lxc4u - A low level LXC tool targeted at Ubuntu

Warning! This is still a work in progress.

Provides tools for managing LXC in Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 12.04 Containers. Other containers are not supported (yet?)

• Creates containers using overlayfs
• Can handle multiple overlayfs layers

Working examples

Create a container named test1:

import lxc4u

test1_lxc = lxc4u.create('test1')
# Wait a long time...

# Start the container
test1_lxc.start()

Create a container that overlays test1:

import lxc4u

test1_overlay_lxc = lxc4u.create('test1_overlay', base='test1',
                                overlays=['overlay_path'])

# Start the container
test1_overlay_lxc.start()

test1_overlay_lxc.destroy()

Create a container with multiple overlays of test1. The right most overlay is the upper most overlay directory:

import lxc4u

test1_overlay_lxc = lxc4u.create('test1_overlay', base='test1',
                            overlays=['overlay1_path', 'overlay2_path'])

# Start the container
test1_overlay_lxc.start()

These examples have not yet been implemented. Soon!

Starting a container named test1. This assumes lxc is properly configured in your system:

import lxc4u

# Start container
test1_lxc = lxc4u.start('test1')

# Stop container
test1_lxc.stop()
# or lxc4u.stop('test1')

Possible interface examples

Starting an ephemeral container using test1 as a base:

import lxc4u

# Start container
test1_ephemeral_lxc = lxc4u.start('test1', ephemeral=True)

# Stop container
test1_ephemeral_lxc.stop()

Starting an ephemeral container using test1 with static network settings:

import lxc4u

network_settings = dict(
    ip="10.0.3.5",
    gateway="10.0.3.1",
    netmask="255.255.255.0",
    network="10.0.3.0",
)

# Start container
test1_ephemeral_lxc = lxc4u.start('test1', ephemeral=True,
                                static_network=network_settings)

# Stop container
test1_ephemeral_lxc.stop()

Starting an ephemeral container using with a startup command (must be available on the container's path):

import lxc4u

# Start container
test1_ephemeral_lxc = lxc4u.start('test1', ephemeral=True,
                    startup_command="/usr/local/bin/somecommand")

# Stop container
test1_ephemeral_lxc.stop()