vagrant-lxc-ng/README.md

# vagrant-lxc [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc.png?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc) [![Gem Version](https://badge.fury.io/rb/vagrant-lxc.png)](http://badge.fury.io/rb/vagrant-lxc) [![Code Climate](https://codeclimate.com/github/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc.png)](https://codeclimate.com/github/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc) [![Coverage Status](https://coveralls.io/repos/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc/badge.png?branch=master)](https://coveralls.io/r/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc)

Linux Containers support for Vagrant 1.1+

Check out this [blog post](http://fabiorehm.com/blog/2013/04/28/lxc-provider-for-vagrant)
to see the plugin in action and find out more about it.

## Dependencies

* Vagrant 1.1+ (1.1.3+ recommended)
* lxc 0.7.5+ (0.8.0-rc1+ recommended)
* redir (if you are planning to use port forwarding)
* A Kernel [higher than 3.5.0-17.28](#help-im-unable-to-restart-containers)

On a clean Ubuntu 12.10 machine it means something like:

```
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install lxc redir
# Downloads and install Vagrant 1.1.5
wget "http://files.vagrantup.com/packages/64e360814c3ad960d810456add977fd4c7d47ce6/vagrant_`uname -m`.deb" -O /tmp/vagrant.deb
sudo dpkg -i /tmp/vagrant.deb
```


## Installation

```
vagrant plugin install vagrant-lxc
```


## Usage

After installing, add a [base box](#available-boxes) using any name you want, for example:

```
vagrant box add lxc-quantal64 http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13510779/lxc-quantal-amd64-2013-04-21.box
```

Make a Vagrantfile that looks like the following, filling in your information where necessary:

```ruby
Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  # Change it to the name of the box you have just added
  config.vm.box = "lxc-quantal64"

  # You can omit this block if you don't need to override any container setting
  config.vm.provider :lxc do |lxc|
    # OPTIONAL: Same effect as as 'customize ["modifyvm", :id, "--memory", "1024"]' for VirtualBox
    lxc.customize 'cgroup.memory.limit_in_bytes', '1024M'
    # OPTIONAL: Limits swap size
    lxc.customize 'cgroup.memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes', '512M'
  end
end
```

And finally run `vagrant up --provider=lxc`. If you are using Vagrant 1.2+ you can
also set `VAGRANT_DEFAULT_PROVIDER` environmental variable to `lxc`.

If you are on a mac or window host and still want to try this plugin out, you
can use the [same Vagrant VirtualBox machine I use for development](#using-virtualbox-for-development).

### Available boxes

| LINK | DESCRIPTION |
| --- | ---         |
| [lxc-raring-amd64-2013-04-21.box](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13510779/lxc-raring-amd64-2013-04-21.box) | Ubuntu 13.04 Raring x86_64 (Puppet 3.1.1) |
| [lxc-quantal-amd64-2013-04-21.box](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13510779/lxc-quantal-amd64-2013-04-21.box) | Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal x86_64 (Puppet 3.1.1 & Chef 11.4.0) |
| [lxc-precise-amd64-2013-04-21.box](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13510779/lxc-precise-amd64-2013-04-21.box) | Ubuntu 12.04 Precise x86_64 (Puppet 3.1.1 & Chef 11.4.0) |

*Please note that I'm currently using only the quantal x86_64 on a daily basis,
and I've only done some basic testing with the others*

You can also build a clean box by providing `CHEF=0` and `PUPPET=0` to the available
[rake tasks](tasks/boxes.rake). For example:

```
CHEF=0 PUPPET=0 rake boxes:ubuntu:build:precise64
```

### Storing container's rootfs on a separate partition

Before the 0.3.0 version of this plugin, there used to be a support for specifying
the container's rootfs path from the `Vagrantfile`, on 0.3.0 this was removed as you
can achieve the same effect by symlinking or mounting `/var/lib/lxc` on a separate
partition.

### NFS shared folders

NFS shared folders are not supported and will behave as a "normal" shared folder
so we can share the same Vagrantfile with VBox environments.


