This is a comprehensive list of the terms used when discussing the functionalities and the configuration options of LXDock.
- Container
Or Linux containers. Whenever we use the term "container", we are referring to LXD containers. LXD focuses on system containers / infrastructure containers and thus provides an elegant solution to the problem of how to reliably run software in multiple computing environments (eg. for development or tests execution).
- Image
An image (or container image) is necessary to build a container. Basically container images embed a snapshot of a full filesystem and some configuration-related tools. All containers are built from "local" images; but images can also be pulled from a remote image server (the default LXD's image server is at https://images.linuxcontainers.org/). This a good option because users don't have to manage their own images but they have to trust the image server they are using!
- LXC
LXC stands for "Linux containers". It is a technology that allows to virtualize software (which can be an entire operating system) at the operating system level, within the Linux kernel.
- LXD
LXD can be seen as an extension of LXC. It's a container system that makes use of LXC. It provides many tools built around LXC such as a REST API to interact with your containers, an intuitive command line tool, a container image system, ...
- Privileged container
Privileged containers are containers where the root user (in the container) is mapped to the host's root user. This is not really "root-safe" and could lead to potential security flawns. That said it should be noted that privileged containers come with some protection mechanisms in order to protect the host. You can refer to LXC's documentation for more details on this topic.
- Unprivileged container
Unprivileged containers are containers where the root user (in the container) is mapped to an unprivileged container on the host. So the user that corresponds to the container's root user only has advanced rights and permissions on the resources related to the container it is associated to.