fix: add --timeout flag to container commit

The hardcoded 1-hour lease expiration in nerdctl container commit can
cause failures for containers with large filesystem deltas (e.g., many
packages installed). When the diff.Compare operation exceeds 1 hour,
the containerd GC cleans up the expired lease and its ingest data,
resulting in 'context deadline exceeded' errors.

Changes:
- Add Timeout field to ContainerCommitOptions and commit.Opts
- Modify Commit() to use configurable lease expiration:
  * --timeout=0 (or negative): use containerd's default 24h lease
  * --timeout>0: use the specified duration
  * --timeout defaults to 1h for backward compatibility
- Add --timeout CLI flag (default: 1h)
- Add tests for --timeout flag

Usage:
  nerdctl container commit mycontainer myimage:tag        # default 1h
  nerdctl container commit --timeout=4h ...                # 4h timeout
  nerdctl container commit --timeout=0 ...                 # 24h (containerd default)

Signed-off-by: Turbo Jia <turbo@example.com>

Author: hejianshan

cmd/nerdctl/container/container_commit.go

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ package container
 
 import (
 	"errors"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 
@@ -51,6 +52,7 @@ func CommitCommand() *cobra.Command {
 	cmd.Flags().Bool("zstdchunked", false, "Convert the committed layer to zstd:chunked for lazy pulling")
 	cmd.Flags().Int("zstdchunked-compression-level", 3, "zstd:chunked compression level")
 	cmd.Flags().Int("zstdchunked-chunk-size", 0, "zstd:chunked chunk size")
+	cmd.Flags().Duration("timeout", 1*time.Hour, "Maximum duration for the commit operation (default 1h, 0 for containerd's default 24h)")
 	return cmd
 }
 
@@ -123,6 +125,11 @@ func commitOptions(cmd *cobra.Command) (types.ContainerCommitOptions, error) {
 		return types.ContainerCommitOptions{}, err
 	}
 
+	timeout, err := cmd.Flags().GetDuration("timeout")
+	if err != nil {
+		return types.ContainerCommitOptions{}, err
+	}
+
 	// estargz and zstdchunked are mutually exclusive
 	if estargz && zstdchunked {
 		return types.ContainerCommitOptions{}, errors.New("options --estargz and --zstdchunked lead to conflict, only one of them can be used")
@@ -137,6 +144,7 @@ func commitOptions(cmd *cobra.Command) (types.ContainerCommitOptions, error) {
 		Change:      change,
 		Compression: types.CompressionType(com),
 		Format:      types.ImageFormat(format),
+		Timeout:     timeout,
 		EstargzOptions: types.EstargzOptions{
 			Estargz:                 estargz,
 			EstargzCompressionLevel: estargzCompressionLevel,

