.\" Copyright (C) 2006, Janak Desai <janak@us.ibm.com>
-.\" and Copyright (C) 2006, Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
+.\" and Copyright (C) 2006, 2012 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
+.\"
+.\" %%%LICENSE_START(GPL_NOVERSION_ONELINE)
.\" Licensed under the GPL
+.\" %%%LICENSE_END
.\"
.\" Patch Justification:
.\" unshare system call is needed to implement, using PAM,
.\" by clone, which would require porting and maintaining all commands
.\" such as login, and su, that establish a user session.
.\"
-.TH UNSHARE 2 2012-12-31 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
+.TH UNSHARE 2 2019-03-06 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
unshare \- disassociate parts of the process execution context
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
-.BR "#define _GNU_SOURCE" " /* See feature_test_macros(7) */"
-.\" Actually _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE
-.\" FIXME See http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4749
+.B #define _GNU_SOURCE
.B #include <sched.h>
-.sp
+.PP
.BI "int unshare(int " flags );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.BR unshare ()
-allows a process to disassociate parts of its execution
-context that are currently being shared with other processes.
+allows a process (or thread) to disassociate parts of its execution
+context that are currently being shared with other processes (or threads).
Part of the execution context, such as the mount namespace, is shared
implicitly when a new process is created using
.BR fork (2)
or
.BR vfork (2),
while other parts, such as virtual memory, may be
-shared by explicit request when creating a process using
+shared by explicit request when creating a process or thread using
.BR clone (2).
-
+.PP
The main use of
.BR unshare ()
is to allow a process to control its
shared execution context without creating a new process.
-
+.PP
The
.I flags
argument is a bit mask that specifies which parts of
.BR clone (2)
.B CLONE_FS
flag.
-Unshare file system attributes, so that the calling process
+Unshare filesystem attributes, so that the calling process
no longer shares its root directory
.RB ( chroot (2)),
current directory
.RB ( umask (2))
attributes with any other process.
.TP
-.BR CLONE_NEWIPC " (since Linux 2.6.19)
+.BR CLONE_NEWCGROUP " (since Linux 4.6)"
+This flag has the same effect as the
+.BR clone (2)
+.B CLONE_NEWCGROUP
+flag.
+Unshare the cgroup namespace.
+Use of
+.BR CLONE_NEWCGROUP
+requires the
+.BR CAP_SYS_ADMIN
+capability.
+.TP
+.BR CLONE_NEWIPC " (since Linux 2.6.19)"
This flag has the same effect as the
.BR clone (2)
.B CLONE_NEWIPC
flag.
-Unshare the System V IPC namespace,
+Unshare the IPC namespace,
so that the calling process has a private copy of the
-System V IPC namespace which is not shared with any other process.
+IPC namespace which is not shared with any other process.
Specifying this flag automatically implies
.BR CLONE_SYSVSEM
as well.
.BR CAP_SYS_ADMIN
capability.
.TP
-.BR CLONE_NEWNET " (since Linux 2.6.24)
+.BR CLONE_NEWNET " (since Linux 2.6.24)"
This flag has the same effect as the
.BR clone (2)
.B CLONE_NEWNET
so that the calling process is moved into a
new network namespace which is not shared
with any previously existing process.
+Use of
.BR CLONE_NEWNET
requires the
.BR CAP_SYS_ADMIN
requires the
.BR CAP_SYS_ADMIN
capability.
+For further information, see
+.BR mount_namespaces (7).
.TP
-.BR CLONE_SYSVSEM " (since Linux 2.6.26)
-.\" commit 9edff4ab1f8d82675277a04e359d0ed8bf14a7b7
-This flag reverses the effect of the
+.BR CLONE_NEWPID " (since Linux 3.8)"
+This flag has the same effect as the
.BR clone (2)
-.B CLONE_SYSVSEM
+.B CLONE_NEWPID
flag.
-Unshare System V semaphore undo values,
-so that the calling process has a private copy
-which is not shared with any other process.
