runc-run(8)

runc-run8

Create and start a container

Usage

runc run [option ...] container-id

Overview

The run command creates an instance of a container from a bundle, and starts it. You can think of run as a shortcut for create followed by start.

Options

--bundle|-b path

Path to the root of the bundle directory. Default is current directory.

--console-socket path

Path to an AF_UNIX socket which will receive a file descriptor referencing the master end of the console's pseudoterminal. See docs/terminals ⟨https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/blob/master/docs/terminals.md⟩.

--detach|-d

Detach from the container's process.

--pid-file path

Specify the file to write the initial container process' PID to.

--no-subreaper

Disable the use of the subreaper used to reap reparented processes.

--no-pivot

Do not use pivot root to jail process inside rootfs. This should not be used except in exceptional circumstances, and may be unsafe from the security standpoint.

--no-new-keyring

Do not create a new session keyring for the container. This will cause the container to inherit the calling processes session key.

--preserve-fds N

Pass N additional file descriptors to the container (stdio + $LISTEN_FDS + N in total). Default is 0.

--keep

Keep container's state directory and cgroup. This can be helpful if a user wants to check the state (e.g. of cgroup controllers) after the container has exited. If this option is used, a manual runc delete is needed afterwards to clean an exited container's artefacts.

Releases

5 releases since Debian 10 (Buster); the text changed 3 times.

  1. 10
  2. 11
  3. 12–13
  4. Arch

--console-socket since Debian 12 (Bookworm); --keep since Debian 12 (Bookworm); --no-new-keyring since Debian 12 (Bookworm); --no-pivot since Debian 12 (Bookworm); --no-subreaper since Debian 12 (Bookworm); --pid-file since Debian 12 (Bookworm); --preserve-fds since Debian 12 (Bookworm).

From runc 1.5.2-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.