LXC

What LXC is

LXC is free software for creating and managing Linux system or application containers using containment features in the Linux kernel. It aims to give containers an environment similar to a standard Linux installation without requiring a separate kernel. The project includes the liblxc library, container control tools, distribution templates, and API bindings for Python 3, Lua, Go, Ruby, and Haskell. Its containment mechanisms include kernel namespaces, AppArmor and SELinux profiles, seccomp policies, chroots, kernel capabilities, and cgroups. LXC is included in most Linux distributions and is generally installed through the distribution package manager. Its minimum requirements include a supported C library and Linux kernel version 2.6.32 or later. The project lists LXC 7.0 and 6.0 as long-term support releases, supported through June 1, 2031 and June 1, 2029 respectively. The project describes unprivileged containers as safe by design because container root maps to an unprivileged host user. However, LXC does not prevent denial-of-service attacks by default, and the project advises configuring cgroup limits for untrusted containers. It also warns that privileged containers run processes as host root. The software is mostly under GNU LGPLv2.1+, with some components under BSD 2-clause or GNU GPLv2 licenses.