crictl - Man Page

crictl can be downloaded from cri-tools release page ⟨https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/releases⟩:

• using wget:

VERSION="v1.26.0" # check latest version in /releases page
wget https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/releases/download/$VERSION/crictl-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo tar zxvf crictl-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin
rm -f crictl-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz

• using curl:

VERSION="v1.26.0" # check latest version in /releases page
curl -L https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/releases/download/$VERSION/crictl-${VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz --output crictl-${VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo tar zxvf crictl-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin
rm -f crictl-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz

crictl [global options] command [command options] [arguments...]

COMMANDS:

• attach:             Attach to a running container
• create:             Create a new container
• exec:               Run a command in a running container
• version:            Display runtime version information
• images, image, img: List images
• inspect:            Display the status of one or more containers
• inspecti:           Return the status of one or more images
• imagefsinfo:        Return image filesystem info
• inspectp:           Display the status of one or more pods
• logs:               Fetch the logs of a container
• port-forward:       Forward local port to a pod
• ps:                 List containers
• pull:               Pull an image from a registry
• run:                Run a new container inside a sandbox
• runp:               Run a new pod
• rm:                 Remove one or more containers
• rmi:                Remove one or more images
• rmp:                Remove one or more pods
• pods:               List pods
• start:              Start one or more created containers
• info:               Display information of the container runtime
• stop:               Stop one or more running containers
• stopp:              Stop one or more running pods
• update:             Update one or more running containers
• config:             Get and set crictl client configuration options
• stats:              List container(s) resource usage statistics
• statsp:             List pod(s) resource usage statistics
• completion:         Output bash shell completion code
• checkpoint:         Checkpoint one or more running containers
• events, event:      Stream the events of containers
• help, h:            Shows a list of commands or help for one command

crictl by default connects on Unix to:

• unix:///var/run/dockershim.sock or
• unix:///run/containerd/containerd.sock or
• unix:///run/crio/crio.sock or
• unix:///var/run/cri-dockerd.sock

or on Windows to:

• npipe:////./pipe/dockershim or
• npipe:////./pipe/containerd-containerd or
• npipe:////./pipe/cri-dockerd

For other runtimes, use:

• frakti ⟨https://github.com/kubernetes/frakti⟩: unix:///var/run/frakti.sock

The endpoint can be set in three ways:

• By setting global option flags --runtime-endpoint (-r) and --image-endpoint (-i)
• By setting environment variables CONTAINER_RUNTIME_ENDPOINT and IMAGE_SERVICE_ENDPOINT
• By setting the endpoint in the config file --config=/etc/crictl.yaml

If the endpoint is not set then it works as follows:

• If the runtime endpoint is not set, crictl will by default try to connect using:

  • dockershim
  • containerd
  • cri-o
  • cri-dockerd
• If the image endpoint is not set, crictl will by default use the runtime endpoint setting

Unix:

$ cat /etc/crictl.yaml
runtime-endpoint: unix:///var/run/dockershim.sock
image-endpoint: unix:///var/run/dockershim.sock
timeout: 2
debug: true
pull-image-on-create: false

Windows:

C:\> type %USERPROFILE%\.crictl\crictl.yaml
runtime-endpoint: tcp://localhost:3735
image-endpoint: tcp://localhost:3735
timeout: 2
debug: true
pull-image-on-create: false

• --timeout, -t: Timeout of connecting to server in seconds (default: 2s). 0 or less is interpreted as unset and converted to the default. There is no option for no timeout value set and the smallest supported timeout is 1s
• --debug, -D: Enable debug output
• --help, -h: show help
• --version, -v: print the version information of crictl
• --config, -c: Location of the client config file (default: /etc/crictl.yaml). Can be changed by setting CRI_CONFIG_FILE environment variable. If not specified and the default does not exist, the program's directory is searched as well

Use the crictl config command to get and set the crictl client configuration options.

Usage:

crictl config [command options] [<crictl options>]

For example crictl config --set debug=true will enable debug mode when giving subsequent crictl commands.

COMMAND OPTIONS:

• --get value: Show the option value
• --set value: Set option (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: opt1=val1,opt2=val2)
• --help, -h: Show help (default: false)

crictl OPTIONS:

• runtime-endpoint: Container runtime endpoint (no default value)
• image-endpoint: Image endpoint (no default value)
• timeout: Timeout of connecting to server (default: 2s)
• debug: Enable debug output (default: false)
• pull-image-on-create: Enable pulling image on create requests (default: false)
• disable-pull-on-run: Disable pulling image on run requests (default: false)

• See the Kubernetes.io Debugging Kubernetes nodes with crictl doc ⟨https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/debug-application-cluster/crictl/⟩
• Visit kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools ⟨https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools⟩ for more information.