containerd/nerdctl v2.4.0-rc.0 on GitHub

This release improves compatibility with Docker v29.

Changes

Major changes (💡 for highlights):

nerdctl image:
- 💡Adopted Docker v29 default nerdctl images output (IMAGE, ID, DISK USAGE, CONTENT SIZE, EXTRA) (#5093, thanks to @ekalinin)
- Added nerdctl images --tree to show a row per platform an image declares, like docker image ls --tree (#5092, thanks to @ekalinin)
- Added nerdctl push --all-tags (-a) to push every local tag of a repository (#5133, thanks to @ekalinin)
- Added nerdctl image convert --erofs {raw|zstd} and aligned EROFS pull/push with containerd (#4927, thanks to @ChengyuZhu6)
- Added nerdctl save --quiet (-q) to suppress progress output (#5064, thanks to @s3onghyun)
- Fixed nerdctl image ls <repo> to list all tags of a bare repository name (#5115, thanks to @ankit090701)
- Added snapshot info to native nerdctl image inspect (#5114, thanks to @ningmingxiao)
- Pinned the image a container runs to its digest (#5125, thanks to @ekalinin)
- Truncated the output file of nerdctl save and nerdctl image export (#5160, thanks to @ekalinin)
- Preserved equals signs in image label filter values (#5163, thanks to @immanuwell)
nerdctl container:
- 💡Added --mount type=image (read-only) (#4990, thanks to @mayur-tolexo)
- Added image-subpath to --mount type=image to mount a relative path inside the image rootfs instead of the whole rootfs (#4993, thanks to @mayur-tolexo)
- Added --expose and --publish-all (-P) (#5036, thanks to @Mujib-Ahasan)
- 💡Added support for the Docker v25 recursive read-only (RRO) mount form (#5043)
- Allocated a free host port from a published port range for a single container port (#4988, thanks to @s3onghyun)
- Added the volume-nocopy mount option, so existing data in the container is not copied into the volume (#5129, thanks to @jiwahn)
- Fixed --cpus writing cpuset instead of CFS quota/period (#5067, thanks to @kmaris)
- Fixed nerdctl run/exec -i hanging when stdin reaches EOF during task creation (#5042)
- Fixed a foreground stdio deadlock when the internal logging process stops consuming (#5151, thanks to @gsaddict91)
- Added snapshot info to native nerdctl container inspect (#5118, thanks to @ningmingxiao)
- Suppressed a spurious hostsstore NotFound warning on container removal (#5098, thanks to @pujitha24)
- Allowed removing containers that have no network annotations (#5211, thanks to @Arman16-1998)
- Matched nerdctl ps --filter keys exactly instead of by prefix (#5197, thanks to @immanuwell)
nerdctl system:
- Added nerdctl system df, with --verbose (-v) and --format (#5130, thanks to @ekalinin)
nerdctl build:
- Printed the image ID with --quiet when using the containerd worker (#5170, thanks to @locker95)
nerdctl network:
- Added --aux-address support for nerdctl network create (#5041, thanks to @mayur-tolexo)
- Added --ipv4 so --ipv4=false --ipv6 can create IPv6-only networks (#5024, thanks to @mayur-tolexo)
- Matched each --ip-range to its subnet for dual-stack networks (#5018, thanks to @mayur-tolexo)
- Stopped injecting ipRange into the CNI config (#5078, thanks to @mayur-tolexo)
- Keyed Networks in nerdctl inspect by the real CNI network name (#5164, thanks to @larrasket)
- Combined repeated --filter name= values with OR (#5206, thanks to @immanuwell)
- Supported big-endian hosts when parsing /proc/net/{tcp,udp} addresses (#5100, thanks to @larrasket)
nerdctl events:
- Added label-based filtering (#4999, thanks to @Mujib-Ahasan)
- Renamed the Status field to Action to match Docker v29 (#5087, thanks to @Akshitguptaa)
nerdctl login:
- Accepted equivalent registry hosts in the auth creds callback, and normalized bracketed IPv6 addresses (#5128, thanks to @xianyuwu)
nerdctl compose:
- Supported image volumes (services.<SERVICE>.volumes[].type: image) (#5161, thanks to @papidb)
- Stopped requiring CNI plugins for compose projects that do not use CNI (#5132, thanks to @ravi-arnan)
- Allowed detached runs with the default interactive setting (#5212, thanks to @immanuwell)
- Fixed a panic when asserting x-nerdctl-* compose extension types (#5073, thanks to @arpitjain099)
nerdctl info:
- Implemented rootless systemd cgroup discovery, removing a hard-coded cgroup path (#5182, thanks to @chemwolf6922)
Healthcheck:
- Reduced unnecessary function calls (#5048, thanks to @ningmingxiao)
Logging:
- Added --log-file ($NERDCTL_LOG_FILE) to append nerdctl's own log to a file, in addition to the standard error (#5147, thanks to @ekalinin)
Rootless:
- Enabled IPv6 in the RootlessKit network namespace (#5055, thanks to @Akshitguptaa)
nerdctl-full:
- Updated containerd to v2.4.0 and RootlessKit to v3.2.0-beta.0 (#5144, #5152, #5196, #5209, #5213, thanks to @ChengyuZhu6 and @haytok)
- Updated BuildKit to v0.33.0, imgcrypt to v2.0.3, and fuse-overlayfs to v1.18 (#5198)
- Updated gomodjail to v2.0.1 and enforced its static analysis in CI (#5192)
Documentation:
- Documented volume :z and :Z SELinux options (#5140, thanks to @VedantMadane)
- Corrected the tmpfs path /var/lib/journal to /var/log/journal (#5162, thanks to @MayCXC)
- Fixed typos in docs (#5146, #5166, thanks to @MsfPablo)
Misc:
- Hid internal alias flags from help output (#5025, thanks to @immanuwell)
CI and tests:
- Updated CI to Ubuntu 26.04 and Docker 29.6.1, and ran integration tests directly on hosts and Lima guests (#5020, #5021, #5035)
- Continued migrating container, network, and compose tests to Tigron (#4780, #5014, #5045, #5056, #5058, #5063, #5069, #5070, #5071, #5074, #5085, #5086, #5094, #5120, thanks to @must108, @takumi12311123, @papidb, @Mujib-Ahasan, and @ogulcanaydogan)
- Published a weekly flaky test dashboard ("Soigneur") and attempted to deflake several tests (#5201, #5217, #5218)
- Printed daemon logs after integration test failures (#5165, thanks to @loglapa)
- Dropped an outdated containerd 1.x plugin requirement from the restart tests (#5185, thanks to @webdevsamran)
- Fixed lint-licenses failing on MPL-2.0 (#5200, thanks to @filipPlevjak)
- Reported gosocialcheck findings as GitHub Actions annotations, and fixed a zizmor failure (#5208, #5215)
And more!

