Appendix¶
Singularity’s environment variables¶
Singularity 3.0 comes with some environment variables you can set or modify depending on your needs. You can see them listed alphabetically below with their respective functionality.
A
¶
SINGULARITY_ADD_CAPS: To specify a list (comma separated string) of capabilities to be added. Default is an empty string.
SINGULARITY_ALL: List all the users and groups capabilities.
SINGULARITY_ALLOW_SETUID: To specify that setuid binaries should or not be allowed in the container. (root only) Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_APP and SINGULARITY_APPNAME: Sets the name of an application to be run inside a container.
SINGULARITY_APPLY_CGROUPS: Used to apply cgroups from an input file for container processes. (it requires root privileges)
B
¶
SINGULARITY_BINDPATH and SINGULARITY_BIND: Comma separated string
source:<dest>
list of paths to bind between the host and the container.SINGULARITY_BOOT: Set to false by default, considers if executing
/sbin/init
when container boots (root only).SINGULARITY_BUILDER: To specify the remote builder service URL. Defaults to our remote builder.
C
¶
SINGULARITY_CACHEDIR: Specifies the directory for image downloads to be cached in. See Cache Folders.
SINGULARITY_CLEANENV: Specifies if the environment should be cleaned or not before running the container. Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_CONTAIN: To use minimal
/dev
and empty other directories (e.g./tmp
and$HOME
) instead of sharing filesystems from your host. Default is set to false.SINGULARITY_CONTAINALL: To contain not only file systems, but also PID, IPC, and environment. Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_CONTAINLIBS: Used to specify a string of file names (comma separated string) to bind to the
/.singularity.d/libs
directory.
D
¶
SINGULARITY_DEFFILE: Shows the Singularity recipe that was used to generate the image.
SINGULARITY_DESC: Contains a description of the capabilities.
SINGULARITY_DETACHED: To submit a build job and print the build ID (no real-time logs and also requires
--remote
). Default is set to false.SINGULARITY_DISABLE_CACHE: To disable all caching of docker/oci, library, oras, etc. downloads and built SIFs. Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_DNS: A list of the DNS server addresses separated by commas to be added in
resolv.conf
.SINGULARITY_DOCKER_LOGIN: To specify the interactive prompt for docker authentication.
SINGULARITY_DOCKER_USERNAME: To specify a username for docker authentication.
SINGULARITY_DOCKER_PASSWORD: To specify the password for docker authentication.
SINGULARITY_DROP_CAPS: To specify a list (comma separated string) of capabilities to be dropped. Default is an empty string.
E
¶
SINGULARITY_ENVIRONMENT: Contains all the environment variables that have been exported in your container.
SINGULARITY_ENCRYPTION_PASSPHRASE: Used to specify the plaintext passphrase to encrypt the container.
SINGULARITY_ENCRYPTION_PEM_PATH: Used to specify the path of the file containing public or private key to encrypt the container in PEM format.
SINGULARITYENV_*: Allows you to transpose variables into the container at runtime. You can see more in detail how to use this variable in our environment and metadata section.
SINGULARITYENV_APPEND_PATH: Used to append directories to the end of the
$PATH
environment variable. You can see more in detail on how to use this variable in our environment and metadata section.SINGULARITYENV_PATH: A specified path to override the
$PATH
environment variable within the container. You can see more in detail on how to use this variable in our environment and metadata section.SINGULARITYENV_PREPEND_PATH: Used to prepend directories to the beginning of $PATH` environment variable. You can see more in detail on how to use this variable in our environment and metadata section.
F
¶
SINGULARITY_FAKEROOT: Set to false by default, considers running the container in a new user namespace as uid 0 (experimental).
SINGULARITY_FORCE: Forces to kill the instance.
G
¶
SINGULARITY_GROUP: Used to specify a string of capabilities for the given group.
H
¶
SINGULARITY_HELPFILE: Specifies the runscript helpfile, if it exists.
