a container is run, options are appended in the following order:
  [bind_options] [other_options] [everything from snr cli]

Feedback

Report bugs and send feedback to issues at https://github.com/mikhailnov/snr.

Feel free to send pull requests or email patches to m@mikhailnov.ru.