lxkns

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 Go to latest Published: Feb 19, 2026 License: Apache-2.0 Imports: 0 Imported by: 0

README

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Linux kernel Namespaces

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build and test Coverage goroutines file descriptors Go Report Card

Discover how containers are using Linux kernel namespaces...

container namespaces

...or the mounts inside your containers, and how over-mounts make other mounts invisible.

container mounts

Quick Start

Docker Compose

First, ensure that you have the Docker compose v2 plugin version 2.34.0 or later installed. Version 2.34.0 was released March 2025. Make also sure you have a Linux kernel of at least version 4.11 installed, however we highly recommend at least kernel version 5.6 or later.

docker compose -f oci://ghcr.io/thediveo/lxkns/app:latest up

Finally, visit http://localhost:5010 and start looking around Linux kernel namespaces, as well as mount points with their hierarchies.

Siemens Industrial Edge
  1. download latest lxkns.zip
  2. Import the included lxkns.app into your IEM.
  3. Deploy the "Linux kernel namespace namespace discovery" app to your IE (virtual) devices.
  4. On your IE (virtual) device, navigate to https://ied-address/lxkns.

Overview

lxkns discovers...

  • Linux namespaces in almost every nook and cranny of your hosts (from open file descriptors, bind-mounts, processes, and now even tasks and from open sockets) – please see the table below,
  • the mount points inside mount namespaces (correctly representing "overmounts").
  • container workloads: these are automatically related to the underlying Linux namespaces.
    • lxkns now leverages (Siemens OSS) Turtlefinder technology to autodetect container engines even in hierarchical configurations, such as Kubernetes-in-Docker and Docker Desktop on WSL2. Also, (socket-activated) podman detection has finally landed in turtlefinder, and in turn also in lxkns.
Where? lsns lxkns Kernel
➀ /proc/*/ns/* ✓ ✓ 4.11
➁ /proc/*/task/*/ns/* ✗ ✓ 4.11
➂ bind mounts ✓A ✓ 4.11
➃a /proc/*/fd/* namespace fds ✗ ✓ 4.11
➃b /proc/*/fd/* socket fds ✗ ✓ 5.6
➄ namespace hierarchy ✗ ✓ 4.11
➅ owning user namespaces ✗ ✓ 4.11
  • A very recent versions of lsns have improved and are now reporting bind-mounted namespaces as of "util-linux 2.39.1". Maybe lxkns managed to put some pressure to innovate on lsns, maybe not; we would like to hear from people who are acquainted with the rationale.

lxkns finds mount points even in process-less mount namespaces (for instance, as utilized in "snap" technology). Our discovery engine even determines the visibility of mount points, taking different forms of "overmounting" into consideration.

Take a look at the comprehensive user (and developer) manual.

[!NOTE] Please check Important Changes, especially if you have been used the API in the past, and not only the service.

Intro Video

Or, watch the short overview video how to find your way around discovery web frontend:

lxkns web app

Detected/Supported Container Engines

The following container engine types are supported:

Deployment Options

The lxkns discovery engine can be operated as a stand-alone REST service with additional web UI. Alternatively, it can be embedded/integrated into other system diagnosis tools. A prominent example of embedding lxkns is @siemens/ghostwire.

DevContainer

[!CAUTION]

Do not use VSCode's "Dev Containers: Clone Repository in Container Volume" command, as it is utterly broken by design, ignoring .devcontainer/devcontainer.json.

  1. git clone https://github.com/thediveo/lxkns
  2. in VSCode: Ctrl+Shift+P, "Dev Containers: Open Workspace in Container..."
  3. select lxkns.code-workspace and off you go...

Supported Go Versions

lxkns supports versions of Go that are noted by the Go release policy, that is, major versions N and N-1 (where N is the current major version).

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING.md.

lxkns is Copyright 2020‒26 Harald Albrecht, and licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

Documentation

Overview

Package lxkns discovers Linux kernel namespaces. Please see github.com/thediveo/lxkns/discovery for the specific API to namespace discovery.

For a broader introduction into lxkns, including the service deployment and web user interface, please refer to the 📖online manual.

Additional TDD support can be found in github.com/thediveo/lxkns/test/matchers, implementing domain-specific Gomega matchers about containers, container groups, pods, et cetera.

Index

Constants

View Source 
const SemVersion = "0.42.0"

SemVersion is the semantic version string of the lxkns module.

Variables

This section is empty.

Functions

This section is empty.

Types

This section is empty.