SINGULARITY_HOME : A home directory specification, it could be a source or destination path. The source path is the home directory outside the container and the destination overrides the home directory within the container.
SINGULARITY_HOSTNAME: The container’s hostname.
I
¶
SINGULARITY_IMAGE: Filename of the container.
J
¶
SINGULARITY_JSON: Specifies the structured json of the def file, every node as each section in the def file.
K
¶
SINGULARITY_KEEP_PRIVS: To let root user keep privileges in the container. Default is set to false.
L
¶
SINGULARITY_LABELS: Specifies the labels associated with the image.
SINGULARITY_LIBRARY: Specifies the library to pull from. Default is set to our Cloud Library.
N
¶
SINGULARITY_NAME: Specifies a custom image name.
SINGULARITY_NETWORK: Used to specify a desired network. If more than one parameters is used, addresses should be separated by commas, where each network will bring up a dedicated interface inside the container.
SINGULARITY_NETWORK_ARGS: To specify the network arguments to pass to CNI plugins.
SINGULARITY_NOCLEANUP: To not clean up the bundle after a failed build, this can be helpful for debugging. Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_NOHTTPS: Sets to either false or true to avoid using HTTPS for communicating with the local docker registry. Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_NO_HOME: Considers not mounting users home directory if home is not the current working directory. Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_NO_INIT and SINGULARITY_NOSHIMINIT: Considers not starting the
shim
process with--pid
.SINGULARITY_NO_NV: Flag to disable Nvidia support. Opposite of
SINGULARITY_NV
.SINGULARITY_NO_PRIVS: To drop all the privileges from root user in the container. Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_NV: To enable experimental Nvidia support. Default is set to false.
O
¶
SINGULARITY_OVERLAY and SINGULARITY_OVERLAYIMAGE: To indicate the use of an overlay file system image for persistent data storage or as read-only layer of container.
P
¶
SINGULARITY_PWD and SINGULARITY_TARGET_PWD: The initial working directory for payload process inside the container.
R
¶
SINGULARITY_REMOTE: To build an image remotely. (Does not require root) Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_ROOTFS: To reference the system file location.
SINGULARITY_RUNSCRIPT: Specifies the runscript of the image.
S
¶
SINGULARITY_SANDBOX: To specify that the format of the image should be a sandbox. Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_SCRATCH and SINGULARITY_SCRATCHDIR: Used to include a scratch directory within the container that is linked to a temporary directory. (use -W to force location)
SINGULARITY_SECTION: To specify a comma separated string of all the sections to be run from the deffile (setup, post, files, environment, test, labels, none)
SINGULARITY_SECURITY: Used to enable security features. (SELinux, Apparmor, Seccomp)
SINGULARITY_SECRET: Lists all the private keys instead of the default which display the public ones.
SINGULARITY_SHELL: The path to the program to be used as an interactive shell.
SINGULARITY_SIGNAL: Specifies a signal sent to the instance.
T
¶
SINGULARITY_TEST: Specifies the test script for the image.
SINGULARITY_TMPDIR: Used with the
build
command, to consider a temporary location for the build. See Temporary Folders.
U
¶
SINGULARITY_UNSHARE_PID: To specify that the container will run in a new PID namespace. Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_UNSHARE_IPC: To specify that the container will run in a new IPC namespace. Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_UNSHARE_NET: To specify that the container will run in a new network namespace (sets up a bridge network interface by default). Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_UNSHARE_UTS: To specify that the container will run in a new UTS namespace. Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_UPDATE: To run the definition over an existing container (skips the header). Default is set to false.
SINGULARITY_URL: Specifies the key server
URL
.SINGULARITY_USER: Used to specify a string of capabilities for the given user.
SINGULARITY_USERNS and SINGULARITY_UNSHARE_USERNS: To specify that the container will run in a new user namespace, allowing Singularity to run completely unprivileged on recent kernels. This may not support every feature of Singularity. (Sandbox image only). Default is set to false.
