apptainer-overlay - Man Page

• Add a writable overlay to an existing SIF image: apptainer overlay create [-s|--size] size path/to/image.sif
• Create a standalone EXT3 writable overlay image: apptainer overlay create [-s|--size] size path/to/overlay.img
• Create a sparse overlay image: apptainer overlay create [-s|--size] size [-S|--sparse] path/to/overlay.img
• Create an overlay for use with fakeroot: apptainer overlay create [-f|--fakeroot] [-s|--size] size path/to/overlay.img
• Create an overlay with a specific directory in the layout: apptainer overlay create --create-dir path/to/directory path/to/overlay.img
• Display help: apptainer overlay [-h|--help]

tldr.sh

apptainer overlay

The overlay command allows management of EXT3 writable overlay images.

-h, --help[=false] help for overlay

  All overlay commands have their own help output:

  $ apptainer help overlay create
  $ apptainer overlay create --help

apptainer(1), apptainer-overlay-create(1)

2-Feb-2026 Auto generated by spf13/cobra

apptainer(1), apptainer-overlay-create(1).