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Avoid phrases like "shortcoming of container configuration", because it makes one wonder why a known shortcoming is even being used or not being fixed. Immutability also has its advantages for certain use-cases, and it's beyond the scope of this manual to have a full blown discussion about the pros and cons of OCI containers. Interested readers can research that on their own. https://github.com/containers/toolbox/pull/814
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% toolbox-init-container(1)
NAME
toolbox-init-container - Initialize a running container
SYNOPSIS
toolbox init-container --gid GID --home HOME --home-link --media-link --mnt-link --monitor-host --shell SHELL --uid UID --user USER
DESCRIPTION
Initializes a newly created container that's running. It is primarily meant to be used as the entry point for all toolbox containers, and must be run inside the container that's to be initialized. It is not expected to be directly invoked by humans, and cannot be used on the host.
A key feature of toolbox containers is their entry point, the toolbox init-container command.
OCI containers are inherently immutable. Configuration options passed through
podman create are baked into the definition of the OCI container, and can't
be changed later. This means that changes and improvements made in newer
versions of Toolbox can't be applied to pre-existing toolbox containers
created by older versions of Toolbox. This is avoided by using the entry point
to configure the container at runtime.
The entry point of a toolbox container customizes the container to fit the
current user by ensuring that it has a user that matches the one on the host,
and grants it sudo and root access.
Crucial configuration files, such as /etc/host.conf, /etc/hosts,
/etc/localtime, /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/timezone, inside the container
are kept synchronized with the host. The entry point also bind mounts various
subsets of the host's filesystem hierarchy to their corresponding locations
inside the container to provide seamless integration with the host. This
includes /run/libvirt, /run/systemd/journal, /run/udev/data,
/var/lib/libvirt, /var/lib/systemd/coredump, /var/log/journal and others.
On some host operating systems, important paths like /home, /media or
/mnt are symbolic links to other locations. The entry point ensures that
paths inside the container match those on the host, to avoid needless
confusion.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
--gid GID
Pass GID as the user's numerical group ID from the host to the toolbox container.
--home HOME
Create a user inside the toolbox container whose login directory is HOME. This option is required.
--shell SHELL
Create a user inside the toolbox container whose login shell is SHELL. This option is required.
--uid UID
Create a user inside the toolbox container whose numerical user ID is UID. This option is required.
--user USER
Create a user inside the toolbox container whose login name is LOGIN. This option is required.
--home-link
Make /home a symbolic link to /var/home.
--media-link
Make /media a symbolic link to /run/media.
--mnt-link
Make /mnt a symbolic link to /var/mnt.
--monitor-host
Ensure that certain configuration files inside the toolbox container are kept synchronized with their counterparts on the host.
The synchronized files are:
/etc/host.conf/etc/hosts/etc/localtime/etc/resolv.conf/etc/timezone
The following paths are bind mounted to paths from the host's filesystem available in the container:
/etc/machine-id/run/libvirt/run/systemd/journal/run/systemd/resolve/run/udev/data/tmp/var/lib/flatpak/var/lib/libvirt/var/lib/systemd/coredump/var/log/journal/var/mnt
If path /sys/fs/selinux is found in the container, path /usr/share/empty is
bind-mounted to that location to suppress SELinux.
SEE ALSO
toolbox(1), podman(1), podman-create(1), podman-start(1)