# Rootless mode (Experimental) The rootless mode allows running `dockerd` as an unprivileged user, using `user_namespaces(7)`, `mount_namespaces(7)`, `network_namespaces(7)`. No SETUID/SETCAP binary is required except `newuidmap` and `newgidmap`. ## Requirements * `newuidmap` and `newgidmap` need to be installed on the host. These commands are provided by the `uidmap` package on most distros. * `/etc/subuid` and `/etc/subgid` should contain >= 65536 sub-IDs. e.g. `penguin:231072:65536`. ```console $ id -u 1001 $ whoami penguin $ grep ^$(whoami): /etc/subuid penguin:231072:65536 $ grep ^$(whoami): /etc/subgid penguin:231072:65536 ``` * Either [slirp4netns](https://github.com/rootless-containers/slirp4netns) (v0.3+) or [VPNKit](https://github.com/moby/vpnkit) needs to be installed. slirp4netns is preferred for the best performance. ### Distribution-specific hint #### Debian (excluding Ubuntu) * `sudo sh -c "echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/unprivileged_userns_clone"` is required #### Arch Linux * `sudo sh -c "echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/unprivileged_userns_clone"` is required #### openSUSE * `sudo modprobe ip_tables iptable_mangle iptable_nat iptable_filter` is required. (This is likely to be required on other distros as well) #### RHEL/CentOS 7 * `sudo sh -c "echo 28633 > /proc/sys/user/max_user_namespaces"` is required * [COPR package `vbatts/shadow-utils-newxidmap`](https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/vbatts/shadow-utils-newxidmap/) needs to be installed ## Restrictions * Only `vfs` graphdriver is supported. However, on [Ubuntu](http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git/ubuntu/ubuntu-artful.git/commit/fs/overlayfs?h=Ubuntu-4.13.0-25.29&id=0a414bdc3d01f3b61ed86cfe3ce8b63a9240eba7) and a few distros, `overlay2` and `overlay` are also supported. * Following features are not supported: * Cgroups (including `docker top`, which depends on the cgroups device controller) * Apparmor * Checkpoint * Overlay network ## Usage ### Daemon You need to run `dockerd-rootless.sh` instead of `dockerd`. ```console $ dockerd-rootless.sh --experimental" ``` As Rootless mode is experimental per se, currently you always need to run `dockerd-rootless.sh` with `--experimental`. Remarks: * The socket path is set to `$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/docker.sock` by default. `$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR` is typically set to `/run/user/$UID`. * The data dir is set to `~/.local/share/docker` by default. * The exec dir is set to `$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/docker` by default. * The daemon config dir is set to `~/.config/docker` (not `~/.docker`, which is used by the client) by default. * The `dockerd-rootless.sh` script executes `dockerd` in its own user, mount, and network namespaces. You can enter the namespaces by running `nsenter -U --preserve-credentials -n -m -t $(cat $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/docker.pid)`. ### Client You can just use the upstream Docker client but you need to set the socket path explicitly. ```console $ docker -H unix://$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/docker.sock run -d nginx ``` ### Exposing ports In addition to exposing container ports to the `dockerd` network namespace, you also need to expose the ports in the `dockerd` network namespace to the host network namespace. ```console $ docker -H unix://$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/docker.sock run -d -p 80:80 nginx $ socat -t -- TCP-LISTEN:8080,reuseaddr,fork EXEC:"nsenter -U -n -t $(cat $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/docker.pid) socat -t -- STDIN TCP4\:127.0.0.1\:80" ``` In future, `dockerd` will be able to expose the ports automatically. ### Routing ping packets To route ping packets, you need to set up `net.ipv4.ping_group_range` properly as the root. ```console $ sudo sh -c "echo 0 2147483647 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ping_group_range" ```