W
¶
SINGULARITY_WORKDIR: The working directory to be used for
/tmp
,/var/tmp
and$HOME
(if-c
or--contain
was also used)SINGULARITY_WRITABLE: By default, all Singularity containers are available as read only, this option makes the file system accessible as read/write. Default set to false.
SINGULARITY_WRITABLE_TMPFS: Makes the file system accessible as read-write with non-persistent data (with overlay support only). Default is set to false.
Build Modules¶
library
bootstrap agent¶
Overview¶
You can use an existing container on the Container Library as your “base,” and
then add customization. This allows you to build multiple images from the same
starting point. For example, you may want to build several containers with the
same custom python installation, the same custom compiler toolchain, or the same
base MPI installation. Instead of building these from scratch each time, you
could create a base container on the Container Library and then build new
containers from that existing base container adding customizations in %post
,
%environment
, %runscript
, etc.
Keywords¶
Bootstrap: library
The Bootstrap keyword is always mandatory. It describes the bootstrap module to use.
From: <entity>/<collection>/<container>:<tag>
The From
keyword is mandatory. It specifies the container to use as a base.
entity
is optional and defaults to library
. collection
is
optional and defaults to default
. This is the correct namespace to use for
some official containers (alpine
for example). tag
is also optional and
will default to latest
.
Library: http://custom/library
The Library keyword is optional. It will default to
https://library.sylabs.io
.
Fingerprints: 22045C8C0B1004D058DE4BEDA20C27EE7FF7BA84
The Fingerprints keyword is optional. It specifies one or more comma separated fingerprints corresponding to PGP public keys. If present, the bootstrap image will be verified and the build will only proceed if it is signed by keys matching all of the specified fingerprints.
docker
bootstrap agent¶
Overview¶
Docker images are comprised of layers that are assembled at runtime to create an image. You can use Docker layers to create a base image, and then add your own custom software. For example, you might use Docker’s Ubuntu image layers to create an Ubuntu Singularity container. You could do the same with CentOS, Debian, Arch, Suse, Alpine, BusyBox, etc.
Or maybe you want a container that already has software installed. For instance,
maybe you want to build a container that uses CUDA and cuDNN to leverage the
GPU, but you don’t want to install from scratch. You can start with one of the
nvidia/cuda
containers and install your software on top of that.
Or perhaps you have already invested in Docker and created your own Docker
containers. If so, you can seamlessly convert them to Singularity with the
docker
bootstrap module.
Keywords¶
Bootstrap: docker
The Bootstrap keyword is always mandatory. It describes the bootstrap module to use.
From: <registry>/<namespace>/<container>:<tag>@<digest>
The From
keyword is mandatory. It specifies the container to use as a base.
registry
is optional and defaults to index.docker.io
. namespace
is
optional and defaults to library
. This is the correct namespace to use for
some official containers (ubuntu for example). tag
is also optional and will
default to latest
See Singularity and Docker for more detailed info on using Docker registries.
Registry: http://custom_registry
The Registry keyword is optional. It will default to index.docker.io
.
Namespace: namespace
The Namespace keyword is optional. It will default to library
.
IncludeCmd: yes
The IncludeCmd keyword is optional. If included, and if a %runscript
is not
specified, a Docker CMD
will take precedence over ENTRYPOINT
and will be
used as a runscript. Note that the IncludeCmd
keyword is considered valid if
it is not empty! This means that IncludeCmd: yes
and IncludeCmd: no
are
identical. In both cases the IncludeCmd
keyword is not empty, so the Docker
CMD
will take precedence over an ENTRYPOINT
.
See Singularity and Docker for more info on order of operations for determining a runscript.
Notes¶
Docker containers are stored as a collection of tarballs called layers. When building from a Docker container the layers must be downloaded and then assembled in the proper order to produce a viable file system. Then the file system must be converted to Singularity Image File (sif) format.
Building from Docker Hub is not considered reproducible because if any of the layers of the image are changed, the container will change. If reproducibility is important to your workflow, consider hosting a base container on the Container Library and building from it instead.
