container

container is a tool that you can use to create and run Linux containers as lightweight virtual machines on your Mac. It's written in Swift, and optimized for Apple silicon.

The tool consumes and produces OCI-compatible container images, so you can pull and run images from any standard container registry. You can push images that you build to those registries as well, and run the images in any other OCI-compatible application.

container uses the Containerization Swift package for low-level container, image, and process management.

Run it locally, step by step

1. You need a Mac with Apple silicon, macOS 15 or newer (26 recommended) and Xcode 26.

2. Get the code:

   git clone https://github.com/Gitguy268/container.git
   cd container
   

3. Build it:

   make all
   

4. Install and start it:

   sudo make install
   container system start
   

5. Boot a Linux VM right in your terminal:

   container here ubuntu bash
   

   Type exit to leave.

What this fork adds

[!NOTE] This is a community fork of apple/container by Gitguy268. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple Inc. The rest of this README is upstream's, unchanged.

container here: the VM lives in your terminal

container system kernel set --recommended   # once; needs the services running for this step only
container system stop                        # nothing in the background from here on
container here alpine uname -a               # boots a VM inside this process
container here ubuntu bash                   # interactive shell; the tty is detected, no -it needed
echo hi | container here alpine cat          # pipes work too
container here alpine sh -c 'exit 3'; echo $? # prints 3

container dash

↑↓/jk select · tab switch · s start/stop · r restart · e shell · l logs · d delete (asks first) · / filter · S system start · ? help · q quit

# Clone it outside Documents and Desktop (vmnet bug)
git clone https://github.com/Gitguy268/container.git && cd container
make all                  # builds and signs into ./bin and ./libexec
bin/container system start
bin/container here alpine echo hello

make test SWIFT_CONFIGURATION_EXTRA="-Xswiftc -plugin-path -Xswiftc /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/lib/swift/host/plugins/testing"

Get started

Requirements

You need a Mac with Apple silicon to run container. To build it, see the BUILDING document.

container is supported on macOS 26, since it takes advantage of new features and enhancements to virtualization and networking in this release. We do not support older versions of macOS and the container maintainers typically will not address issues that cannot be reproduced on macOS 26.

Initial install

Download the latest signed installer package for container from the GitHub release page.

To install the tool, double-click the package file and follow the instructions. Enter your administrator password when prompted, to give the installer permission to place the installed files under /usr/local.

Start the system service with:

container system start

Run your first container

container run --rm alpine echo hello

This pulls the alpine image, runs it in a lightweight Linux VM, prints hello, and removes the container when it exits. See the tutorial for a fuller walkthrough that builds and publishes an image of your own.

Upgrade or downgrade

For both upgrading and downgrading, you can manually download and install the signed installer package by following the steps from initial install or use the update-container.sh script (installed to /usr/local/bin).

If you're upgrading or downgrading, you must stop your existing container:

container system stop

To upgrade to the latest release, simply run the command below:

/usr/local/bin/update-container.sh

To downgrade, you must uninstall your existing container (the -k flag keeps your user data, while -d removes it):

/usr/local/bin/uninstall-container.sh -k
/usr/local/bin/update-container.sh -v 0.3.0

Start the system service with:

container system start

Uninstall

Use the uninstall-container.sh script (installed to /usr/local/bin) to remove container from your system. To remove your user data along with the tool, run:

/usr/local/bin/uninstall-container.sh -d

To retain your user data so that it is available should you reinstall later, run:

/usr/local/bin/uninstall-container.sh -k

Next steps

• Take a guided tour of container by building, running, and publishing a simple web server image.
• Learn how to use various container features.
• Read a brief description and technical overview of container.
• Browse the full command reference.
• Build and run container on your own development system.
• View the project API documentation.

Contributing

Contributions to container are welcome and encouraged. Please see our main contributing guide for more information.

Project Status

The container project is under active development. Its release versions are product versions, not semantic versions.

The container CLI compatibility generally preserves backward compatibility within a major release (not breaking existing scripts), however, there may be the odd case where breaking compatibility may be necessary. Note: Features marked experimental (for example, the k8s subcommand) may change and do not guarantee backward compatibility.

The container-apiserver XPC API compatibility preserves forward and backward compatibility within a major version. Other non-public XPC helpers do not guarantee CLI or API compatibility across different versions.

The container application data provides forward compatibility only, guaranteed within one major version. Upgrading to a newer major version may require a specific upgrade path.