Merge pull request #128937 from bobby285271/pr8

nixos/doc: convert "Chapter 55. Container Management" to CommonMark

10 files changed, 455 insertions, 245 deletions

diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/administration/container-networking.section.md b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/container-networking.section.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..0873768376cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/container-networking.section.md
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+# Container Networking {#sec-container-networking}
+
+When you create a container using `nixos-container create`, it gets it
+own private IPv4 address in the range `10.233.0.0/16`. You can get the
+container's IPv4 address as follows:
+
+```ShellSession
+# nixos-container show-ip foo
+10.233.4.2
+
+$ ping -c1 10.233.4.2
+64 bytes from 10.233.4.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.106 ms
+```
+
+Networking is implemented using a pair of virtual Ethernet devices. The
+network interface in the container is called `eth0`, while the matching
+interface in the host is called `ve-container-name` (e.g., `ve-foo`).
+The container has its own network namespace and the `CAP_NET_ADMIN`
+capability, so it can perform arbitrary network configuration such as
+setting up firewall rules, without affecting or having access to the
+host's network.
+
+By default, containers cannot talk to the outside network. If you want
+that, you should set up Network Address Translation (NAT) rules on the
+host to rewrite container traffic to use your external IP address. This
+can be accomplished using the following configuration on the host:
+
+```nix
+networking.nat.enable = true;
+networking.nat.internalInterfaces = ["ve-+"];
+networking.nat.externalInterface = "eth0";
+```
+
+where `eth0` should be replaced with the desired external interface.
+Note that `ve-+` is a wildcard that matches all container interfaces.
+
+If you are using Network Manager, you need to explicitly prevent it from
+managing container interfaces:
+
+```nix
+networking.networkmanager.unmanaged = [ "interface-name:ve-*" ];
+```
+
+You may need to restart your system for the changes to take effect.
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/administration/container-networking.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/container-networking.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index 42486f01fe8c..000000000000
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/administration/container-networking.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,59 +0,0 @@
-<section  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="sec-container-networking">
- <title>Container Networking</title>
-
- <para>
-  When you create a container using <literal>nixos-container create</literal>,
-  it gets it own private IPv4 address in the range
-  <literal>10.233.0.0/16</literal>. You can get the container’s IPv4 address
-  as follows:
-<screen>
-<prompt># </prompt>nixos-container show-ip foo
-10.233.4.2
-
-<prompt>$ </prompt>ping -c1 10.233.4.2
-64 bytes from 10.233.4.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.106 ms
-</screen>
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  Networking is implemented using a pair of virtual Ethernet devices. The
-  network interface in the container is called <literal>eth0</literal>, while
-  the matching interface in the host is called
-  <literal>ve-<replaceable>container-name</replaceable></literal> (e.g.,
-  <literal>ve-foo</literal>). The container has its own network namespace and
-  the <literal>CAP_NET_ADMIN</literal> capability, so it can perform arbitrary
-  network configuration such as setting up firewall rules, without affecting or
-  having access to the host’s network.
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  By default, containers cannot talk to the outside network. If you want that,
-  you should set up Network Address Translation (NAT) rules on the host to
-  rewrite container traffic to use your external IP address. This can be
-  accomplished using the following configuration on the host:
-<programlisting>
-<xref linkend="opt-networking.nat.enable"/> = true;
-<xref linkend="opt-networking.nat.internalInterfaces"/> = ["ve-+"];
-<xref linkend="opt-networking.nat.externalInterface"/> = "eth0";
-</programlisting>
-  where <literal>eth0</literal> should be replaced with the desired external
-  interface. Note that <literal>ve-+</literal> is a wildcard that matches all
-  container interfaces.
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  If you are using Network Manager, you need to explicitly prevent it from
-  managing container interfaces:
-<programlisting>
-networking.networkmanager.unmanaged = [ "interface-name:ve-*" ];
-</programlisting>
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  You may need to restart your system for the changes to take effect.