For detailed information about setting your build environment see Build Customization.
shub
bootstrap agent¶
Overview¶
You can use an existing container on Singularity Hub as your “base,” and then
add customization. This allows you to build multiple images from the same
starting point. For example, you may want to build several containers with the
same custom python installation, the same custom compiler toolchain, or the same
base MPI installation. Instead of building these from scratch each time, you
could create a base container on Singularity Hub and then build new containers
from that existing base container adding customizations in %post
,
%environment
, %runscript
, etc.
Keywords¶
Bootstrap: shub
The Bootstrap keyword is always mandatory. It describes the bootstrap module to use.
From: shub://<registry>/<username>/<container-name>:<tag>@digest
The From
keyword is mandatory. It specifies the container to use as a base.
registry is optional and defaults to ``singularity-hub.org
. tag
and
digest
are also optional. tag
defaults to latest
and digest
can
be left blank if you want the latest build.
Notes¶
When bootstrapping from a Singularity Hub image, all previous definition files
that led to the creation of the current image will be stored in a directory
within the container called /.singularity.d/bootstrap_history
. Singularity
will also alert you if environment variables have been changed between the base
image and the new image during bootstrap.
oras
bootstrap agent¶
Overview¶
Using, this module, a container from supporting OCI Registries - Eg: ACR (Azure Container
Registry), local container registries, etc can be used as your “base” image and later
customized. This allows you to build multiple images from the same starting point. For
example, you may want to build several containers with the same custom python installation,
the same custom compiler toolchain, or the same base MPI installation. Instead of
building these from scratch each time, you could make use of oras
to pull an
appropriate base container and then build new containers by adding customizations in
%post
, %environment
, %runscript
, etc.
Keywords¶
Bootstrap: oras
The Bootstrap keyword is always mandatory. It describes the bootstrap module to use.
From: oras://registry/namespace/image:tag
The From
keyword is mandatory. It specifies the container to use as a base.
Also,``tag`` is mandatory that refers to the version of image you want to use.
localimage
bootstrap agent¶
This module allows you to build a container from an existing Singularity container on your host system. The name is somewhat misleading because your container can be in either image or directory format.
Overview¶
You can use an existing container image as your “base”, and then add
customization. This allows you to build multiple images from the same starting
point. For example, you may want to build several containers with the same
custom python installation, the same custom compiler toolchain, or the same base
MPI installation. Instead of building these from scratch each time, you could
start with the appropriate local base container and then customize the new
container in %post
, %environment
, %runscript
, etc.
Keywords¶
Bootstrap: localimage
The Bootstrap keyword is always mandatory. It describes the bootstrap module to use.
From: /path/to/container/file/or/directory
The From
keyword is mandatory. It specifies the local container to use as a
base.
Fingerprints: 22045C8C0B1004D058DE4BEDA20C27EE7FF7BA84
The Fingerprints keyword is optional. It specifies one or more comma
separated fingerprints corresponding to PGP public keys. If present,
and the From:
keyword points to a SIF format image, it will be
verified and the build will only proceed if it is signed by keys
matching all of the specified fingerprints.
Notes¶
When building from a local container, all previous definition files that led to
the creation of the current container will be stored in a directory within the
container called /.singularity.d/bootstrap_history
. Singularity will also
alert you if environment variables have been changed between the base image and
the new image during bootstrap.
yum
bootstrap agent¶
This module allows you to build a Red Hat/CentOS/Scientific Linux style container from a mirror URI.
Overview¶
Use the yum
module to specify a base for a CentOS-like container. You must
also specify the URI for the mirror you would like to use.
Keywords¶
Bootstrap: yum
The Bootstrap keyword is always mandatory. It describes the bootstrap module to use.
OSVersion: 7
The OSVersion keyword is optional. It specifies the OS version you would like to
use. It is only required if you have specified a %{OSVERSION} variable in the
MirrorURL
keyword.
