Examples

Running Linux commands

lima uname -a

Accessing host files

By default, the VM has read-only accesses to /Users/<USERNAME>.

To allow writing to /Users/<USERNAME>:

limactl edit --mount-writable

Running containers

nerdctl.lima run -d --name nginx -p 127.0.0.1:8080:80 nginx:alpine
limactl start template://docker
export DOCKER_HOST=$(limactl list docker --format 'unix://{{.Dir}}/sock/docker.sock')
docker run -d --name nginx -p 127.0.0.1:8080:80 nginx:alpine
limactl start template://podman
export DOCKER_HOST=$(limactl list podman --format 'unix://{{.Dir}}/sock/podman.sock')
docker run -d --name nginx -p 127.0.0.1:8080:80 nginx:alpine
limactl start template://k8s
export KUBECONFIG=$(limactl list k8s --format 'unix://{{.Dir}}/copied-from-guest/kubeconfig.yaml')
kubectl apply -f ...

Advanced configuration

limactl start \
  --name=default \
  --cpus=4 \
  --memory=8 \
  --vm-type=vz \
  --rosetta \
  --mount-writable \
  --network=vzNAT \
  template://fedora
  • --name=default: Set the instance name to “default”
  • --cpus=4: Set the number of the CPUs to 4
  • --memory=8: Set the amount of the memory to 8 GiB
  • --vm-type=vz: Use Apple’s Virtualization.framework (vz) to enable Rosetta, virtiofs, and vzNAT
  • --rosetta: Allow running Intel (AMD) binaries on ARM
  • --mount-writable: Make the home mount (/Users/<USERNAME>) writable
  • --network=vzNAT: Make the VM reachable from the host by its IP address
  • template://fedora: Use Fedora