<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
        xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
        xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
        version="5.0"
        xml:id="ch-containers">

<title>Container Management</title>

<para>NixOS allows you to easily run other NixOS instances as
<emphasis>containers</emphasis>. Containers are a light-weight
approach to virtualisation that runs software in the container at the
same speed as in the host system. NixOS containers share the Nix store
of the host, making container creation very efficient.</para>

<warning><para>Currently, NixOS containers are not perfectly isolated
from the host system. This means that a user with root access to the
container can do things that affect the host. So you should not give
container root access to untrusted users.</para></warning>

<para>NixOS containers can be created in two ways: imperatively, using
the command <command>nixos-container</command>, and declaratively, by
specifying them in your <filename>configuration.nix</filename>. The
declarative approach implies that containers get upgraded along with
your host system when you run <command>nixos-rebuild</command>, which
is often not what you want. By contrast, in the imperative approach,
containers are configured and updated independently from the host
system.</para>

<xi:include href="imperative-containers.xml" />
<xi:include href="declarative-containers.xml" />
<xi:include href="container-networking.xml" />

</chapter>