Full changes: https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl/milestone/66?closed=1

Thanks to @ChengyuZhu6, @ekalinin, @mayur-tolexo, @immanuwell, @ningmingxiao, @larrasket, @papidb, @haytok, @Mujib-Ahasan, @s3onghyun, @Akshitguptaa, @MsfPablo, @ankit090701, @ravi-arnan, @arpitjain099, @kmaris, @pujitha24, @VedantMadane, @xianyuwu, @jiwahn, @gsaddict91, @locker95, @chemwolf6922, @Arman16-1998, @loglapa, @webdevsamran, @filipPlevjak, @MayCXC, @ogulcanaydogan, @must108, @takumi12311123, @subotac, and @nikolauspschuetz.

Note

Claude Opus 5 was used for updating this release note from v2.4.0-beta.0.

Compatible containerd versions

This release of nerdctl is expected to be used with containerd v1.7 or later.
Some features may not work with other releases of containerd.

About the binaries

Minimal (nerdctl-2.4.0-rc.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz): nerdctl only
Full (nerdctl-full-2.4.0-rc.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz): Includes dependencies such as containerd, runc, and CNI

Minimal

Extract the archive to a path like /usr/local/bin or ~/bin .

tar Cxzvvf /usr/local/bin nerdctl-2.4.0-rc.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz

-rwxr-xr-x root/root  32395426 2026-09-18 05:23 nerdctl
-rwxr-xr-x root/root     23390 2026-09-18 05:22 containerd-rootless-setuptool.sh
-rwxr-xr-x root/root      9555 2026-09-18 05:22 containerd-rootless.sh

Full

Extract the archive to a path like /usr/local or ~/.local .

tar Cxzvvf /usr/local nerdctl-full-2.4.0-rc.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz

drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:30 bin/
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        34512200 2026-09-01 12:47 bin/buildctl
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        29909144 2025-05-12 13:10 bin/buildg
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-bandwidth -> ../libexec/cni/bandwidth
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-bridge -> ../libexec/cni/bridge
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-dhcp -> ../libexec/cni/dhcp
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-dummy -> ../libexec/cni/dummy
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-firewall -> ../libexec/cni/firewall
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-host-device -> ../libexec/cni/host-device
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-host-local -> ../libexec/cni/host-local
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-ipvlan -> ../libexec/cni/ipvlan
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-loopback -> ../libexec/cni/loopback
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-macvlan -> ../libexec/cni/macvlan
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-portmap -> ../libexec/cni/portmap
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-ptp -> ../libexec/cni/ptp
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-sbr -> ../libexec/cni/sbr
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-static -> ../libexec/cni/static
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-tap -> ../libexec/cni/tap
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-tuning -> ../libexec/cni/tuning
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-vlan -> ../libexec/cni/vlan
lrwxrwxrwx 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/buildkit-cni-vrf -> ../libexec/cni/vrf
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        80466872 2026-09-01 12:47 bin/buildkitd
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        16853776 2026-09-18 05:28 bin/bypass4netns
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         6607010 2026-09-18 05:28 bin/bypass4netnsd
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        40488528 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/containerd
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        12079288 2025-11-06 01:44 bin/containerd-fuse-overlayfs-grpc
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0           23390 2026-09-18 05:30 bin/containerd-rootless-setuptool.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0            9555 2026-09-18 05:30 bin/containerd-rootless.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         8134818 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/containerd-shim-runc-v2
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        55267512 2026-01-21 14:59 bin/containerd-stargz-grpc
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        24842068 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/ctd-decoder
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        23158946 2026-09-18 05:28 bin/ctr
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        34403563 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/ctr-enc
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        23417016 2026-01-21 14:59 bin/ctr-remote
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         1695520 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/fuse-overlayfs
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        11153570 2026-09-18 05:28 bin/gomodjail
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        32358562 2026-09-18 05:30 bin/nerdctl
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        43520877 2026-09-18 05:30 bin/nerdctl.gomodjail
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        12470655 2026-09-09 01:47 bin/rootlessctl
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        24053759 2026-09-09 01:47 bin/rootlesskit
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        15249928 2026-09-18 05:28 bin/runc
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        53829816 2026-01-21 14:59 bin/stargz-fuse-manager
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        10821816 2026-01-21 14:59 bin/stargz-store-helper
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0          870496 2026-09-18 05:29 bin/tini
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 lib/
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 lib/systemd/
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 lib/systemd/system/
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            1309 2026-09-18 05:29 lib/systemd/system/buildkit.service
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            1248 2026-09-18 05:27 lib/systemd/system/containerd.service
-rw-r--r-- 0/0             312 2026-09-18 05:29 lib/systemd/system/stargz-snapshotter.service
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:29 libexec/
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/
-rw-r--r-- 0/0           11357 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/LICENSE
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            2343 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/README.md
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         5042926 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/bandwidth
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         5698763 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/bridge
