mkosi-sandbox(1)

NAME
mkosi-sandbox — Run commands in a custom sandbox

SYNOPSIS
mkosi-sandbox [options...] command [arguments]

DESCRIPTION
mkosi-sandbox runs the given command in a custom sandbox. The sandbox is configured by specifying command line options that configure individual parts of the sandbox.

If no command is specified, mkosi-sandbox will start bash in the sandbox.

Note that this sandbox is not designed to be a security boundary. Its intended purpose is to allow running commands in an isolated environment so they are not affected by the host system.

It is possible to use mkosi-sandbox to create an in process sandbox for python applications by importing it as a module and invoking its main function with only options. No command line to execute is needed in this case. As an example:

        import mkosi.sandbox
        mkosi.sandbox.main(["--become-root"])
        print(os.getuid())

Only the main function can be invoked. Invoking any other functions from mkosi.sandbox is not supported and may break in future versions.

OPTIONS

--tmpfs DST
    Mounts a new tmpfs at DST in the sandbox.

--dev DST
    Sets up a private /dev at DST in the sandbox. This private /dev will only contain the basic device nodes required for a functioning sandbox (e.g. /dev/null) and no actual devices.

--proc DST
    Mounts /proc from the host at DST in the sandbox.

--dir DST
    Creates a directory and all missing parent directories at DST in the sandbox. All directories are created with mode 755 unless the path ends with /tmp or /var/tmp in which case it is created with mode 1777.

--bind SRC DST
    The source path SRC is recursively bind mounted to DST in the sandbox. The mountpoint is created in the sandbox if it does not yet exist. Any missing parent directories in the sandbox are created as well. The source path may optionally be prefixed with a + character. If so, the source path is interpreted relative to the sandbox root directory instead of the host root directory.

--bind-try SRC DST
    Like --bind, but doesn’t fail if the source path doesn’t exist.

--ro-bind SRC DST
    Like --bind, but does a recursive readonly bind mount.

--ro-bind-try SRC DST
    Like --bind-try, but does a recursive readonly bind mount.

--symlink SRC DST
    Creates a symlink at DST in the sandbox pointing to SRC. If DST already exists and is a file or symlink, a temporary symlink is created and mounted on top of DST.

--write DATA DST
    Writes the string from DATA to DST in the sandbox.

--overlay-lowerdir DIR
    Adds DIR from the host as a new lower directory for the next overlayfs mount.

--overlay-upperdir DIR
    Sets the upper directory for the next overlayfs mount to DIR from the host. If set to tmpfs, the upperdir and workdir will be subdirectories of a fresh tmpfs mount.

--overlay-workdir DIR
    Sets the working directory for the next overlayfs mount to DIR from the host.

--overlay DST
    Mounts a new overlay filesystem at DST in the sandbox. The lower directories, upper directory and working directory are specified using the --overlay-lowerdir, --overlay-upperdir and --overlay-workdir options respectively. After each --overlay option is parsed, the other overlay options are reset.

--unsetenv NAME
    Unsets the NAME environment variable in the sandbox.

--setenv NAME VALUE
    Sets the NAME environment variable to VALUE in the sandbox

--chdir DIR
    Changes the working directory to DIR in the sandbox.

--same-dir
    Changes to the working directory in the sandbox to the current working directory that mkosi-sandbox is invoked in on the host.

--become-root
    Maps the current user to the root user in the sandbox. If this option is not specified, the current user is mapped to itself in the sandbox. Regardless of whether this option is specified or not, the current user will have a full set of ambient capabilities in the sandbox. This includes CAP_SYS_ADMIN which means that the invoked process in the sandbox will be able to do bind mounts and other operations.

    If mkosi-sandbox is invoked as the root user, this option won’t do anything.

--suppress-chown
    Specifying this option causes all calls to chown() or similar system calls to become a noop in the sandbox. This is primarily useful when invoking package managers in the sandbox which might try to chown() files to different users or groups which would fail unless mkosi-sandbox is invoked by a privileged user.

--suppress-sync
    Specifying this option causes all calls to sync() or similar system calls to become a noop in the sandbox. This is primarily useful when invoking package managers in the sandbox which might try to sync() files when extracting packages which is unnecessary when building images and slows down execution time significantly.

--unshare-net
    Specifying this option makes mkosi-sandbox unshare a network namespace if possible.

--unshare-ipc
    Specifying this option makes mkosi-sandbox unshare an IPC namespace if possible.

--suspend
    Make the mkosi-sandbox process suspend itself with SIGSTOP just before it calls execve(). This is useful to wait until all setup logic has completed before continuing execution in the parent process invoking mkosi-sandbox by using waitid() with the WNOWAIT AND WSTOPPED flags.

--pack-fds
    Pack inherited file descriptors together starting at file descriptor number 3 and set $LISTEN_FDS to the number of packed file descriptors and $LISTEN_PID to the current process pid.

--version
    Show package version.

--help, -h
    Show brief usage information.

EXAMPLES
Start bash in the current working directory in its own network namespace as the current user.

        mkosi-sandbox --bind / / --same-dir --unshare-net

Run id as the root user in a sandbox with only /usr from the host plus the necessary symlinks to be able to run commands.

        mkosi-sandbox \
            --ro-bind /usr /usr \
            --symlink usr/bin /bin \
            --symlink usr/lib /lib \
            --symlink usr/lib64 /lib64 \
            --symlink usr/sbin /sbin \
            --dev /dev \
            --proc /proc \
            --tmpfs /tmp \
            --become-root \
            id

SEE ALSO
mkosi(1)