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Create a task describing Pod process namespace sharing
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verb committed Mar 8, 2018
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1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions _data/tasks.yml
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Expand Up @@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ toc:
- docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-pod-initialization.md
- docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/attach-handler-lifecycle-event.md
- docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-pod-configmap.md
- docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/share-process-namespace.md
- docs/tools/kompose/user-guide.md

- title: Inject Data Into Applications
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110 changes: 110 additions & 0 deletions docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/share-process-namespace.md
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---
title: Share Process Namespace between Containers in a Pod
approvers:
- dawnchen
- verb
---

{% capture overview %}

{% include feature-state-alpha.md %}

This page shows how to configure process namespace sharing for a pod. When
process namespace sharing is enabled, processes in a container will be visible
to all other containers in that pod.

This can be useful for cooperating containers, such as a log handler sidecar
container, or troubleshooting container images that don't include debugging
utilities like a shell.

{% endcapture %}

{% capture prerequisites %}

* {% include task-tutorial-prereqs.md %}
* A special **alpha** feature gate `PodShareProcessNamespace` has to be set to
true across the system: `--feature-gates=PodShareProcessNamespace=true`.

{% endcapture %}

{% capture steps %}

## Configure a Pod

Process Namespace Sharing is enabled using the `ShareProcessNamespace` field of
`v1.PodSpec`. For example:

{% include code.html language="yaml" file="share-process-namespace.yaml" ghlink="/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/share-process-namespace.yaml" %}

1. Create the pod `nginx` on your cluster:

$ kubectl create -f https://k8s.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/share-process-namespace.yaml

1. Attach to the `shell` container and run `ps`:

$ kc attach -it nginx -c shell
If you don't see a command prompt, try pressing enter.
/ # ps ax
PID USER TIME COMMAND
1 root 0:00 /pause
8 root 0:00 nginx: master process nginx -g daemon off;
14 101 0:00 nginx: worker process
15 root 0:00 sh
21 root 0:00 ps ax

1. It's possible to signal processes in other containers. Sending `SIGHUP` to
nginx causes it to restart the worker process (this requires the `SYS_PTRACE`
capability):

/ # kill -HUP 8
/ # ps ax
PID USER TIME COMMAND
1 root 0:00 /pause
8 root 0:00 nginx: master process nginx -g daemon off;
15 root 0:00 sh
22 101 0:00 nginx: worker process
23 root 0:00 ps ax

1. It's even possible to access another container image using the
`/proc/$pid/root` link:

/ # head /proc/8/root/etc/nginx/nginx.conf

user nginx;
worker_processes 1;

error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;
pid /var/run/nginx.pid;


events {
worker_connections 1024;

{% endcapture %}

{% capture discussion %}

## Understanding Process Namespace Sharing

Pods share many resources so it makes sense they would also share a process
namespace. Some container images may expect to be isolated from other
containers, though, so it's important to understand these differences:

1. **The container process no longer has PID 1.** Some container images refuse
to start without PID 1 (e.g. containers using `systemd`) or run commands like
`kill -HUP 1` to signal the container process. In pods with a shared process
namespace, `kill -HUP 1` will signal the pod sandbox. (`/pause` in the above
example.)

1. **Processes are visible to other containers in the pod.** This includes all
information visible in `/proc`, such as passwords that were passed as arguments
or environment variables. These will be protected only by regular Unix
permissions.

1. **Container filesystems are visible to other containers in the pod through the
`/proc/$pid/root` link.** This makes debugging easier, but it also means
that filesystem secrets are protected only by filesystem permissions.

{% endcapture %}

{% include templates/task.md %}
17 changes: 17 additions & 0 deletions docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/share-process-namespace.yaml
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apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: nginx
spec:
shareProcessNamespace: true
containers:
- name: nginx
image: nginx
- name: shell
image: busybox
securityContext:
capabilities:
add:
- SYS_PTRACE
stdin: true
tty: true
3 changes: 3 additions & 0 deletions test/examples_test.go
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Expand Up @@ -414,6 +414,7 @@ func TestExampleObjectSchemas(t *testing.T) {
"security-context-2": {&api.Pod{}},
"security-context-3": {&api.Pod{}},
"security-context-4": {&api.Pod{}},
"share-process-namespace": {&api.Pod{}},
"task-pv-claim": {&api.PersistentVolumeClaim{}},
"task-pv-pod": {&api.Pod{}},
"task-pv-volume": {&api.PersistentVolume{}},
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -589,6 +590,8 @@ func TestExampleObjectSchemas(t *testing.T) {
capabilities.SetForTests(capabilities.Capabilities{
AllowPrivileged: true,
})
// PodShareProcessNamespace needed for example share-process-namespace.yaml
utilfeature.DefaultFeatureGate.Set("PodShareProcessNamespace=true")

for path, expected := range cases {
tested := 0
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