- </para>
-</section>
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/administration/containers.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/containers.xml
index 0d3355e56a58..8e0e300f367b 100644
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/administration/containers.xml
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/containers.xml
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
   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" />
+ <xi:include href="../from_md/administration/imperative-containers.section.xml" />
+ <xi:include href="../from_md/administration/declarative-containers.section.xml" />
+ <xi:include href="../from_md/administration/container-networking.section.xml" />
 </chapter>
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/administration/declarative-containers.section.md b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/declarative-containers.section.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..273672fc10ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/declarative-containers.section.md
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# Declarative Container Specification {#sec-declarative-containers}
+
+You can also specify containers and their configuration in the host's
+`configuration.nix`. For example, the following specifies that there
+shall be a container named `database` running PostgreSQL:
+
+```nix
+containers.database =
+  { config =
+      { config, pkgs, ... }:
+      { services.postgresql.enable = true;
+      services.postgresql.package = pkgs.postgresql_9_6;
+      };
+  };
+```
+
+If you run `nixos-rebuild switch`, the container will be built. If the
+container was already running, it will be updated in place, without
+rebooting. The container can be configured to start automatically by
+setting `containers.database.autoStart = true` in its configuration.
+
+By default, declarative containers share the network namespace of the
+host, meaning that they can listen on (privileged) ports. However, they
+cannot change the network configuration. You can give a container its
+own network as follows:
+
+```nix
+containers.database = {
+  privateNetwork = true;
+  hostAddress = "192.168.100.10";
+  localAddress = "192.168.100.11";
+};
+```
+
+This gives the container a private virtual Ethernet interface with IP
+address `192.168.100.11`, which is hooked up to a virtual Ethernet
+interface on the host with IP address `192.168.100.10`. (See the next
+section for details on container networking.)
+
+To disable the container, just remove it from `configuration.nix` and
+run `nixos-rebuild
+  switch`. Note that this will not delete the root directory of the
+container in `/var/lib/containers`. Containers can be destroyed using
+the imperative method: `nixos-container destroy foo`.
+
+Declarative containers can be started and stopped using the
+corresponding systemd service, e.g.
+`systemctl start container@database`.
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/administration/declarative-containers.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/declarative-containers.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index d03dbc4d7055..000000000000
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/administration/declarative-containers.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,60 +0,0 @@
-<section  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="sec-declarative-containers">
- <title>Declarative Container Specification</title>
-
- <para>
-  You can also specify containers and their configuration in the host’s
-  <filename>configuration.nix</filename>. For example, the following specifies
-  that there shall be a container named <literal>database</literal> running
-  PostgreSQL:
-<programlisting>
-containers.database =
-  { config =
-      { config, pkgs, ... }:
-      { <xref linkend="opt-services.postgresql.enable"/> = true;
-      <xref linkend="opt-services.postgresql.package"/> = pkgs.postgresql_9_6;
-      };
-  };
-</programlisting>
-  If you run <literal>nixos-rebuild switch</literal>, the container will be
-  built. If the container was already running, it will be updated in place,
-  without rebooting. The container can be configured to start automatically by
-  setting <literal>containers.database.autoStart = true</literal> in its
-  configuration.
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  By default, declarative containers share the network namespace of the host,
-  meaning that they can listen on (privileged) ports. However, they cannot
-  change the network configuration. You can give a container its own network as
-  follows:
-<programlisting>
-containers.database = {
-  <link linkend="opt-containers._name_.privateNetwork">privateNetwork</link> = true;
-  <link linkend="opt-containers._name_.hostAddress">hostAddress</link> = "192.168.100.10";
-  <link linkend="opt-containers._name_.localAddress">localAddress</link> = "192.168.100.11";
-};
-</programlisting>
-  This gives the container a private virtual Ethernet interface with IP address
-  <literal>192.168.100.11</literal>, which is hooked up to a virtual Ethernet
-  interface on the host with IP address <literal>192.168.100.10</literal>. (See
-  the next section for details on container networking.)
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  To disable the container, just remove it from
-  <filename>configuration.nix</filename> and run <literal>nixos-rebuild
-  switch</literal>. Note that this will not delete the root directory of the
-  container in <literal>/var/lib/containers</literal>. Containers can be
-  destroyed using the imperative method: <literal>nixos-container destroy
-  foo</literal>.
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  Declarative containers can be started and stopped using the corresponding
-  systemd service, e.g. <literal>systemctl start container@database</literal>.
