---
name: "autopkgtest-virt-lxc"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "autopkgtest"
version: "5.49"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/autopkgtest-virt-lxc"
---

# autopkgtest-virt-lxc(1)

autopkgtest virtualisation server using LXC

## NAME

autopkgtest-virt-lxc - autopkgtest virtualisation server using LXC

## SYNOPSIS

**autopkgtest** *\[...\]* **-- lxc** \[*options*\] *lxc-container* \[*-- extra lxc-start args...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**autopkgtest-virt-lxc** provides an autopkgtest virtualisation server using LXC. It adapts the raw functionality provided by the **lxc-**\* tools for use by autopkgtest.

Normally **autopkgtest-virt-lxc** will be invoked by **autopkgtest**.

You can conveniently create a suitable container using the [**autopkgtest-build-lxc**(1)](/autopkgtest-build-lxc/1.md) script.

## REQUIREMENTS

**autopkgtest-virt-lxc** assumes that you have already prepared a suitable Debian based LXC container. See [**lxc-create**(1)](/lxc-create/1.md) for how to create containers, and particularly [**autopkgtest-build-lxc**(1)](/autopkgtest-build-lxc/1.md) for conveniently creating standard autopkgtest containers.

## OPTIONS

- **-e** \| **--ephemeral**

  This option makes use of lxc-start-ephemeral to create temporary container overlays, instead of the default behaviour of cloning your containers.

  This can be used to dramatically improve performance, although you may see issues due to the overlayfs filesystem as used by lxc-start-ephemeral not being completely transparent (e. g. seen with tar failing when running LXC within Qemu). Before using this option in automation you should ensure that tests that involve large I/O work as expected.

  Note that ephemeral containers do not support rebooting with LXC 1.x. This does work with LXC \>= 2.x.

- **-s** \| **--sudo**

  Run lxc-\* commands through sudo; use this option if you run autopkgtest as normal user, but need to run the container itself as root (if you use LXC system level containers).

- **--name** *NAME*

  Set a custom name for the temporary container in which to run the test. This is autogenerated by default (autopkgtest-lxc-*XXXXXX*), but if you have a way to generate more expressive unique names you can use that to make it easier to map containers to running tests.

- **--disk-limit** *SIZE*

  Limits the amount of disk space that the test container is allowed to use for its root filesystem. When this option is used, then the test container will be backed by a loop device of the given *SIZE*, and it won't be possible for the container to consume all of the disk space in the host machine.

- **-d** \| **--debug**

  Enables debugging output.

You can pass additional options to LXC: Anything after a **--** gets passed verbatim to **lxc-start**/**lxc-start-ephemeral**.

## INPUT, OUTPUT AND EXIT STATUS

The behaviour of **autopkgtest-virt-lxc** is as described by the AutomatedTesting virtualisation regime specification.

## NOTES

**autopkgtest** does not run **apt-get update** at the start of a package build, which can cause a build failure if you are using a development release template. You will need to run **apt-get update** in the template yourself (e. g. using **--setup-commands**).

## EXAMPLE

Create a suitable debootstrap-based container for Debian or Ubuntu template, e. g. a Debian sid one (will be named **autopkgtest-sid):**

```
autopkgtest-build-lxc debian sid
```

Or an Ubuntu one based on the cloud images (faster than autopkgtest-build-lxc's "ubuntu" template with debootstrap, but much bigger):

```
lxc-create -t ubuntu-cloud -n autopkgtest-trusty -- -r trusty -d daily
```

Run tests against *hello\_2.8-4.dsc*, using the LXC container *autopkgtest-sid*, and with an ephemeral overlay for speed:

```
autopkgtest hello_2.8-4.dsc -- lxc -e autopkgtest-sid
```

## SEE ALSO

[**autopkgtest**(1)](/autopkgtest/1.md), [**autopkgtest-build-lxc**(1)](/autopkgtest-build-lxc/1.md), [**lxc-create**(1)](/lxc-create/1.md), **/usr/share/doc/autopkgtest/**.

## AUTHORS AND COPYRIGHT

**autopkgtest-virt-lxc** was written by Robie Basak \<robie.basak@canonical.com\> and Martin Pitt \<martin.pitt@ubuntu.com\>.

This manpage is part of autopkgtest, a tool for testing Debian binary packages.  autopkgtest is Copyright (C) 2006-2013 Canonical Ltd and others.

See **/usr/share/doc/autopkgtest/CREDITS** for the list of contributors and full copying conditions.