A looooong one this time, so straight to the point! First, we'll discuss the Linux processes trivia and then review the following scenarios, as usually, with some code examples:
With this article, I want to start a series about the implementation of a container manager. What the heck is a container manager? Some prominent examples would be containerd, cri-o, dockerd, and podman. People here and there keep calling them container runtimes, but I would like to reserve the term runtime for a lower-level thingy - the OCI runtime (de facto runc), and a higher-level component controlling multiple such runtime instances I'd like to call a container manager. In general, by a container manager, I mean a piece of software doing a complete container lifecycle management on a single host. In the following series, I will try to guide you myself through the challenge of the creation of yet another container manager. By no means, the implementation is going to be feature-complete, correct or safe to use. The goal is rather to prove the already proven concept. So, mostly for the sake of fun, let the show begin!
Containers gave birth to more advanced server-side architectures and sophisticated deployment techniques. Containers nowadays are so widespread that there is already a bunch of standard-alike specifications (1, 2, 3, 4, ...) describing different aspects of the containers universe. Of course, on the lowest level lie Linux primitives such as namespaces and cgroups. But containerization software is already so massive that it would be barely possible to implement it without its own concern separation layers. What I'm trying to achieve in this ongoing effort is to guide myself starting from the lowest layers to the topmost ones, having as much practice (code, installation, configuration, integration, etc) and, of course, fun as possible. The content of this page is going to be changing over time, reflecting my understanding of the topic.
Have you ever been wondering how docker (or kubectl) attach command is implemented under the hood? If so, you're in the right place! This article covers the basics of Linux pseudoterminal capabilities and continuously shows how attach-like feature can be implemented in a ridiculously small amount of code.
Gee, it's my turn to throw some gloom light on iptables! There are hundreds or even thousands of articles on the topic out there, including introductory ones. I'm not going to put either formal and boring definitions here nor long lists of useful commands. I would rather try to use layman's terms and scribbling as much as possible to give you some insights about the domain before going to all these tables, rules, targets, and policies. By the way, the first time I faced this tool I was pretty much confused by the terminology too!
