crictl - Man Page

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

• using wget:

VERSION="v1.24.1"
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

VERSION="v1.24.1"
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
• completion:         Output bash shell completion code
• 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. If not specified and the default does not exist, the program's directory is searched as well (default: "/etc/crictl.yaml") [$CRI_CONFIG_FILE]

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.

CRICTL OPTIONS:

   runtime-endpoint:       Container runtime endpoint
   image-endpoint:         Image endpoint
   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)

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)

• 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.