+Unshare the PID namespace,
+so that the calling process has a new PID namespace for its children
+which is not shared with any previously existing process.
+The calling process is
+.I not
+moved into the new namespace.
+The first child created by the calling process will have
+the process ID 1 and will assume the role of
+.BR init (1)
+in the new namespace.
+.BR CLONE_NEWPID
+automatically implies
+.BR CLONE_THREAD
+as well.
Use of
-.BR CLONE_SYSVSEM
+.BR CLONE_NEWPID
requires the
.BR CAP_SYS_ADMIN
capability.
+For further information, see
+.BR pid_namespaces (7).
.TP
-.BR CLONE_NEWUTS " (since Linux 2.6.19)
+.BR CLONE_NEWUSER " (since Linux 3.8)"
+This flag has the same effect as the
+.BR clone (2)
+.B CLONE_NEWUSER
+flag.
+Unshare the user namespace,
+so that the calling process is moved into a new user namespace
+which is not shared with any previously existing process.
+As with the child process created by
+.BR clone (2)
+with the
+.B CLONE_NEWUSER
+flag, the caller obtains a full set of capabilities in the new namespace.
+.IP
+.BR CLONE_NEWUSER
+requires that the calling process is not threaded; specifying
+.BR CLONE_NEWUSER
+automatically implies
+.BR CLONE_THREAD .
+Since Linux 3.9,
+.\" commit e66eded8309ebf679d3d3c1f5820d1f2ca332c71
+.\" https://lwn.net/Articles/543273/
+.BR CLONE_NEWUSER
+also automatically implies
+.BR CLONE_FS .
+.BR CLONE_NEWUSER
+requires that the user ID and group ID
+of the calling process are mapped to user IDs and group IDs in the
+user namespace of the calling process at the time of the call.
+.IP
+For further information on user namespaces, see
+.BR user_namespaces (7).
+.TP
+.BR CLONE_NEWUTS " (since Linux 2.6.19)"
This flag has the same effect as the
.BR clone (2)
.B CLONE_NEWUTS
requires the
.BR CAP_SYS_ADMIN
capability.
-.\" As at 2.6.16, the following forced implications also apply,
+.TP
+.BR CLONE_SYSVSEM " (since Linux 2.6.26)
+.\" commit 9edff4ab1f8d82675277a04e359d0ed8bf14a7b7
+This flag reverses the effect of the
+.BR clone (2)
+.B CLONE_SYSVSEM
+flag.
+Unshare System\ V semaphore adjustment
+.RI ( semadj )
+values,
+so that the calling process has a new empty
+.I semadj
+list that is not shared with any other process.
+If this is the last process that has a reference to the process's current
+.I semadj
+list, then the adjustments in that list are applied
+to the corresponding semaphores, as described in
+.BR semop (2).
+.\" CLONE_NEWNS If CLONE_SIGHAND is set and signals are also being shared
+.\" (i.e., current->signal->count > 1), force CLONE_THREAD.
+.PP
+In addition,
+.BR CLONE_THREAD ,
+.BR CLONE_SIGHAND ,
+and
+.BR CLONE_VM
+can be specified in
+.I flags
+if the caller is single threaded (i.e., it is not sharing
+its address space with another process or thread).
+In this case, these flags have no effect.
+(Note also that specifying
+.BR CLONE_THREAD
+automatically implies
+.BR CLONE_VM ,
+and specifying
+.BR CLONE_VM
+automatically implies
+.BR CLONE_SIGHAND .)
+.\" As at 3.9, the following forced implications also apply,
.\" although the relevant flags are not yet implemented.
.\" If CLONE_THREAD is set force CLONE_VM.
.\" If CLONE_VM is set, force CLONE_SIGHAND.
-.\" CLONE_NEWNSIf CLONE_SIGHAND is set and signals are also being shared
-.\" (i.e., current->signal->count > 1), force CLONE_THREAD.
