apptainer instance list

List all running and named Apptainer instances

Synopsis

The instance list command allows you to view the Apptainer container instances that are currently running in the background.

apptainer instance list [list options...] [<instance name glob>]

Examples

$ apptainer instance list
INSTANCE NAME      PID       IMAGE
test               11963     /home/mibauer/apptainer/sinstance/test.sif
test2              11964     /home/mibauer/apptainer/sinstance/test.sif
lolcow             11965     /home/mibauer/apptainer/sinstance/lolcow.sif

$ apptainer instance list 'test*'
INSTANCE NAME      PID       IMAGE
test               11963     /home/mibauer/apptainer/sinstance/test.sif
test2              11964     /home/mibauer/apptainer/sinstance/test.sif

$ sudo apptainer instance list -u mibauer
INSTANCE NAME      PID       IMAGE
test               11963     /home/mibauer/apptainer/sinstance/test.sif
test2              16219     /home/mibauer/apptainer/sinstance/test.sif

Options

-a, --all           display all instances (include --sharens instances)
-h, --help          help for list
-j, --json          print structured json instead of list
-l, --logs          display location of stdout and sterr log files for instances
-u, --user string   if running as root, list instances from "<username>"

SEE ALSO

apptainer instance - Manage containers running as services

Auto generated by spf13/cobra on 30-Oct-2025