Kathryn Baldauf
9032d73d07
## Type of Change - [x] New feature - [x] Breaking change ## Motivation and Context This PR changes the behavior of the `defaultArguments` field in the service plugin config. Previously, `defaultArguments` was functioning as a way to indicate how to start a plugin in the event that the plugin is loaded at boot (such as for the `container-core-images plugin`). However, we now follow a convention where all plugins have a "start" command that is used when launching the plugin, so this `defaultArguments` field wasn't really providing much. Instead, there are use cases where we may want to set default values to pass to a plugin. This PR repurposes the `defaultArguments` field for those use cases. As an example use case, there are scenarios where someone may want to use the AllocationOnlyVmnetNetwork even when running on macOS 26+. This PR adds the ability to pass in a command line option to the vmnet network plugin to specify that request. Combined with the `defaultArguments` plugin config change, a user may choose to set that field to ["--variant", "allocationOnly"] in the `container-network-vmnet-config.json` to use AllocationOnlyVmnetNetwork by default for all networks. ## Testing - [x] Tested locally
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.
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 the macOS 26.
Install or upgrade
If you're upgrading, first stop and uninstall your existing container (the -k flag keeps your user data, while -d removes it):
container system stop
/usr/local/bin/uninstall-container.sh -k
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
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
containerby building, running, and publishing a simple web server image. - Learn how to use various
containerfeatures. - Read a brief description and technical overview of
container. - Browse the full command reference.
- Build and run
containeron your own development system. - View the project API documentation.
Contributing
Contributions to container are welcomed and encouraged. Please see our main contributing guide for more information.
Project Status
The container project is currently under active development. Its stability, both for consuming the project as a Swift package and the container tool, is only guaranteed within patch versions, such as between 0.1.1 and 0.1.2. Minor version number releases may include breaking changes until we achieve a 1.0.0 release.