---
name: "pw-container"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "pipewire"
version: "1:1.6.10-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pw-container"
---

# pw-container(1)

The PipeWire container utility

## NAME

pw-container - The PipeWire container utility

## SYNOPSIS

**pw-container** \[*options*\] \[*PROGRAM*\]

## DESCRIPTION

Run a program in a new security context \[1\].

**pw-container** will create a new temporary unix socket and uses the SecurityContext extension API to create a server on this socket with the given properties. Clients created from this server socket will have the security properties attached to them.

This can be used to simulate the behaviour of Flatpak or other containers.

Without any arguments, **pw-container** simply creates the new socket and prints the address on stdout. Other PipeWire programs can then be run with PIPEWIRE\_REMOTE=\<socket-address\> to connect through this security context.

When *PROGRAM* is given, the PIPEWIRE\_REMOTE env variable will be set and *PROGRAM* will be passed to system(). Argument to *PROGRAM* need to be properly quoted.

## OPTIONS

**-P \| --properties=VALUE**

Set extra context properties as a JSON object.

**-r \| --remote=NAME**

The name the *remote* instance to connect to. If left unspecified, a connection is made to the default PipeWire instance.

- **-h \| --help**

  Show help.

- **--version**

  Show version information.

## EXIT STATUS

If the security context was successfully created, **pw-container** does not exit until terminated with a signal. It exits with status 0 if terminated by SIGINT or SIGTERM in this case.

Otherwise, it exits with nonzero exit status.

## EXAMPLES

**pw-container** 'pw-dump i 0'

Run pw-dump of the Core object. Note the difference in the object permissions when running pw-dump with and without **pw-container**.

**pw-container** 'pw-dump pw-dump'

Run pw-dump of itself. Note the difference in the Client security tokens when running pw-dump with and without **pw-container**.

## AUTHORS

The PipeWire Developers \<https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/issues\>; PipeWire is available from \<https://pipewire.org\>

## SEE ALSO

\[1\] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland-protocols/-/blob/main/staging/security-context/security-context-v1.xml - Creating a security context