MirrorURL: http://mirror.centos.org/centos-%{OSVERSION}/%{OSVERSION}/os/$basearch/
The MirrorURL keyword is mandatory. It specifies the URI to use as a mirror to
download the OS. If you define the OSVersion
keyword, then you can use it in
the URI as in the example above.
Include: yum
The Include keyword is optional. It allows you to install additional packages
into the core operating system. It is a best practice to supply only the bare
essentials such that the %post
section has what it needs to properly
complete the build. One common package you may want to install when using the
yum
build module is YUM itself.
Notes¶
There is a major limitation with using YUM to bootstrap a container. The RPM database that exists within the container will be created using the RPM library and Berkeley DB implementation that exists on the host system. If the RPM implementation inside the container is not compatible with the RPM database that was used to create the container, RPM and YUM commands inside the container may fail. This issue can be easily demonstrated by bootstrapping an older RHEL compatible image by a newer one (e.g. bootstrap a Centos 5 or 6 container from a Centos 7 host).
In order to use the yum
build module, you must have yum
installed on your system. It may seem counter-intuitive to install YUM on a
system that uses a different package manager, but you can do so. For instance,
on Ubuntu you can install it like so:
$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install yum
debootstrap
build agent¶
This module allows you to build a Debian/Ubuntu style container from a mirror URI.
Overview¶
Use the debootstrap
module to specify a base for a Debian-like container.
You must also specify the OS version and a URI for the mirror you would like to
use.
Keywords¶
Bootstrap: debootstrap
The Bootstrap keyword is always mandatory. It describes the bootstrap module to use.
OSVersion: xenial
The OSVersion keyword is mandatory. It specifies the OS version you would like
to use. For Ubuntu you can use code words like trusty
(14.04), xenial
(16.04), and yakkety
(17.04). For Debian you can use values like stable
,
oldstable
, testing
, and unstable
or code words like wheezy
(7),
jesse
(8), and stretch
(9).
MirrorURL: http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
The MirrorURL keyword is mandatory. It specifies a URI to use as a mirror when downloading the OS.
Include: somepackage
The Include keyword is optional. It allows you to install additional packages
into the core operating system. It is a best practice to supply only the bare
essentials such that the %post
section has what it needs to properly
complete the build.
Notes¶
In order to use the debootstrap
build module, you must have debootstrap
installed on your system. On Ubuntu you can install it like so:
$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install debootstrap
On CentOS you can install it from the epel repos like so:
$ sudo yum update && sudo yum install epel-release && sudo yum install debootstrap.noarch
arch
bootstrap agent¶
This module allows you to build a Arch Linux based container.
Overview¶
Use the arch
module to specify a base for an Arch Linux based container.
Arch Linux uses the aptly named pacman
package manager (all puns intended).
Keywords¶
Bootstrap: arch
The Bootstrap keyword is always mandatory. It describes the bootstrap module to use.
The Arch Linux bootstrap module does not name any additional keywords at this
time. By defining the arch
module, you have essentially given all of the
information necessary for that particular bootstrap module to build a core
operating system.
Notes¶
Arch Linux is, by design, a very stripped down, light-weight OS. You may need to perform a significant amount of configuration to get a usable OS. Please refer to this README.md and the Arch Linux example for more info.
busybox
bootstrap agent¶
This module allows you to build a container based on BusyBox.
Overview¶
Use the busybox
module to specify a BusyBox base for container. You must
also specify a URI for the mirror you would like to use.
Keywords¶
Bootstrap: busybox
The Bootstrap keyword is always mandatory. It describes the bootstrap module to use.
MirrorURL: https://www.busybox.net/downloads/binaries/1.26.1-defconfig-multiarch/busybox-x86_64
The MirrorURL keyword is mandatory. It specifies a URI to use as a mirror when downloading the OS.
Notes¶
You can build a fully functional BusyBox container that only takes up ~600kB of disk space!
zypper
bootstrap agent¶
This module allows you to build a Suse style container from a mirror URI.