Source Files

View all Source files

Directories

Path Synopsis
api
types
Package types defines the common types for (un)marshalling elements of the lxkns information model from/to JSON.
 Package types defines the common types for (un)marshalling elements of the lxkns information model from/to JSON.
cmd
cli
Package cli contains subpackages for handling individual CLI flags and processing for reuse throughout various lxkns command line tools.
 Package cli contains subpackages for handling individual CLI flags and processing for reuse throughout various lxkns command line tools.
cli/cgrp
cli/filter
Package filter provides CLI-controlled filtering of namespaces by type.
 Package filter provides CLI-controlled filtering of namespaces by type.
cli/icon
Package icon provides a terminal output convenience helper for namespace type icons that can be configured via a CLI flag.
 Package icon provides a terminal output convenience helper for namespace type icons that can be configured via a CLI flag.
cli/reflabel
Package reflabel provides terminal output convenience helpers for cgroup information rendering.
 Package reflabel provides terminal output convenience helpers for cgroup information rendering.
cli/silent
Package silent provides the CLI commands "--silent" flag that raises the log level to warning and above.
 Package silent provides the CLI commands "--silent" flag that raises the log level to warning and above.
cli/style
Package style styles text output of the CLI commands with foreground and background colors, as well as different text styles (bold, italics, ...).
 Package style styles text output of the CLI commands with foreground and background colors, as well as different text styles (bold, italics, ...).
cli/task
Package task provides the “--task” CLI flag to enable task discovery above process discovery.
 Package task provides the “--task” CLI flag to enable task discovery above process discovery.
cli/turtles
dumpns command
dumpns runs a namespace (and process) discovery and then dumps the results as JSON.
 dumpns runs a namespace (and process) discovery and then dumps the results as JSON.
internal/caps
Package caps provides textual information about the effective capabilities of a process.
 Package caps provides textual information about the effective capabilities of a process.
internal/rttask command
Starts a separate OS-level task (~thread), elevates it to realtime scheduling with FIFO scheduling and lowest RT priority 1, and then sleeps until terminated with SIGINT or SIGTERM (or SIGKILL).
 Starts a separate OS-level task (~thread), elevates it to realtime scheduling with FIFO scheduling and lowest RT priority 1, and then sleeps until terminated with SIGINT or SIGTERM (or SIGKILL).
lspidns command
lspidns lists the tree of PID namespaces, optionally with their owning user namespaces.
 lspidns lists the tree of PID namespaces, optionally with their owning user namespaces.
lsuns command
lsuns lists the tree of user namespaces, optionally with the other namespaces they own.
 lsuns lists the tree of user namespaces, optionally with the other namespaces they own.
lxkns command
mntnssandbox command
nscaps command
nscaps determines a process' capabilities in some namespace.
 nscaps determines a process' capabilities in some namespace.
pidtree command
pidtree displays a tree (or only a single branch) of processes together with their PID namespaces, and additionally also shows the local PIDs of processes (where applicable).
 pidtree displays a tree (or only a single branch) of processes together with their PID namespaces, and additionally also shows the local PIDs of processes (where applicable).
Package containerizer provides the implementations to store data about [Container] and [ContainerEngine] objects.
 Package containerizer provides the implementations to store data about [Container] and [ContainerEngine] objects.
whalefriend
Package whalefriend implements a containerizer.Containerizer that discovers containers from container engines supported by the [@thediveo/whalewatcher] module, such as Docker and containerd (moby & friends).
 Package whalefriend implements a containerizer.Containerizer that discovers containers from container engines supported by the [@thediveo/whalewatcher] module, such as Docker and containerd (moby & friends).
Package decorator defines the Decorate plug-in interface, where the so-called “decorators” adorn the container information model with additional data, such as container grouping and unified pod-related container labels.
 Package decorator defines the Decorate plug-in interface, where the so-called “decorators” adorn the container information model with additional data, such as container grouping and unified pod-related container labels.
all
Package all imports and activates all lxkns (container) decorator plugins, activating them during discoveries.
 Package all imports and activates all lxkns (container) decorator plugins, activating them during discoveries.
composer
Package composer decorates lxkns information models with (Docker) Composer project groups.
 Package composer decorates lxkns information models with (Docker) Composer project groups.
devcontainer
Package devcontainer decorates containers used as devcontainers.
 Package devcontainer decorates containers used as devcontainers.
dockerplugin
Package dockerplugin decorates containerd containers that represent managed Docker plugins.
 Package dockerplugin decorates containerd containers that represent managed Docker plugins.
industrialedge
Package industrialedge decorates the composer-project flavor of [Siemens Industrial Edge] apps (“IE apps”) when an IE App project is detected.
