How to use an instance

See also: Instance

This document demonstrates various ways to use an instance.

Open a shell prompt inside an instance

See also: shell

To open a shell prompt on an existing instance (e.g. loving-duck), run the command multipass shell loving-duck. The output will be similar to the following:

Welcome to Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.4.0-109-generic x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

  System information as of Tue May 31 14:26:40 -03 2022

  System load:  0.0               Processes:             113
  Usage of /:   28.8% of 4.67GB   Users logged in:       0
  Memory usage: 21%               IPv4 address for ens3: 10.49.93.241
  Swap usage:   0%


1 update can be applied immediately.
To see these additional updates run: apt list --upgradable


The list of available updates is more than a week old.
To check for new updates run: sudo apt update

To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

ubuntu@loving-duck:~$ 

If the instance loving-duck is Stopped or Suspended, it will be started automatically.

If no argument is given to the shell command, Multipass will open a shell prompt on the primary instance (and also create it, if it doesn’t exist).

As shown in the example above, an Ubuntu prompt is displayed as a result of the shell command, where you can run commands inside the instance.

To end the session, use logout, exit, or the Ctrl-D shortcut.

Run a command inside an instance

See also: exec

To run a single command inside an instance, you don’t need to open a shell. The command can be directly called from the host using multipass exec. For example, the command multipass exec loving-duck -- pwd returns:

/home/ubuntu

In the example, /home/ubuntu is the output of invoking the pwd command on the loving-duck instance.

Start an instance

See also: start

An existing instance that is in Stopped or Suspended status can be started with the multipass start command; for example:

multipass start loving-duck

You can start multiple instances at once, specifying the instance names in the command line:

multipass start loving-duck devoted-lionfish sensible-shark

To start all existing instances at once, use the --all option:

multipass start --all

If no options are specified, the multipass start command starts the primary instance, creating it if needed.

Suspend an instance

See also: suspend

An instance can be suspended with the command:

multipass suspend loving-duck

You can suspend multiple instances at once, specifying the instance names in the command line:

multipass suspend loving-duck devoted-lionfish sensible-shark

To suspend all running instances at once, use the --all option:

multipass suspend --all

If no options are specified, the multipass suspend command suspends the primary instance, if it exists and is running.

Stop an instance

See also: stop

A running, not suspended instance is stopped with the command:

multipass stop loving-duck

You can stop multiple instances at once, specifying the instance names in the command line:

multipass stop loving-duck devoted-lionfish sensible-shark

To stop all running instances at once, use the --all option:

$ multipass stop --all

If no options are specified, the multipass stop command stops the primary instance, if it exists and is running.

Stop an instance forcefully

If the multipass stop command doesn’t work, you can use the --force argument to force the instance to shut down immediately. This is particularly useful when the virtual machine is in a non-responsive, unknown or suspended state.

multipass stop --force

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