.\"
-.\" FIXME . CLONE_VM is not (yet, as at 2.6.16) implemented.
-.\" .TP
-.\" .B CLONE_VM
-.\" Reverse the effect of the
-.\" .BR clone (2)
-.\" .B CLONE_VM
-.\" flag.
-.\" .RB ( CLONE_VM
-.\" is also implicitly set by
-.\" .BR vfork (2),
-.\" and can be reversed using this
-.\" .BR unshare ()
-.\" flag.)
-.\" Unshare virtual memory, so that the calling process no
-.\" longer shares its virtual address space with any other process.
+If the process is multithreaded, then
+the use of these flags results in an error.
+.\" See kernel/fork.c::check_unshare_flags()
.PP
If
.I flags
An invalid bit was specified in
.IR flags .
.TP
+.B EINVAL
+.BR CLONE_THREAD ,
+.BR CLONE_SIGHAND ,
+or
+.BR CLONE_VM
+was specified in
+.IR flags ,
+and the caller is multithreaded.
+.TP
+.B EINVAL
+.BR CLONE_NEWIPC
+was specified in
+.IR flags ,
+but the kernel was not configured with the
+.B CONFIG_SYSVIPC
+and
+.BR CONFIG_IPC_NS
+options.
+.TP
+.B EINVAL
+.BR CLONE_NEWNET
+was specified in
+.IR flags ,
+but the kernel was not configured with the
+.B CONFIG_NET_NS
+option.
+.TP
+.B EINVAL
+.BR CLONE_NEWPID
+was specified in
+.IR flags ,
+but the kernel was not configured with the
+.B CONFIG_PID_NS
+option.
+.TP
+.B EINVAL
+.BR CLONE_NEWUSER
+was specified in
+.IR flags ,
+but the kernel was not configured with the
+.B CONFIG_USER_NS
+option.
+.TP
+.B EINVAL
+.BR CLONE_NEWUTS
+was specified in
+.IR flags ,
+but the kernel was not configured with the
+.B CONFIG_UTS_NS
+option.
+.TP
+.B EINVAL
+.BR CLONE_NEWPID
+was specified in
+.IR flags ,
+but the process has previously called
+.BR unshare ()
+with the
+.BR CLONE_NEWPID
+flag.
+.TP
.B ENOMEM
Cannot allocate sufficient memory to copy parts of caller's
context that need to be unshared.
.TP
+.BR ENOSPC " (since Linux 3.7)"
+.\" commit f2302505775fd13ba93f034206f1e2a587017929
+.B CLONE_NEWPID
+was specified in flags,
+but the limit on the nesting depth of PID namespaces
+would have been exceeded; see
+.BR pid_namespaces (7).
+.TP
+.BR ENOSPC " (since Linux 4.9; beforehand " EUSERS )
+.B CLONE_NEWUSER
+was specified in
+.IR flags ,
+and the call would cause the limit on the number of
+nested user namespaces to be exceeded.
+See
+.BR user_namespaces (7).
+.IP
+From Linux 3.11 to Linux 4.8, the error diagnosed in this case was
+.BR EUSERS .
+.TP
+.BR ENOSPC " (since Linux 4.9)"
+One of the values in
+.I flags
+specified the creation of a new user namespace,
+but doing so would have caused the limit defined by the corresponding file in
+.IR /proc/sys/user
+to be exceeded.
+For further details, see
+.BR namespaces (7).
+.TP
.B EPERM
The calling process did not have the required privileges for this operation.
+.TP
+.B EPERM
+.BR CLONE_NEWUSER
+was specified in
+.IR flags ,
+but either the effective user ID or the effective group ID of the caller
+does not have a mapping in the parent namespace (see
+.BR user_namespaces (7)).
+.TP
+.BR EPERM " (since Linux 3.9)"
+.\" commit 3151527ee007b73a0ebd296010f1c0454a919c7d
+.B CLONE_NEWUSER
+was specified in
+.I flags
+and the caller is in a chroot environment
+.\" FIXME What is the rationale for this restriction?
