# virt-login-shell

tool to execute a shell within a container

Manual section:

  1

Manual group:

  Virtualization Support

## SYNOPSIS

virt-login-shell [OPTION]

## DESCRIPTION

The virt-login-shell program is a setuid shell that is used to join an LXC container that matches the user's name. If the container is not running, virt-login-shell will attempt to start the container. virt-login-shell is not allowed to be run by root. Normal users will get added to a container that matches their username, if it exists, and they are configured in /etc/libvirt/virt-login-shell.conf.

The basic structure of most virt-login-shell usage is:

    virt-login-shell

## OPTIONS

-c CMD

Instruct the shell to run CMD instead of presenting an interactive shell prompt.

-h, --help

Display command line help usage then exit.

-V, --version

Display version information then exit.

## CONFIG

By default, virt-login-shell will execute the /bin/sh program for the user. You can modify this behaviour by defining the shell variable in /etc/libvirt/virt-login-shell.conf. e.g.

    shell = [ "/bin/bash" ]

If the auto_shell config option is set then it will attempt to automatically detect the shell from /etc/password inside the container. This should only be done if the container has a separate /etc directory from the host, otherwise it will end up recursively invoking virt-login-shell. e.g.

    auto_shell = 1

By default no users are allowed to use virt-login-shell, if you want to allow certain users to use virt-login-shell, you need to modify the allowed_users variable in /etc/libvirt/virt-login-shell.conf. e.g.

    allowed_users = [ "tom", "dick", "harry" ]

## EXIT STATUS

virt-login-shell normally returns the exit status of the command it executed. If the command was killed by a signal, but that signal is not fatal to virt-login-shell, then it returns the signal number plus 128.

Exit status generated by virt-login-shell itself:

- 0 An option was used to learn more about this binary.

- 125 Generic error before attempting execution of the configured shell; for example, if libvirtd is not running.

- 126 The configured shell exists but could not be executed.

- 127 The configured shell could not be found.

## BUGS

Please report all bugs you discover. This should be done via either:

1. the mailing list

   https://libvirt.org/contact.html

2. the bug tracker

   https://libvirt.org/bugs.html

Alternatively, you may report bugs to your software distributor / vendor.

## AUTHOR

Daniel Walsh

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2013-2014 Red Hat, Inc., and the authors listed in the libvirt AUTHORS file.

## LICENSE

virt-login-shell is distributed under the terms of the GNU LGPL v2+. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE

## SEE ALSO

virsh(1), https://libvirt.org/