# indigo-dc/udocker

A basic user tool to execute simple docker containers in batch or interactive systems without root privileges.

Repository: https://github.com/indigo-dc/udocker
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/udocker
Homepage: https://indigo-dc.github.io/udocker/
Language: Python
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: docker, containers, batch, user, emulation, proot, runc, fakechroot, indigo, grid, hpc, root-privileges, chroot, docker-containers, deep-hybrid-datacloud, eosc-hub
Last push: 2025-08-13T17:21:57+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 39/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 36, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3779, "days_push": 385, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1782, forks 166 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:35.695103+00:00)

## What it is
udocker is a Python-based command-line tool that lets unprivileged users pull and run Docker containers on Linux systems where Docker is unavailable or root access is not permitted. It wraps execution engines like PRoot, Fakechroot, runc, crun, and Singularity to simulate a chroot environment entirely in user space.

## Use cases
- run docker containers on an hpc cluster without root privileges
- execute containers in user space on a shared linux system
- pull and run docker images where docker is not installed
- use containers in grid or batch computing environments
- run containerized software on a cluster managed by someone else

## When to choose
- you lack root or sudo on a linux system and need to run docker containers
- you work on hpc, grid, or batch systems where docker cannot be installed
- you need a lightweight, dependency-minimal container runner deployable in your home directory

## When to avoid
- you need full docker functionality such as networking, volumes, or docker-compose
- you have root access and can install docker, podman, or singularity directly
- you need high-performance or production-grade container isolation

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: container-runtime, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, cloud-computing, self-hosted
- platform: python, cli
- tags: docker-without-root, hpc, proot, fakechroot, user-space-containers, grid-computing, batch-systems, containers, linux

## Member repositories
- indigo-dc/udocker (main) score 39

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:35.695103+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:24:21.930156+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/indigo-dc/udocker (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:35.695103+00:00, sha c17d8cf9d287)
  - homepage: https://indigo-dc.github.io/udocker/ (fetched 2026-08-29T11:02:58.347276+00:00, sha 7176d5b05f3c)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/udocker/json (fetched 2026-08-29T11:02:58.356418+00:00, sha cbade06318c5)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.