The vctl commands are divided into function categories.

The following tables list vctl commands and their function. Options enclosed in square brackets are optional. The vertical bar indicates a keyword choice.

Note

Use --help to review all the available command options.

Command

Description

vctl system config [OPTIONS]

Configures and initializes the host OS environment for the container engine.

The command performs the following tasks:

Creates a <Home_Folder_of_Your_Account>/.vctl folder if it doesn't exist.

Updates the config.yaml file in the .vctl folder with the customized configurations specified by the command options.

Prepares the storage according to the configuration in config.yaml file and mounts the storage.

Checks the availability of the VMware Fusion application.

Note

The vctl system config command doesn't start containerd daemon.

vctl system info [OPTIONS]

Displays the container runtime information.

vctl system start [OPTIONS]

Starts the container engine.

The command performs the following tasks:

Creates a <Home_Folder_of_Your_Account>/.vctl folder if it doesn't exist.

Updates the config.yaml file in the .vctl folder with the customized configurations specified by the command options.

Prepares the storage according to the configuration in config.yaml file and mounts the storage.

Checks the availability of the VMware Fusion application

Starts the containerd daemon.

vctl system stop [OPTIONS]

Stops the container runtime.

Command

Description

vctl build [OPTIONS] PATH

Builds a container image using a Dockerfile.

Note

If the RUN instructions in the Dockerfile run network-related commands, add ENV instruction into the Dockerfile to set network proxy, for example: ENV https_proxy <Proxy_Server>:Proxy_Port for the network operations to succeed.

vctl images [OPTIONS] [IMAGE...]

Lists container images and displays basic information about the container images.

vctl push [OPTIONS] IMAGE [REMOTE_URL]

Pushes the container image to the registry.

vctl rmi [OPTIONS] ([IMAGE...]|--all)

Deletes one or more container images.

vctl tag [OPTIONS] SOURCE_IMAGE TARGET_IMAGE [TARGET_IMAGE...]

Tags container images. It creates an image alias with the TARGET_IMAGE.

vctl pull [OPTIONS] IMAGE

Pulls a container image from the registry.

Command

Description

vctl create [OPTIONS] IMAGE [COMMAND] [ARGUMENTS...]

Creates a new container from a container image.

Note

Ensure the following when you use the --volume option:

Specify paths to the folder. The --volume doesn't support path to files.

Use absolute path. Relative paths are not supported.

Only anonymous volumes can be mounted, mounting named volumes is not supported.

Note

Ensure the following when you use the --publish option:

The vctl utility doesn't have a subnet or a link feature to connect multiple containers to a subnet.

To enable communication between multiple containers, start the container with the --publish option. This binds the container port to the host port so that the service provided by the container is accessible from the outside.

vctl describe [OPTIONS] CONTAINER

Displays details about the container.

vctl exec [OPTIONS] CONTAINER COMMAND [ARGUMENTS...]

Runs a command inside a running container.

vctl ps [OPTIONS][CONTAINER...]

Lists the containers and displays basic information about the container.

vctl rm [OPTIONS] ([CONTAINER...]|--all)

Deletes one or more containers.

vctl run [OPTIONS] IMAGE [COMMAND] [ARGUMENTS...]

Runs a new container from a container image.

Note

Ensure the following when you use the --volume option:

Specify paths to the folder. The --volume doesn't support path to files.

Use absolute path. Relative paths are not supported.

Only anonymous volumes can be mounted, mounting named volumes is not supported.

Note

Ensure the following when you use the --publish option:

The vctl utility doesn't have a subnet or a link feature to connect multiple containers to a subnet.

To enable communication between multiple containers, start the container with the --publish option. This binds the container port to the host port so that the service provided by the container is accessible from the outside.

vctl start [OPTIONS] CONTAINER

Starts a created or stopped container.

vctl stop [OPTIONS] CONTAINER

Stops the container.

vctl inspect [OPTIONS] NAME

Displays detailed container information.

Command

Description

vctl execvm [OPTIONS] (vmx|-c=CONTAINER) COMMAND [ARGUMENTS...]

Runs commands from inside a running virtual machine that hosts the container.

Command

Description

vctl volume prune [flags]

Removes all unused local volumes.

Command

Description

vctl login [OPTION] [SERVER]

Logs in to a remote registry.

vctl logout [SERVER]

Logs out from a remote registry.

Note

On macOS, the credentials are saved in the Keychain. On Windows, the credentials are saved in the Credential Manager.

Once the login is successful, future Pull, Push and Build requests will leverage the saved credential.

Logout request deletes the corresponding credential from the Keychain or the Credential Manager.

Command

Description

vctl kind

Prepares the system environment for vctl-based KIND. KIND uses vctl containers as nodes for running Kubernetes clusters.