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0        13725422 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/dhcp
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         5251069 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/dummy
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         5702145 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/firewall
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         5159967 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/host-device
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         4350778 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/host-local
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         5274322 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/ipvlan
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         4302030 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/loopback
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         5307111 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/macvlan
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         5108385 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/portmap
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         5475470 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/ptp
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         4525826 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/sbr
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         3776708 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/static
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         5453308 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/tap
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         4389084 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/tuning
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         5267679 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/vlan
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0         4685012 2026-03-16 14:18 libexec/cni/vrf
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:27 share/
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:30 share/doc/
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:30 share/doc/nerdctl/
-rw-r--r-- 0/0           12380 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/README.md
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            3953 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/build.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            2570 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/builder-debug.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            4779 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/cni.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0           97589 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/command-reference.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            2074 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/compose.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            7903 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/config.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            9128 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/cosign.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            5660 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/cvmfs.md
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/dev/
-rw-r--r-- 0/0           12701 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/dev/auditing_dockerfile.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            8587 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/dev/store.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            3148 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/dir.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            1826 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/erofs.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0             906 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/experimental.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0           14757 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/faq.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0             884 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/freebsd.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            5585 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/gpu.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            3419 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/healthchecks.md
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/images/
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            1540 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/images/nerdctl-white.svg
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            1462 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/images/nerdctl.svg
-rw-r--r-- 0/0          684421 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/images/rootlessKit-network-design.png
-rw-r--r-- 0/0           14462 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/ipfs.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            2426 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/multi-platform.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            2960 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/notation.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            2806 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/nydus.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            3277 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/ocicrypt.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            2215 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/overlaybd.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0           15657 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/registry.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0           10065 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/rootless.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            4126 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/soci.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0           11912 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/stargz.md
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/testing/
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            6352 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/testing/README.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            6527 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/testing/flaky.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0           16694 2026-09-18 05:22 share/doc/nerdctl/docs/testing/tools.md
drwxr-xr-x 0/0               0 2026-09-18 05:30 share/doc/nerdctl-full/
-rw-r--r-- 0/0             916 2026-09-18 05:30 share/doc/nerdctl-full/README.md
-rw-r--r-- 0/0            9539 2026-09-18 05:30 share/doc/nerdctl-full/SHA256SUMS