- </para>
-</section>
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/administration/imperative-containers.section.md b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/imperative-containers.section.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..05196bf5d819
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/imperative-containers.section.md
@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+# Imperative Container Management {#sec-imperative-containers}
+
+We'll cover imperative container management using `nixos-container`
+first. Be aware that container management is currently only possible as
+`root`.
+
+You create a container with identifier `foo` as follows:
+
+```ShellSession
+# nixos-container create foo
+```
+
+This creates the container's root directory in `/var/lib/containers/foo`
+and a small configuration file in `/etc/containers/foo.conf`. It also
+builds the container's initial system configuration and stores it in
+`/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-container/foo/system`. You can modify the
+initial configuration of the container on the command line. For
+instance, to create a container that has `sshd` running, with the given
+public key for `root`:
+
+```ShellSession
+# nixos-container create foo --config '
+  services.openssh.enable = true;
+  users.users.root.openssh.authorizedKeys.keys = ["ssh-dss AAAAB3N…"];
+'
+```
+
+By default the next free address in the `10.233.0.0/16` subnet will be
+chosen as container IP. This behavior can be altered by setting
+`--host-address` and `--local-address`:
+
+```ShellSession
+# nixos-container create test --config-file test-container.nix \
+    --local-address 10.235.1.2 --host-address 10.235.1.1
+```
+
+Creating a container does not start it. To start the container, run:
+
+```ShellSession
+# nixos-container start foo
+```
+
+This command will return as soon as the container has booted and has
+reached `multi-user.target`. On the host, the container runs within a
+systemd unit called `container@container-name.service`. Thus, if
+something went wrong, you can get status info using `systemctl`:
+
+```ShellSession
+# systemctl status container@foo
+```
+
+If the container has started successfully, you can log in as root using
+the `root-login` operation:
+
+```ShellSession
+# nixos-container root-login foo
+[root@foo:~]#
+```
+
+Note that only root on the host can do this (since there is no
+authentication). You can also get a regular login prompt using the
+`login` operation, which is available to all users on the host:
+
+```ShellSession
+# nixos-container login foo
+foo login: alice
+Password: ***
+```
+
+With `nixos-container run`, you can execute arbitrary commands in the
+container:
+
+```ShellSession
+# nixos-container run foo -- uname -a
+Linux foo 3.4.82 #1-NixOS SMP Thu Mar 20 14:44:05 UTC 2014 x86_64 GNU/Linux
+```
+
+There are several ways to change the configuration of the container.
+First, on the host, you can edit
+`/var/lib/container/name/etc/nixos/configuration.nix`, and run
+
+```ShellSession
+# nixos-container update foo
+```
+
+This will build and activate the new configuration. You can also specify
+a new configuration on the command line:
+
+```ShellSession
+# nixos-container update foo --config '
+  services.httpd.enable = true;
+  services.httpd.adminAddr = "foo@example.org";
+  networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 80 ];
+'
+
+# curl http://$(nixos-container show-ip foo)/
+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">…
+```
+
+However, note that this will overwrite the container's
+`/etc/nixos/configuration.nix`.
+
+Alternatively, you can change the configuration from within the
+container itself by running `nixos-rebuild switch` inside the container.
+Note that the container by default does not have a copy of the NixOS
+channel, so you should run `nix-channel --update` first.
+
+Containers can be stopped and started using `nixos-container
+  stop` and `nixos-container start`, respectively, or by using
+`systemctl` on the container's service unit. To destroy a container,
+including its file system, do
+
+```ShellSession
+# nixos-container destroy foo
+```
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/administration/imperative-containers.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/imperative-containers.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index bc19acf9f690..000000000000
--- a/nixos/doc/manual/administration/imperative-containers.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,123 +0,0 @@
-<section  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="sec-imperative-containers">
- <title>Imperative Container Management</title>
-
- <para>
-  We’ll cover imperative container management using
-  <command>nixos-container</command> first. Be aware that container management
-  is currently only possible as <literal>root</literal>.