+(i.e., the caller's root directory does not match the root directory
+of the mount namespace in which it resides).
+.TP
+.BR EUSERS " (from Linux 3.11 to Linux 4.8)"
+.B CLONE_NEWUSER
+was specified in
+.IR flags ,
+and the limit on the number of nested user namespaces would be exceeded.
+See the discussion of the
+.BR ENOSPC
+error above.
.SH VERSIONS
The
.BR unshare ()
.\"be incrementally added to unshare without affecting legacy
.\"applications using unshare.
.\"
+.SH EXAMPLE
+The program below provides a simple implementation of the
+.BR unshare (1)
+command, which unshares one or more namespaces and executes the
+command supplied in its command-line arguments.
+Here's an example of the use of this program,
+running a shell in a new mount namespace,
+and verifying that the original shell and the
+new shell are in separate mount namespaces:
+.PP
+.in +4n
+.EX
+$ \fBreadlink /proc/$$/ns/mnt\fP
+mnt:[4026531840]
+$ \fBsudo ./unshare -m /bin/bash\fP
+# \fBreadlink /proc/$$/ns/mnt\fP
+mnt:[4026532325]
+.EE
+.in
+.PP
+The differing output of the two
+.BR readlink (1)
+commands shows that the two shells are in different mount namespaces.
+.SS Program source
+\&
+.EX
+/* unshare.c
+
+ A simple implementation of the unshare(1) command: unshare
+ namespaces and execute a command.
+*/
+#define _GNU_SOURCE
+#include <sched.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+
+/* A simple error\-handling function: print an error message based
+ on the value in \(aqerrno\(aq and terminate the calling process */
+
+#define errExit(msg) do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); \e
+ } while (0)
+
+static void
+usage(char *pname)
+{
+ fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [options] program [arg...]\en", pname);
+ fprintf(stderr, "Options can be:\en");
+ fprintf(stderr, " \-i unshare IPC namespace\en");
+ fprintf(stderr, " \-m unshare mount namespace\en");
+ fprintf(stderr, " \-n unshare network namespace\en");
+ fprintf(stderr, " \-p unshare PID namespace\en");
+ fprintf(stderr, " \-u unshare UTS namespace\en");
+ fprintf(stderr, " \-U unshare user namespace\en");
+ exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+}
+
+int
+main(int argc, char *argv[])
+{
+ int flags, opt;
+
+ flags = 0;
+
+ while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "imnpuU")) != \-1) {
+ switch (opt) {
+ case \(aqi\(aq: flags |= CLONE_NEWIPC; break;
+ case \(aqm\(aq: flags |= CLONE_NEWNS; break;
+ case \(aqn\(aq: flags |= CLONE_NEWNET; break;
+ case \(aqp\(aq: flags |= CLONE_NEWPID; break;
+ case \(aqu\(aq: flags |= CLONE_NEWUTS; break;
+ case \(aqU\(aq: flags |= CLONE_NEWUSER; break;
+ default: usage(argv[0]);
+ }
+ }
+
+ if (optind >= argc)
+ usage(argv[0]);
+
+ if (unshare(flags) == \-1)
+ errExit("unshare");
+
+ execvp(argv[optind], &argv[optind]);
+ errExit("execvp");
+}
+.EE
.SH SEE ALSO
+.BR unshare (1),
.BR clone (2),
.BR fork (2),
.BR kcmp (2),
.BR setns (2),
-.BR vfork (2)
-
-.I Documentation/unshare.txt
+.BR vfork (2),
+.BR namespaces (7)
+.PP
+.I Documentation/userspace-api/unshare.rst
in the Linux kernel source tree
+.\" commit f504d47be5e8fa7ecf2bf660b18b42e6960c0eb2
+(or
+.I Documentation/unshare.txt
+before Linux 4.12)