 Package industrialedge decorates the composer-project flavor of [Siemens Industrial Edge] apps (“IE apps”) when an IE App project is detected.
kuhbernetes
Package kuhbernetes provides Decorators for “recovering” Kubernetes pods from the containers found.
 Package kuhbernetes provides Decorators for “recovering” Kubernetes pods from the containers found.
kuhbernetes/cri
Package cri decorates Kubernetes pod groups discovered from CRI-managed containers, based on their CRI-related labels.
 Package cri decorates Kubernetes pod groups discovered from CRI-managed containers, based on their CRI-related labels.
kuhbernetes/dockershim
Package dockershim decorates Kubernetes pod groups discovered from Docker container names managed by the (in)famous Docker shim.
 Package dockershim decorates Kubernetes pod groups discovered from Docker container names managed by the (in)famous Docker shim.
Package discover discovers [Linux kernel namespaces] of types cgroup, ipc, mount, net, pid, time, user, and uts.
 Package discover discovers [Linux kernel namespaces] of types cgroup, ipc, mount, net, pid, time, user, and uts.
examples
barebones command
lsallns command
internal
gen/version command
namespaces
pidmap
Package pidmap translates process PIDs (and also task TIDs) between different PID namespaces.
 Package pidmap translates process PIDs (and also task TIDs) between different PID namespaces.
xslices
Package xslices provides convenience slice functions.
 Package xslices provides convenience slice functions.
xstrings
Package xstrings provides convenience string functions.
 Package xstrings provides convenience string functions.
Package model defines the core of lxkns information model: Linux kernel namespaces and processes, and how they relate to each other; with the additional missing link between processes and user-land containers.
 Package model defines the core of lxkns information model: Linux kernel namespaces and processes, and how they relate to each other; with the additional missing link between processes and user-land containers.
Package mounts enhances the Linux kernel's mountinfo data model (as available through "/proc/[PID]/mountinfo") with mount point visibility (“overmounts”) and a hierarchical mount path tree.
 Package mounts enhances the Linux kernel's mountinfo data model (as available through "/proc/[PID]/mountinfo") with mount point visibility (“overmounts”) and a hierarchical mount path tree.
Package nsioctl defines namespace-related ioctl request values that aren't defined in the sys/unix standard package.
 Package nsioctl defines namespace-related ioctl request values that aren't defined in the sys/unix standard package.
Package nstest provides testing support in the context of Linux kernel namespaces.
 Package nstest provides testing support in the context of Linux kernel namespaces.
gmodel
Package gmodel provides Gomega matches for lxkns model elements.
 Package gmodel provides Gomega matches for lxkns model elements.
ops
Package ops provides a Golang-idiomatic API to the query and switching operations on Linux-kernel namespaces, hiding ioctl()s and syscalls.
 Package ops provides a Golang-idiomatic API to the query and switching operations on Linux-kernel namespaces, hiding ioctl()s and syscalls.
internal/opener
Package opener provides access to the file descriptors of namespace references.
 Package opener provides access to the file descriptors of namespace references.
mountineer
Package mountineer allows accessing the file system contents from (other) mount namespaces via procfs.
 Package mountineer allows accessing the file system contents from (other) mount namespaces via procfs.
mountineer/mntnssandbox
Package mntnssandbox is a single-purpose, stripped-down version of thediveo/gons.
 Package mntnssandbox is a single-purpose, stripped-down version of thediveo/gons.
portable
Package portable provides so-called “portable” namespace references with validation and “locking” to the referenced namespace open and thus alive.
 Package portable provides so-called “portable” namespace references with validation and “locking” to the referenced namespace open and thus alive.
relations
Package relations gives access to properties of and relationships between Linux-kernel namespaces, such as type and ID of a namespace, its owning user namespace, parent namespace in case of hierarchical namespaces, et cetera.
 Package relations gives access to properties of and relationships between Linux-kernel namespaces, such as type and ID of a namespace, its owning user namespace, parent namespace in case of hierarchical namespaces, et cetera.
Package species defines the type constants and type names of the currently 8 Linux kernel namespace types (“species”).
 Package species defines the type constants and type names of the currently 8 Linux kernel namespace types (“species”).
test
cmd/loosethread command
Program loosethread creates a thread (task) that is attached to a newly created network namespace, without attaching this process' other tasks to the new network namespace.
 Program loosethread creates a thread (task) that is attached to a newly created network namespace, without attaching this process' other tasks to the new network namespace.
containerdtest
Package containerdtest is a poor-man's dockertest.
 Package containerdtest is a poor-man's dockertest.
matcher
Package matcher implements Gomega matchers for lxkns information model artifacts, such as containers and container groups (pods in particular).
 Package matcher implements Gomega matchers for lxkns information model artifacts, such as containers and container groups (pods in particular).

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