lxc-create(1) — Linux manual page
lxc-create(1) lxc-create(1)
NAME
lxc-create - creates a container
SYNOPSIS
lxc-create {-n name} [-f config_file] {-t template} [-B
backingstore] [-- template-options]
DESCRIPTION
lxc-create creates a system object where is stored the configura‐
tion information and where can be stored user information. The
identifier name is used to specify the container to be used with
the different lxc commands.
The object is a directory created in /var/lib/lxc and identified
by its name.
The object is the definition of the different resources an appli‐
cation can use or can see. The more the configuration file con‐
tains information, the more the container is isolated and the
more the application is jailed.
If the configuration file config_file is not specified, the con‐
tainer will be created with the default isolation: processes,
sysv ipc and mount points.
OPTIONS
-f, --config config_file
Specify the configuration file to configure the virtual‐
ization and isolation functionalities for the container.
-t, --template template
'template' is the short name of an existing 'lxc-template'
script that is called by lxc-create, eg. busybox, debian,
fedora, ubuntu or sshd. Refer to the examples in
/usr/share/lxc/templates for details of the expected
script structure. Alternatively, the full path to an exe‐
cutable template script can also be passed as a parameter.
"none" can be used to force lxc-create to skip rootfs cre‐
ation.
-B, --bdev backingstore
'backingstore' is one of 'dir', 'lvm', 'loop', 'btrfs',
'zfs', 'rbd', or 'best'. The default is 'dir', meaning
that the container root filesystem will be a directory un‐
der /var/lib/lxc/container/rootfs. This backing store
type allows the optional --dir ROOTFS to be specified,
meaning that the container rootfs should be placed under
the specified path, rather than the default. (The 'none'
backingstore type is an alias for 'dir'.) If 'btrfs' is
specified, then the target filesystem must be btrfs, and
the container rootfs will be created as a new subvolume.
This allows snapshotted clones to be created, but also
causes rsync --one-filesystem to treat it as a separate
filesystem. If backingstore is 'lvm', then an lvm block
device will be used and the following further options are
available: --lvname lvname1 will create an LV named lv‐
name1 rather than the default, which is the container
name. --vgname vgname1 will create the LV in volume group
vgname1 rather than the default, lxc. --thinpool thin‐
pool1 will create the LV as a thin-provisioned volume in
the pool named thinpool1 rather than the default, lxc.
--fstype FSTYPE will create an FSTYPE filesystem on the
LV, rather than the default, which is ext4. --fssize SIZE
will create a LV (and filesystem) of size SIZE rather than
the default, which is 1G.
If backingstore is 'loop', you can use --fstype FSTYPE and
--fssize SIZE as 'lvm'. The default values for these op‐
tions are the same as 'lvm'.
If backingstore is 'rbd', then you will need to have a
valid configuration in ceph.conf and a ceph.client.ad‐
min.keyring defined. You can specify the following op‐
tions : --rbdname RBDNAME will create a blockdevice named
RBDNAME rather than the default, which is the container
name. --rbdpool POOL will create the blockdevice in the
pool named POOL, rather than the default, which is 'lxc'.
If backingstore is 'best', then lxc will try, in order,
btrfs, zfs, lvm, and finally a directory backing store.
-- template-options
This will pass template-options to the template as argu‐
ments. To see the list of options supported by the tem‐
plate, you can run lxc-create -t TEMPLATE -h.
COMMON OPTIONS
These options are common to most of lxc commands.
-?, -h, --help
Print a longer usage message than normal.
--usage
Give the usage message
-q, --quiet
mute on
-P, --lxcpath=PATH
Use an alternate container path. The default is
/var/lib/lxc.
-o, --logfile=FILE
Output to an alternate log FILE. The default is no log.
-l, --logpriority=LEVEL
Set log priority to LEVEL. The default log priority is ER‐
ROR. Possible values are : FATAL, ALERT, CRIT, WARN, ER‐
ROR, NOTICE, INFO, DEBUG, TRACE.
Note that this option is setting the priority of the
events log in the alternate log file. It do not have ef‐
fect on the ERROR events log on stderr.
-n, --name=NAME
Use container identifier NAME. The container identifier
format is an alphanumeric string.
--rcfile=FILE
Specify the configuration file to configure the virtual‐
ization and isolation functionalities for the container.
This configuration file if present will be used even if
there is already a configuration file present in the pre‐
viously created container (via lxc-create).
--version
Show the version number.
DIAGNOSTIC
The container already exists
As the message mention it, you try to create a container
but there is a container with the same name. You can use
the lxc-ls command to list the available containers on the
system.
SEE ALSO
lxc(7), lxc-create(1), lxc-copy(1), lxc-destroy(1), lxc-start(1),
lxc-stop(1), lxc-execute(1), lxc-console(1), lxc-monitor(1),
lxc-wait(1), lxc-cgroup(1), lxc-ls(1), lxc-info(1),
lxc-freeze(1), lxc-unfreeze(1), lxc-attach(1), lxc.conf(5)
COLOPHON
This page is part of the lxc (Linux containers) project. Infor‐
mation about the project can be found at
⟨http://linuxcontainers.org/⟩. If you have a bug report for this
manual page, send it to lxc-devel@lists.linuxcontainers.org.
This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/lxc/lxc.git⟩ on 2024-06-14. (At that time,
the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2024-06-05.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
2024-04-03 lxc-create(1)
Pages that refer to this page: lxc-attach(1), lxc-autostart(1), lxc-cgroup(1), lxc-checkconfig(1), lxc-checkpoint(1), lxc-config(1), lxc-console(1), lxc-copy(1), lxc-create(1), lxc-destroy(1), lxc-device(1), lxc-execute(1), lxc-freeze(1), lxc-info(1), lxc-ls(1), lxc-monitor(1), lxc-snapshot(1), lxc-start(1), lxc-stop(1), lxc-top(1), lxc-unfreeze(1), lxc-unshare(1), lxc-update-config(1), lxc-usernsexec(1), lxc-wait(1), lxc.container.conf(5), lxc.system.conf(5), lxc(7)