## What is currently supported?

Pretty much everything you need from Vagrant:

* Vagrant's `up`, `halt`, `reload`, `destroy`, `ssh` and `package` commands (box packaging is kind of experimental)
* Shared folders
* Provisioning
* Setting container's host name
* Port forwarding

*Please refer to the [closed issues](https://github.com/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc/issues?labels=&milestone=&page=1&state=closed)
and the [changelog](CHANGELOG.md) for most up to date information.*


## Current limitations

* Does not detect forwarded ports collision, right now you are responsible for taking care of that
* A hell lot of `sudo`s (this will probably be like this until [user namespaces](http://s3hh.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/user-namespaces-lxc-meeting/) are supported)
* [Does not tell you if dependencies are not met](https://github.com/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc/issues/11)
  (will probably just throw up some random error)
* + bunch of other [core features](https://github.com/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc/issues?labels=core&milestone=&page=1&state=open)
  and some known [bugs](https://github.com/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc/issues?labels=bug&page=1&state=open)


## Development

If  want to develop from your physical machine, just sing that same old song:

```
git clone git://github.com/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc.git
cd vagrant-lxc
bundle install
bundle exec rake # to run unit specs
```

To run acceptance specs, you'll have to ssh into one of the [development boxes](development/Vagrantfile) and run:

```
bundle exec rake spec:acceptance
```

To build the provided quantal64 box:

```
bundle exec rake boxes:quantal64:build
vagrant box add quantal64 boxes/output/lxc-quantal64.box
```

### Using `vagrant-lxc` to develop itself

Yes! The gem has been [bootstrapped](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping_(compilers)
and since you can boot a container from within another, after cloning the
project you can run the commands below from the host machine to get a container
ready for development:

```sh
# Required in order to allow nested containers to be started
sudo apt-get install apparmor-utils
sudo aa-complain /usr/bin/lxc-start
bundle install
cd development
bundle exec vagrant up lxc --provider=lxc
bundle exec vagrant ssh lxc
```

That should result in a container ready to be `bundle exec vagrant ssh`ed.
Once you've SSH into the guest container, you'll be already on the project's root.
Keep in mind that you'll probably need to run `sudo aa-complain /usr/bin/lxc-start`
on the host whenever you want to hack on it, otherwise you won't be able to
start nested containers there to try things out.

### Using VirtualBox for development

```
cd development
bundle exec vagrant up vbox
# A reload is needed to ensure the updated kernel gets loaded
bundle exec vagrant reload vbox
bundle exec vagrant ssh vbox
```


## Protips

If you want to find out more about what's going on under the hood on vagrant,
prepend `VAGRANT_LOG=debug` to your `vagrant` commands. For `lxc-start`s
debugging set `LXC_START_LOG_FILE`:

```
LXC_START_LOG_FILE=/tmp/lxc-start.log VAGRANT_LOG=debug vagrant up
```

This will output A LOT of information on your terminal and some useful information
about `lxc-start` to `/tmp/lxc-start.log`.


## Help! I'm unable to restart containers!

It happened to me quite a few times in the past and it seems that it is related
to a bug on linux kernel, so make sure you are using a bug-free kernel
(>= 3.5.0-17.28). More information can be found on:

* https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=47181
* https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1021471
* https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1065434

Sometimes the dev boxes I'm using are not able to `lxc-start` containers
anymore. Most of the times it was an issue with the arguments I provided
to it for customization (or a *buggy* kernel). If you run into that, rollback your changes
and try to `vagrant reload` the dev box. If it still doesn't work,
please file a bug at the [issue tracker](https://github.com/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc/issues).


## Similar projects

* [vagabond](https://github.com/chrisroberts/vagabond) - "a tool integrated with Chef to build local nodes easily"
* [vagueant](https://github.com/neerolyte/vagueant) - "vaguely like Vagrant for linux containers (lxc)"

## Contributing

1. Fork it
2. Create your feature branch (`git checkout -b my-new-feature`)
3. Commit your changes (`git commit -am 'Add some feature'`)
4. Push to the branch (`git push origin my-new-feature`)
5. Create new Pull Request