Because of this, a container built with `buildContainer` will not work on Windows or other non-POSIX platforms without modifications to the container configuration.
These modifications aren't supported by `buildContainer`.
For `linux` platforms, `buildContainer` also configures the following namespaces (see {manpage}`unshare(1)`) to isolate the OCI container from the global namespace:
PID, network, mount, IPC, and UTS.
Note that no user namespace is created, which means that you won't be able to run the container unless you are the `root` user.
### Inputs {#ssec-pkgs-ociTools-buildContainer-inputs}
`buildContainer` expects an argument with the following attributes:
`args` (List of String)
: Specifies a set of arguments to run inside the container.
Any packages referenced by `args` will be made available inside the container.
`mounts` (Attribute Set; _optional_)
: Would specify additional mounts that the runtime must make available to the container.
:::{.warning}
As explained in [issue #290879](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/290879), this attribute is currently ignored.
:::
:::{.note}
`buildContainer` includes a minimal set of necessary filesystems to be mounted into the container, and this set can't be changed with the `mounts` attribute.
:::
_Default value:_ `{}`.
`readonly` (Boolean; _optional_)
: If `true`, sets the container's root filesystem as read-only.
_Default value:_ `false`.
`os` **DEPRECATED**
: Specifies the operating system on which the container filesystem is based on.
If specified, its value should follow the [OCI Image Configuration Specification](https://github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/blob/main/config.md#properties).
According to the linked specification, all possible values for `$GOOS` in [the Go docs](https://go.dev/doc/install/source#environment) should be valid, but will commonly be one of `darwin` or `linux`.
_Default value:_ `"linux"`.
`arch` **DEPRECATED**
: Used to specify the architecture for which the binaries in the container filesystem have been compiled.
If specified, its value should follow the [OCI Image Configuration Specification](https://github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/blob/main/config.md#properties).
According to the linked specification, all possible values for `$GOARCH` in [the Go docs](https://go.dev/doc/install/source#environment) should be valid, but will commonly be one of `386`, `amd64`, `arm`, or `arm64`.
_Default value:_ `x86_64`.
### Examples {#ssec-pkgs-ociTools-buildContainer-examples}
::: {.example #ex-ociTools-buildContainer-bash}
# Creating an OCI runtime container that runs `bash`
This example uses `ociTools.buildContainer` to create a simple container that runs `bash`.
```nix
{
ociTools,
lib,
bash,
}:
ociTools.buildContainer {
args = [
(lib.getExe bash)
];
readonly = false;
}
```
As an example of how to run the container generated by this package, we'll use `runc` to start the container.
Any other tool that supports OCI containers could be used instead.
```shell
$ nix-build
(some output removed for clarity)
/nix/store/7f9hgx0arvhzp2a3qphp28rxbn748l25-join
$ cd /nix/store/7f9hgx0arvhzp2a3qphp28rxbn748l25-join
$ nix-shell -p runc
[nix-shell:/nix/store/7f9hgx0arvhzp2a3qphp28rxbn748l25-join]$ sudo runc run ocitools-example
help
GNU bash, version 5.2.26(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
(some output removed for clarity)
```
:::