Colima - container runtimes on macOS (and Linux) with minimal setup.
Features
Support for Intel and Apple Silicon Macs, and Linux
- Simple CLI interface with sensible defaults
- Automatic Port Forwarding
- Volume mounts
- Multiple instances
- Support for multiple container runtimes
Getting Started
Installation
Colima is available on Homebrew, MacPorts, and Nix. Check here for other installation options.
# Homebrew
brew install colima
# MacPorts
sudo port install colima
# Nix
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.colima
Or stay on the bleeding edge (only Homebrew)
brew install --HEAD colima
Upgrading
If upgrading from v0.5.6 or lower, it is required to start afresh by deleting existing instance.
colima delete # delete existing instance
colima start
Usage
Start Colima with defaults
colima start
For more usage options
colima --help
colima start --help
Or use a config file
colima start --edit
Runtimes
On initial startup, Colima initiates with a user specified runtime that defaults to Docker.
Docker
Docker client is required for Docker runtime. Installable with brew brew install docker
.
You can use the docker
client on macOS after colima start
with no additional setup.
Containerd
colima start --runtime containerd
starts and setup Containerd. You can use colima nerdctl
to interact with
Containerd using nerdctl.
It is recommended to run colima nerdctl install
to install nerdctl
alias script in $PATH.
Kubernetes
kubectl is required for Kubernetes. Installable with brew install kubectl
.
To enable Kubernetes, start Colima with --kubernetes
flag.
colima start --kubernetes
Interacting with Image Registry
For Docker runtime, images built or pulled with Docker are accessible to Kubernetes.
For Containerd runtime, images built or pulled in the k8s.io
namespace are accessible to Kubernetes.
Incus
Requires v0.7.0
Incus client is required for Incus runtime. Installable with brew brew install incus
.
colima start --runtime incus
starts and setup Incus.
You can use the incus
client on macOS after colima start
with no additional setup.
None
Requires v0.7.0
Colima can also be utilised solely as a headless virtual machine manager by specifying none
runtime.
Customizing the VM
The default VM created by Colima has 2 CPUs, 2GiB memory and 100GiB storage.
The VM can be customized either by passing additional flags to colima start
.
e.g. --cpu
, --memory
, --disk
, --runtime
.
Or by editing the config file with colima start --edit
.
NOTE: disk size cannot be changed after the VM is created. From v0.5.3, disk size can be increased.
Customization Examples
-
create VM with 1CPU, 2GiB memory and 10GiB storage.
colima start --cpu 1 --memory 2 --disk 10
-
modify an existing VM to 4CPUs and 8GiB memory.
colima stop
colima start --cpu 4 --memory 8
-
create VM with Rosetta 2 emulation. Requires v0.5.3 and MacOS >= 13 (Ventura) on Apple Silicon.
colima start --vm-type=vz --vz-rosetta
Project Goal
To provide container runtimes on macOS with minimal setup.
What is with the name?
Colima means Containers on Lima.
Since Lima is aka Linux Machines. By transitivity, Colima can also mean Containers on Linux Machines.
And the Logo?
The logo was contributed by Daniel Hodvogner. Check this issue for more.
Troubleshooting and FAQs
Check here for Frequently Asked Questions.
Help Wanted
- Documentation (wiki pages)
License
MIT
If you (or your company) are benefiting from the project and would like to support the contributors, kindly support the project.