A low-level runtime that directly creates the container process — setting up namespaces, cgroups, and the init process itself

An image builder that assembles layers from build instructions — producing OCI images and pushing them to registries

A command-line client that talks to a background engine — sending container commands over a local API socket

DevOps · Flashcard

What is containerd?

Why this is the answer

containerd is a high-level runtime that handles the complete lifecycle and delegates actual container creation to a low-level runtime. It is not runc, which spawns the process with namespaces/cgroups; not an image builder like BuildKit; and not a CLI frontend like the Docker/nerdctl client.

More Container Runtime Internals flashcards

What is the Open Container Initiative (OCI)?
What replaced dockershim after its removal in Kubernetes 1.24?
How does copy-on-write work in an overlayfs container filesystem?

Back to the Container Runtime Internals deck (75 flashcards)