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  You create a container with identifier <literal>foo</literal> as follows:
-<screen>
-<prompt># </prompt>nixos-container create <replaceable>foo</replaceable>
-</screen>
-  This creates the container’s root directory in
-  <filename>/var/lib/containers/<replaceable>foo</replaceable></filename> and a small configuration file
-  in <filename>/etc/containers/<replaceable>foo</replaceable>.conf</filename>. It also builds the
-  container’s initial system configuration and stores it in
-  <filename>/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-container/<replaceable>foo</replaceable>/system</filename>. You can
-  modify the initial configuration of the container on the command line. For
-  instance, to create a container that has <command>sshd</command> running,
-  with the given public key for <literal>root</literal>:
-<screen>
-<prompt># </prompt>nixos-container create <replaceable>foo</replaceable> --config '
-  <xref linkend="opt-services.openssh.enable"/> = true;
-  <link linkend="opt-users.users._name_.openssh.authorizedKeys.keys">users.users.root.openssh.authorizedKeys.keys</link> = ["ssh-dss AAAAB3N…"];
-'
-</screen>
-  By default the next free address in the <literal>10.233.0.0/16</literal> subnet will be chosen
-  as container IP. This behavior can be altered by setting <literal>--host-address</literal> and
-  <literal>--local-address</literal>:
-<screen>
-<prompt># </prompt>nixos-container create test --config-file test-container.nix \
-    --local-address 10.235.1.2 --host-address 10.235.1.1
-</screen>
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  Creating a container does not start it. To start the container, run:
-<screen>
-<prompt># </prompt>nixos-container start <replaceable>foo</replaceable>
-</screen>
-  This command will return as soon as the container has booted and has reached
-  <literal>multi-user.target</literal>. On the host, the container runs within
-  a systemd unit called
-  <literal>container@<replaceable>container-name</replaceable>.service</literal>.
-  Thus, if something went wrong, you can get status info using
-  <command>systemctl</command>:
-<screen>
-<prompt># </prompt>systemctl status container@<replaceable>foo</replaceable>
-</screen>
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  If the container has started successfully, you can log in as root using the
-  <command>root-login</command> operation:
-<screen>
-<prompt># </prompt>nixos-container root-login <replaceable>foo</replaceable>
-<prompt>[root@foo:~]#</prompt>
-</screen>
-  Note that only root on the host can do this (since there is no
-  authentication). You can also get a regular login prompt using the
-  <command>login</command> operation, which is available to all users on the
-  host:
-<screen>
-<prompt># </prompt>nixos-container login <replaceable>foo</replaceable>
-foo login: alice
-Password: ***
-</screen>
-  With <command>nixos-container run</command>, you can execute arbitrary
-  commands in the container:
-<screen>
-<prompt># </prompt>nixos-container run <replaceable>foo</replaceable> -- uname -a
-Linux foo 3.4.82 #1-NixOS SMP Thu Mar 20 14:44:05 UTC 2014 x86_64 GNU/Linux
-</screen>
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  There are several ways to change the configuration of the container. First,
-  on the host, you can edit
-  <literal>/var/lib/container/<replaceable>name</replaceable>/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</literal>,
-  and run
-<screen>
-<prompt># </prompt>nixos-container update <replaceable>foo</replaceable>
-</screen>
-  This will build and activate the new configuration. You can also specify a
-  new configuration on the command line:
-<screen>
-<prompt># </prompt>nixos-container update <replaceable>foo</replaceable> --config '
-  <xref linkend="opt-services.httpd.enable"/> = true;
-  <xref linkend="opt-services.httpd.adminAddr"/> = "foo@example.org";
-  <xref linkend="opt-networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts"/> = [ 80 ];
-'
-
-<prompt># </prompt>curl http://$(nixos-container show-ip <replaceable>foo</replaceable>)/
-&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">…
-</screen>
-  However, note that this will overwrite the container’s
-  <filename>/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</filename>.
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  Alternatively, you can change the configuration from within the container
-  itself by running <command>nixos-rebuild switch</command> inside the
-  container. Note that the container by default does not have a copy of the
-  NixOS channel, so you should run <command>nix-channel --update</command>
-  first.