Note
zypper
version 1.11.20 or greater is required on the host system, as
Singularity requires the --releasever
flag.
Overview¶
Use the zypper
module to specify a base for a Suse-like container. You must
also specify a URI for the mirror you would like to use.
Keywords¶
Bootstrap: zypper
The Bootstrap keyword is always mandatory. It describes the bootstrap module to use.
OSVersion: 42.2
The OSVersion keyword is optional. It specifies the OS version you would like to
use. It is only required if you have specified a %{OSVERSION} variable in the
MirrorURL
keyword.
Include: somepackage
The Include keyword is optional. It allows you to install additional packages
into the core operating system. It is a best practice to supply only the bare
essentials such that the %post
section has what it needs to properly
complete the build. One common package you may want to install when using the
zypper build module is zypper
itself.
docker-daemon
and docker-archive
bootstrap agents¶
If you are using docker locally there are two options for creating Singularity
images without the need for a repository. You can either build a SIF from a
docker-save
tar file or you can convert any docker image present in
docker’s daemon internal storage.
Overview¶
docker-daemon
allows you to build a SIF from any docker image currently
residing in docker’s daemon internal storage:
$ docker images alpine
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
alpine latest 965ea09ff2eb 7 weeks ago 5.55MB
$ singularity run docker-daemon:alpine:latest
INFO: Converting OCI blobs to SIF format
INFO: Starting build...
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob 77cae8ab23bf done
Copying config 759e71f0d3 done
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures
2019/12/11 14:53:24 info unpack layer: sha256:eb7c47c7f0fd0054242f35366d166e6b041dfb0b89e5f93a82ad3a3206222502
INFO: Creating SIF file...
Singularity>
while docker-archive
permits you to do the same thing starting from a docker
image stored in a docker-save
formatted tar file:
$ docker save -o alpine.tar alpine:latest
$ singularity run docker-archive:$(pwd)/alpine.tar
INFO: Converting OCI blobs to SIF format
INFO: Starting build...
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob 77cae8ab23bf done
Copying config 759e71f0d3 done
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures
2019/12/11 15:25:09 info unpack layer: sha256:eb7c47c7f0fd0054242f35366d166e6b041dfb0b89e5f93a82ad3a3206222502
INFO: Creating SIF file...
Singularity>
Keywords¶
The docker-daemon
bootstrap agent can be used in a Singularity definition file
as follows:
From: docker-daemon:<image>:<tag>
where both <image>
and <tag>
are mandatory fields that must be written explicitly.
The docker-archive
bootstrap agent requires instead the path to the tar file
containing the image:
From: docker-archive:<path-to-tar-file>
Note that differently from the docker://
bootstrap agent both docker-daemon
and
docker-archive
don’t require a double slash //
after the colon in the agent name.
scratch
bootstrap agent¶
The scratch bootstrap agent allows you to start from a completely empty container. You are then responsible for adding any and all executables, libraries etc. that are required. Starting with a scratch container can be useful when you are aiming to minimize container size, and have a simple application / static binaries.
Overview¶
A minimal container providing a shell can be created by copying the
busybox
static binary into an empty scratch container:
Bootstrap: scratch
%setup
# Runs on host - fetch static busybox binary
curl -o /tmp/busybox https://www.busybox.net/downloads/binaries/1.31.0-i686-uclibc/busybox
# It needs to be executable
chmod +x /tmp/busybox
%files
# Copy from host into empty container
/tmp/busybox /bin/sh
%runscript
/bin/sh
The resulting container provides a shell, and is 696KiB in size:
$ ls -lah scratch.sif
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 dave dave 696K May 28 13:29 scratch.sif
$ singularity run scratch.sif
WARNING: passwd file doesn't exist in container, not updating
WARNING: group file doesn't exist in container, not updating
Singularity> echo "Hello from a 696KiB container"
Hello from a 696KiB container
Keywords
Bootstrap: scratch
There are no additional keywords for the scratch bootstrap agent.