Included components

See share/doc/nerdctl-full/README.md:

# nerdctl (full distribution)
- nerdctl: v2.4.0-rc.0
- containerd: v2.4.0
- runc: v1.5.1
- CNI plugins: v1.9.1
- BuildKit: v0.33.0
- Stargz Snapshotter: v0.18.2
- imgcrypt: v2.0.3
- bypass4netns: v0.4.2
- fuse-overlayfs: v1.18
- containerd-fuse-overlayfs: v2.1.7
- Tini: v0.19.0
- buildg: v0.5.3
- RootlessKit: v3.2.0-beta.0
- gomodjail: v2.0.1@5924a4079d0f70459a10973f715238dc336478ea

## License
- bin/fuse-overlayfs: [GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, Version 2](https://github.com/containers/fuse-overlayfs/blob/v1.18/COPYING)
- bin/{runc,bypass4netns,bypass4netnsd}: Apache License 2.0, statically linked with libseccomp ([LGPL 2.1](https://github.com/seccomp/libseccomp/blob/main/LICENSE), source code available at https://github.com/seccomp/libseccomp/)
- bin/tini: [MIT License](https://github.com/krallin/tini/blob/v0.19.0/LICENSE)
- Other files: [Apache License 2.0](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)

Quick start

Rootful

$ sudo systemctl enable --now containerd
$ sudo nerdctl run -d --name nginx -p 80:80 nginx:alpine

Rootless

$ containerd-rootless-setuptool.sh install
$ nerdctl run -d --name nginx -p 8080:80 nginx:alpine

Enabling cgroup v2 is highly recommended for rootless mode, see https://rootlesscontaine.rs/getting-started/common/cgroup2/ .

The binaries were built automatically on GitHub Actions.
The build log is available for 90 days: https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl/actions/runs/35310518852

The sha256sum of the SHA256SUMS file itself is d7a0a25c0ff19a6377ffd36eaa7200d0e99b6cc5ca52b906794a649d20a18ae2 .

Release manager: @AkihiroSuda