- </para>
-
- <para>
-  Containers can be stopped and started using <literal>nixos-container
-  stop</literal> and <literal>nixos-container start</literal>, respectively, or
-  by using <command>systemctl</command> on the container’s service unit. To
-  destroy a container, including its file system, do
-<screen>
-<prompt># </prompt>nixos-container destroy <replaceable>foo</replaceable>
-</screen>
- </para>
-</section>
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/from_md/administration/container-networking.section.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/from_md/administration/container-networking.section.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..788a2b7b0acb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/from_md/administration/container-networking.section.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xml:id="sec-container-networking">
+  <title>Container Networking</title>
+  <para>
+    When you create a container using
+    <literal>nixos-container create</literal>, it gets it own private
+    IPv4 address in the range <literal>10.233.0.0/16</literal>. You can
+    get the container’s IPv4 address as follows:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting>
+# nixos-container show-ip foo
+10.233.4.2
+
+$ ping -c1 10.233.4.2
+64 bytes from 10.233.4.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.106 ms
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    Networking is implemented using a pair of virtual Ethernet devices.
+    The network interface in the container is called
+    <literal>eth0</literal>, while the matching interface in the host is
+    called <literal>ve-container-name</literal> (e.g.,
+    <literal>ve-foo</literal>). The container has its own network
+    namespace and the <literal>CAP_NET_ADMIN</literal> capability, so it
+    can perform arbitrary network configuration such as setting up
+    firewall rules, without affecting or having access to the host’s
+    network.
+  </para>
+  <para>
+    By default, containers cannot talk to the outside network. If you
+    want that, you should set up Network Address Translation (NAT) rules
+    on the host to rewrite container traffic to use your external IP
+    address. This can be accomplished using the following configuration
+    on the host:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting language="bash">
+networking.nat.enable = true;
+networking.nat.internalInterfaces = [&quot;ve-+&quot;];
+networking.nat.externalInterface = &quot;eth0&quot;;
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    where <literal>eth0</literal> should be replaced with the desired
+    external interface. Note that <literal>ve-+</literal> is a wildcard
+    that matches all container interfaces.
+  </para>
+  <para>
+    If you are using Network Manager, you need to explicitly prevent it
+    from managing container interfaces:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting language="bash">
+networking.networkmanager.unmanaged = [ &quot;interface-name:ve-*&quot; ];
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    You may need to restart your system for the changes to take effect.
+  </para>
+</section>
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/from_md/administration/declarative-containers.section.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/from_md/administration/declarative-containers.section.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..a918314a2723
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/from_md/administration/declarative-containers.section.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xml:id="sec-declarative-containers">
+  <title>Declarative Container Specification</title>
+  <para>
+    You can also specify containers and their configuration in the
+    host’s <literal>configuration.nix</literal>. For example, the
+    following specifies that there shall be a container named
+    <literal>database</literal> running PostgreSQL:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting language="bash">
+containers.database =
+  { config =
+      { config, pkgs, ... }:
+      { services.postgresql.enable = true;
+      services.postgresql.package = pkgs.postgresql_9_6;
+      };
+  };
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    If you run <literal>nixos-rebuild switch</literal>, the container
+    will be built. If the container was already running, it will be
+    updated in place, without rebooting. The container can be configured
+    to start automatically by setting
+    <literal>containers.database.autoStart = true</literal> in its
+    configuration.
+  </para>
+  <para>
+    By default, declarative containers share the network namespace of
+    the host, meaning that they can listen on (privileged) ports.
+    However, they cannot change the network configuration. You can give
+    a container its own network as follows:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting language="bash">
+containers.database = {
+  privateNetwork = true;
+  hostAddress = &quot;192.168.100.10&quot;;
+  localAddress = &quot;192.168.100.11&quot;;
+};
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    This gives the container a private virtual Ethernet interface with
+    IP address <literal>192.168.100.11</literal>, which is hooked up to
+    a virtual Ethernet interface on the host with IP address
+    <literal>192.168.100.10</literal>. (See the next section for details
+    on container networking.)
+  </para>
+  <para>
+    To disable the container, just remove it from
+    <literal>configuration.nix</literal> and run
+    <literal>nixos-rebuild switch</literal>. Note that this will not
+    delete the root directory of the container in
+    <literal>/var/lib/containers</literal>. Containers can be destroyed
+    using the imperative method:
+    <literal>nixos-container destroy foo</literal>.
+  </para>
+  <para>
+    Declarative containers can be started and stopped using the
+    corresponding systemd service, e.g.
