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How to install jailoc

This guide covers installation methods and the prerequisites you need before running jailoc.

Prerequisites

  • Docker Engine must be running on your machine. jailoc communicates with the Docker daemon directly.
  • No docker compose CLI plugin is required. jailoc embeds the Compose SDK and manages containers without it.
  • The container runtime's Linux kernel must support netfilter (iptables). jailoc uses iptables rules inside the container to enforce network isolation. Runtimes whose kernel lacks netfilter support cannot run jailoc.

Docker runtime compatibility

Runtime Platform Status Notes
Docker Engine Linux ✅ Native performance, no VM overhead
OrbStack macOS ✅ Lightweight VM, fast file I/O — recommended on macOS
Docker Desktop macOS / Linux ✅ VirtioFS file sharing; higher memory footprint than OrbStack
Colima macOS ✅ Lima-based VM; performance depends on VM type (vz faster than qemu)
Podman macOS ✅ VM-based on macOS; comparable to Docker Desktop
Rancher Desktop (VZ + Rosetta) macOS ✅ Rosetta provides a more complete kernel with netfilter support
Rancher Desktop (VZ, no Rosetta) macOS ❌ VZ hypervisor without Rosetta runs a minimal ARM64 kernel that lacks netfilter — jailoc probes both iptables-nft and iptables-legacy but neither works, so startup is aborted
Docker Engine (rootless) Linux ⚠️ Untested — DinD sidecar requires --privileged, which rootless mode may not support
WSL2 + Docker Windows ⚠️ Untested — the Linux binary may work under WSL2 with Docker Engine installed inside the distribution

jailoc connects to whichever Docker daemon your current docker context points to. If your runtime uses a non-default socket path (common with Colima or Podman), make sure the active context is set correctly:

# list available contexts
docker context ls

# switch to a specific runtime
docker context use colima

Install with go install

The fastest method if you have a Go toolchain available:

go install github.com/seznam/jailoc/cmd/jailoc@v1.11.0

The binary lands in $GOPATH/bin (or $HOME/go/bin by default). Make sure that directory is on your PATH.

Pre-built binaries

Pre-built archives for Linux and macOS (amd64/arm64) are published with every release. Download the one matching your platform from the GitHub Releases page, extract, and place the binary on your PATH.