List currently running (online) virtual machines and containers. To enumerate machine images that can be started, use list-images (see below). Note that this command hides the special ".host" machine by default. Use the --all switch to show it.

Added in version 206.

Show runtime status information about one or more virtual machines and containers, followed by the most recent log data from the journal. This function is intended to generate human-readable output. If you are looking for computer-parsable output, use show instead. Note that the log data shown is reported by the virtual machine or container manager, and frequently contains console output of the machine, but not necessarily journal contents of the machine itself.

Added in version 206.

Show properties of one or more registered virtual machines or containers or the manager itself. If no argument is specified, properties of the manager will be shown. If a NAME is specified, properties of this virtual machine or container are shown. By default, empty properties are suppressed. Use --all to show those too. To select specific properties to show, use --property=. This command is intended to be used whenever computer-parsable output is required, and does not print the control group tree or journal entries. Use status if you are looking for formatted human-readable output.

Added in version 206.

Start a container as a system service, using systemd-nspawn(1). This starts systemd-nspawn@.service, instantiated for the specified machine name, similar to the effect of systemctl start on the service name. systemd-nspawn looks for a container image by the specified name in /var/lib/machines/ (and other search paths, see below) and runs it. Use list-images (see below) for listing available container images to start.

Note that systemd-machined.service(8) also interfaces with a variety of other container and VM managers, systemd-nspawn is just one implementation of it. Most of the commands available in machinectl may be used on containers or VMs controlled by other managers, not just systemd-nspawn. Starting VMs and container images on those managers requires manager-specific tools.

To interactively start a container on the command line with full access to the container's console, please invoke systemd-nspawn directly. To stop a running container use machinectl poweroff.

Added in version 219.

Open an interactive terminal login session in a container or on the local host. If an argument is supplied, it refers to the container machine to connect to. If none is specified, or the container name is specified as the empty string, or the special machine name ".host" (see below) is specified, the connection is made to the local host instead. This will create a TTY connection to a specific container or the local host and asks for the execution of a getty on it. Note that this is only supported for containers running systemd(1) as init system.

This command will open a full login prompt on the container or the local host, which then asks for username and password. Use shell (see below) or systemd-run(1) with the --machine= switch to directly invoke a single command, either interactively or in the background.

Added in version 209.

Open an interactive shell session in a container or on the local host. The first argument refers to the container machine to connect to. If none is specified, or the machine name is specified as the empty string, or the special machine name ".host" (see below) is specified, the connection is made to the local host instead. This works similarly to login, but immediately invokes a user process. This command runs the specified executable with the specified arguments, or the default shell for the user if none is specified, or /bin/sh if no default shell is found. By default, --uid=, or by prefixing the machine name with a username and an "@" character, a different user may be selected. Use --setenv= to set environment variables for the executed process.

Note that machinectl shell does not propagate the exit code/status of the invoked shell process. Use systemd-run instead if that information is required (see below).

Using the shell command without arguments (thus invoking the executed shell or command on the local host), is in many ways similar to a su(1) session, but, unlike su, completely isolates the new session from the originating session, so that it shares no process or session properties and is in a clean well-defined state. It will be tracked in a new utmp, login, audit, security, and keyring sessions, and will not inherit any environment variables or resource limits, among other properties.

Note that systemd-run(1) with its --machine= switch may be used in place of the machinectl shell command, and allows non-interactive operation, more detailed and low-level configuration of the invoked unit, as well as access to runtime and exit code/status information of the invoked shell process. In particular, use systemd-run's --wait switch to propagate exit status information of the invoked process. Use systemd-run's --pty switch to acquire an interactive shell, similarly to machinectl shell. In general, systemd-run is preferable for scripting purposes. However, note that systemd-run might require higher privileges than machinectl shell.

Added in version 225.

Enable or disable a container as a system service to start at system boot, using systemd-nspawn(1). This enables or disables systemd-nspawn@.service, instantiated for the specified machine name, similarly to the effect of systemctl enable or systemctl disable on the service name.

This command implicitly reloads the system manager configuration after completing the operation. Note that this command does not implicitly start or power off the containers that are being operated on. If this is desired, combine the command with the --now switch.

Added in version 219.

Power off one or more containers. This will trigger a shutdown by sending SIGRTMIN+4 to the container's init process, which causes systemd-compatible init systems to shut down cleanly. Use stop as alias for poweroff. This operation does not work on containers that do not run a systemd(1)-compatible init system, such as sysvinit. Use terminate (see below) to immediately terminate a container or VM, without cleanly shutting it down.

Added in version 212.

Reboot one or more containers. This will trigger a reboot by sending SIGINT to the container's init process, which is roughly equivalent to pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del on a non-containerized system, and is compatible with containers running any system manager. Use restart as alias for reboot.

Added in version 209.

Immediately terminates a virtual machine or container, without cleanly shutting it down. This kills all processes of the virtual machine or container and deallocates all resources attached to that instance. Use poweroff to issue a clean shutdown request.

