File System Tools Link: Cri

Also, the new feature (v1.25+) uses hard links to preserve container state before migration. Conclusion: The Link is the Lost Art of Container Storage The CRI file system tools — crictl , ctr , crio-status —give you x-ray vision into how Kubernetes manages storage. But without understanding the link (whether symbolic, hard, or the conceptual parent pointer between layers), you are blind to half of the system.

crictl images # Lists images with their IDs and sizes crictl inspect <container-id> # Shows detailed mount points and layer paths crictl imagefsinfo # Reports filesystem usage for image storage The inspect command reveals the rootfs path—a symbolic link that points to the container’s writable layer. For example: cri file system tools link

ctr -n k8s.io snapshot rm <snapshot-key> ctr -n k8s.io snapshot gc # Garbage collects unlinked snapshots Check /var/lib/containerd/io.containerd.snapshotter.v1.overlayfs/metadata.db (a BoltDB file) for orphaned links. Tools like boltdb-viewer can inspect it. Scenario 3: Migrating container rootfs to another disk using symlinks Suppose your /var/lib/containerd partition is full. You can move the storage directory and create a symbolic link. Also, the new feature (v1