+    <literal>systemctl start container@database</literal>.
+  </para>
+</section>
diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/from_md/administration/imperative-containers.section.xml b/nixos/doc/manual/from_md/administration/imperative-containers.section.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..59ecfdee5af0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nixos/doc/manual/from_md/administration/imperative-containers.section.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+<section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xml:id="sec-imperative-containers">
+  <title>Imperative Container Management</title>
+  <para>
+    We’ll cover imperative container management using
+    <literal>nixos-container</literal> first. Be aware that container
+    management is currently only possible as <literal>root</literal>.
+  </para>
+  <para>
+    You create a container with identifier <literal>foo</literal> as
+    follows:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting>
+# nixos-container create foo
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    This creates the container’s root directory in
+    <literal>/var/lib/containers/foo</literal> and a small configuration
+    file in <literal>/etc/containers/foo.conf</literal>. It also builds
+    the container’s initial system configuration and stores it in
+    <literal>/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-container/foo/system</literal>.
+    You can modify the initial configuration of the container on the
+    command line. For instance, to create a container that has
+    <literal>sshd</literal> running, with the given public key for
+    <literal>root</literal>:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting>
+# nixos-container create foo --config '
+  services.openssh.enable = true;
+  users.users.root.openssh.authorizedKeys.keys = [&quot;ssh-dss AAAAB3N…&quot;];
+'
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    By default the next free address in the
+    <literal>10.233.0.0/16</literal> subnet will be chosen as container
+    IP. This behavior can be altered by setting
+    <literal>--host-address</literal> and
+    <literal>--local-address</literal>:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting>
+# nixos-container create test --config-file test-container.nix \
+    --local-address 10.235.1.2 --host-address 10.235.1.1
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    Creating a container does not start it. To start the container, run:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting>
+# nixos-container start foo
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    This command will return as soon as the container has booted and has
+    reached <literal>multi-user.target</literal>. On the host, the
+    container runs within a systemd unit called
+    <literal>container@container-name.service</literal>. Thus, if
+    something went wrong, you can get status info using
+    <literal>systemctl</literal>:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting>
+# systemctl status container@foo
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    If the container has started successfully, you can log in as root
+    using the <literal>root-login</literal> operation:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting>
+# nixos-container root-login foo
+[root@foo:~]#
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    Note that only root on the host can do this (since there is no
+    authentication). You can also get a regular login prompt using the
+    <literal>login</literal> operation, which is available to all users
+    on the host:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting>
+# nixos-container login foo
+foo login: alice
+Password: ***
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    With <literal>nixos-container run</literal>, you can execute
+    arbitrary commands in the container:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting>
+# nixos-container run foo -- uname -a
+Linux foo 3.4.82 #1-NixOS SMP Thu Mar 20 14:44:05 UTC 2014 x86_64 GNU/Linux
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    There are several ways to change the configuration of the container.
+    First, on the host, you can edit
+    <literal>/var/lib/container/name/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</literal>,
+    and run
+  </para>
+  <programlisting>
+# nixos-container update foo
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    This will build and activate the new configuration. You can also
+    specify a new configuration on the command line:
+  </para>
+  <programlisting>
+# nixos-container update foo --config '
+  services.httpd.enable = true;
+  services.httpd.adminAddr = &quot;foo@example.org&quot;;
+  networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 80 ];
+'
+
+# curl http://$(nixos-container show-ip foo)/
+&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC &quot;-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN&quot;&gt;…
+</programlisting>
+  <para>
+    However, note that this will overwrite the container’s
+    <literal>/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</literal>.
+  </para>
+  <para>
+    Alternatively, you can change the configuration from within the
+    container itself by running <literal>nixos-rebuild switch</literal>
+    inside the container. Note that the container by default does not
+    have a copy of the NixOS channel, so you should run
+    <literal>nix-channel --update</literal> first.
+  </para>
+  <para>
+    Containers can be stopped and started using
+    <literal>nixos-container stop</literal> and
+    <literal>nixos-container start</literal>, respectively, or by using
+    <literal>systemctl</literal> on the container’s service unit. To
+    destroy a container, including its file system, do
+  </para>
+  <programlisting>
+# nixos-container destroy foo
+</programlisting>
+</section>