Added in version 206.

Send a signal to one or more processes of the virtual machine or container. This means processes as seen by the host, not the processes inside the virtual machine or container. Use --kill-whom= to select which process to kill. Use --signal= to select the signal to send.

Added in version 206.

Bind mounts a file or directory from the host into the specified container. The first path argument is the source file or directory on the host, the second path argument is the destination file or directory in the container. When the latter is omitted, the destination path in the container is the same as the source path on the host. When combined with the --read-only switch, a ready-only bind mount is created. When combined with the --mkdir switch, the destination path is first created before the mount is applied. Note that this option is currently only supported for systemd-nspawn(1) containers, and only if user namespacing (--private-users) is not used. This command supports bind mounting directories, regular files, device nodes, AF_UNIX socket nodes, as well as FIFOs.

Added in version 219.

Copies files or directories from the host system into a running container. Takes a container name, followed by the source path on the host and the destination path in the container. If the destination path is omitted, the same as the source path is used.

If host and container share the same user and group namespace, file ownership by numeric user ID and group ID is preserved for the copy, otherwise all files and directories in the copy will be owned by the root user and group (UID/GID 0).

Added in version 219.

Copies files or directories from a container into the host system. Takes a container name, followed by the source path in the container and the destination path on the host. If the destination path is omitted, the same as the source path is used.

If host and container share the same user and group namespace, file ownership by numeric user ID and group ID is preserved for the copy, otherwise all files and directories in the copy will be owned by the root user and group (UID/GID 0).

Added in version 219.

Show a list of locally installed container and VM images. This enumerates all raw disk images and container directories and subvolumes in /var/lib/machines/ (and other search paths, see below). Use start (see above) to run a container off one of the listed images. Note that, by default, containers whose name begins with a dot (".") are not shown. To show these too, specify --all. Note that a special image ".host" always implicitly exists and refers to the image the host itself is booted from.

Added in version 219.

Show terse status information about one or more container or VM images. This function is intended to generate human-readable output. Use show-image (see below) to generate computer-parsable output instead.

Added in version 219.

Show properties of one or more registered virtual machine or container images, or the manager itself. If no argument is specified, properties of the manager will be shown. If a NAME is specified, properties of this virtual machine or container image are shown. By default, empty properties are suppressed. Use --all to show those too. To select specific properties to show, use --property=. This command is intended to be used whenever computer-parsable output is required. Use image-status if you are looking for formatted human-readable output.

Added in version 219.

Edit the settings file of the specified machines. For the format of the settings file, refer to systemd.nspawn(5). If an existing settings file of the given machine can't be found, edit automatically create a new settings file from scratch under /etc/systemd/nspawn/.

Added in version 254.

Show the settings file of the specified machines.

Added in version 254.

Clones a container or VM image. The arguments specify the name of the image to clone and the name of the newly cloned image. Note that plain directory container images are cloned into btrfs subvolume images with this command, if the underlying file system supports this. Note that cloning a container or VM image is optimized for file systems that support copy-on-write, and might not be efficient on others, due to file system limitations.

Note that this command leaves hostname, machine ID and all other settings that could identify the instance unmodified. The original image and the cloned copy will hence share these credentials, and it might be necessary to manually change them in the copy.

If combined with the --read-only switch a read-only cloned image is created.

Added in version 219.

Renames a container or VM image. The arguments specify the name of the image to rename and the new name of the image.

Added in version 219.

Marks or (unmarks) a container or VM image read-only. Takes a VM or container image name, followed by a boolean as arguments. If the boolean is omitted, positive is implied, i.e. the image is marked read-only.

Added in version 219.

Removes one or more container or VM images. The special image ".host", which refers to the host's own directory tree, may not be removed.

Added in version 219.

Sets the maximum size in bytes that a specific container or VM image, or all images, may grow up to on disk (disk quota). Takes either one or two parameters. The first, optional parameter refers to a container or VM image name. If specified, the size limit of the specified image is changed. If omitted, the overall size limit of the sum of all images stored locally is changed. The final argument specifies the size limit in bytes, possibly suffixed by the usual K, M, G, T units. If the size limit shall be disabled, specify "-" as size.

Note that per-container size limits are only supported on btrfs file systems.

Added in version 220.

Remove hidden VM or container images (or all). This command removes all hidden machine images from /var/lib/machines/, i.e. those whose name begins with a dot. Use machinectl list-images --all to see a list of all machine images, including the hidden ones.

When combined with the --all switch removes all images, not just hidden ones. This command effectively empties /var/lib/machines/.

Note that commands such as importctl pull-tar or importctl pull-raw usually create hidden, read-only, unmodified machine images from the downloaded image first, before cloning a writable working copy of it, in order to avoid duplicate downloads in case of images that are reused multiple times. Use machinectl clean to remove old, hidden images created this way.

Added in version 230.