Runc

aid: runc
name: Runc
description: runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers on Linux according to the OCI (Open Container Initiative)
  specification. It is the reference implementation of the OCI runtime specification and is used as the default low-level
  container runtime by Docker, containerd, Podman, and other container platforms. runc manages container lifecycle operations
  including creating, starting, pausing, resuming, killing, and deleting containers. It implements the OCI Runtime Specification
  and exposes a command-line interface that higher-level runtimes use to manage individual container instances. runc also
  supports checkpoint/restore via CRIU, rootless containers (no root privileges needed via user namespaces), cgroup v2, seccomp
  syscall filtering, AppArmor, SELinux, and Intel Memory Protection Extensions. The current stable release line is 1.3.x (runc
  1.5.0 expected late April 2026).
type: Index
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
- Container Runtime
- Containers
- Linux
- OCI
- Open Source
- CNCF
- Open Container Initiative
- Cloud Native
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/runc/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-03-26'
modified: '2026-05-02'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: runc:runc
  name: Runc
  description: 'runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers on Linux according to the OCI (Open Container Initiative)
    specification. It is the reference implementation of the OCI runtime specification, providing a lightweight and portable
    container runtime that can be used independently or embedded into higher-level container systems like Docker and containerd.
    runc implements the full OCI Runtime Spec lifecycle: create, start, state, kill, delete. It also supports checkpoint/restore
    via CRIU, rootless containers, and cgroup v2. The container configuration is defined in a config.json file following the
    OCI Runtime Specification schema.'
  humanURL: https://github.com/opencontainers/runc
  tags:
  - Container Runtime
  - Containers
  - Linux
  - OCI
  - Open Source
  - CNCF
  - Open Container Initiative
  - Cloud Native
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/blob/main/README.md
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://github.com/opencontainers/runc#creating-an-oci-bundle
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/opencontainers/runc
  - type: Specification
    url: https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec
  - type: ReleaseNotes
    url: https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/releases
  - type: License
    url: https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/blob/main/LICENSE
  - type: Security
    url: https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/blob/main/SECURITY.md
  - type: ChangeLog
    url: https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/runc-container-config-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/runc-container-config-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/runc-context.jsonld
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/runc-container-config-example.json
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/runc-vocabulary.yml
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://opencontainers.org/
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/opencontainers
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/opencontainers/runc
- type: Blog
  url: https://opencontainers.org/posts/blog/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/blob/main/README.md
- type: Specification
  url: https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec
- type: Security
  url: https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/blob/main/SECURITY.md
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com