cmd/nerdctl/container/container_commit_test.go

@@ -91,6 +91,82 @@ func TestCommit(t *testing.T) {
 	testCase.Run(t)
 }
 
+func TestCommitWithTimeout(t *testing.T) {
+	testCase := nerdtest.Setup()
+	testCase.Require = require.All(
+		require.Not(nerdtest.Docker),
+		require.Not(require.Windows),
+		nerdtest.CGroup,
+	)
+
+	testCase.Setup = func(data test.Data, helpers test.Helpers) {
+		identifier := data.Identifier()
+		helpers.Ensure("run", "-d", "--name", identifier, testutil.CommonImage, "sleep", nerdtest.Infinity)
+		nerdtest.EnsureContainerStarted(helpers, identifier)
+		helpers.Ensure("exec", identifier, "sh", "-euxc", `echo hello-test-commit-timeout > /foo`)
+	}
+
+	testCase.Cleanup = func(data test.Data, helpers test.Helpers) {
+		helpers.Anyhow("rm", "-f", data.Identifier())
+		helpers.Anyhow("rmi", "-f", data.Identifier())
+	}
+
+	testCase.Command = func(data test.Data, helpers test.Helpers) test.TestableCommand {
+		identifier := data.Identifier()
+		helpers.Ensure(
+			"commit",
+			"--timeout=2h",
+			"-c", `CMD ["/foo"]`,
+			"-c", `ENTRYPOINT ["cat"]`,
+			"--pause=false",
+			identifier, identifier,
+		)
+		return helpers.Command("run", "--rm", identifier)
+	}
+
+	testCase.Expected = test.Expects(0, nil, expect.Equals("hello-test-commit-timeout\n"))
+
+	testCase.Run(t)
+}
+
+func TestCommitWithTimeoutZero(t *testing.T) {
+	testCase := nerdtest.Setup()
+	testCase.Require = require.All(
+		require.Not(nerdtest.Docker),
+		require.Not(require.Windows),
+		nerdtest.CGroup,
+	)
+
+	testCase.Setup = func(data test.Data, helpers test.Helpers) {
+		identifier := data.Identifier()
+		helpers.Ensure("run", "-d", "--name", identifier, testutil.CommonImage, "sleep", nerdtest.Infinity)
+		nerdtest.EnsureContainerStarted(helpers, identifier)
+		helpers.Ensure("exec", identifier, "sh", "-euxc", `echo hello-test-commit-timeout0 > /foo`)
+	}
+
+	testCase.Cleanup = func(data test.Data, helpers test.Helpers) {
+		helpers.Anyhow("rm", "-f", data.Identifier())
+		helpers.Anyhow("rmi", "-f", data.Identifier())
+	}
+
+	testCase.Command = func(data test.Data, helpers test.Helpers) test.TestableCommand {
+		identifier := data.Identifier()
+		helpers.Ensure(
+			"commit",
+			"--timeout=0s",
+			"-c", `CMD ["/foo"]`,
+			"-c", `ENTRYPOINT ["cat"]`,
+			"--pause=false",
+			identifier, identifier,
+		)
+		return helpers.Command("run", "--rm", identifier)
+	}
+
+	testCase.Expected = test.Expects(0, nil, expect.Equals("hello-test-commit-timeout0\n"))
+
+	testCase.Run(t)
+}
+
 func TestZstdCommit(t *testing.T) {
 	testCase := nerdtest.Setup()
 	testCase.Require = require.All(

docs/command-reference.md

@@ -816,6 +816,7 @@ Flags:
 - :whale: `-m, --message`: Commit message
 - :whale: `-c, --change`: Apply Dockerfile instruction to the created image (supported directives: [CMD, ENTRYPOINT])
 - :whale: `-p, --pause`: Pause container during commit (default: true)
+- :nerd_face: `--timeout`: Maximum duration for the commit operation (default: 1h). Set to 0 to use containerd's default lease expiration (24h). Accepts Go duration format (e.g., `2h`, `90m`, `0s`).
 - :nerd_face: `--compression`: Commit compression algorithm (supported values: zstd or gzip) (default: gzip) (zstd is generally better for compression ratio but might not be as widely supported)
 - :nerd_face: `--format`: Format of the committed image (supported values: docker or oci) (default: docker) (docker uses Docker Schema2 media types for compatibility, oci uses OCI image format media types)
 - :nerd_face: `--estargz`: Convert the committed layer to eStargz for lazy pulling

pkg/api/types/container_types.go

@@ -421,6 +421,9 @@ type ContainerCommitOptions struct {
 	Compression CompressionType
 	// Format specifies the image format for the committed image (docker or oci)
 	Format ImageFormat
+	// Timeout is the maximum duration for the commit operation (lease expiration).
+	// Defaults to 1 hour. Set to 0 for no timeout (24h lease).
+	Timeout time.Duration
 	// Embed EstargzOptions for eStargz conversion options
 	EstargzOptions
 	// Embed ZstdChunkedOptions for zstd:chunked conversion options

pkg/cmd/container/commit.go

@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ func Commit(ctx context.Context, client *containerd.Client, rawRef string, req s
 		Changes:            changes,
 		Compression:        options.Compression,
 		Format:             options.Format,
+		Timeout:            options.Timeout,
 		EstargzOptions:     options.EstargzOptions,
 		ZstdChunkedOptions: options.ZstdChunkedOptions,
 	}

pkg/imgutil/commit/commit.go

@@ -68,6 +68,9 @@ type Opts struct {
 	Changes     Changes
 	Compression types.CompressionType
 	Format      types.ImageFormat
+	// Timeout is the maximum duration for the commit operation (lease expiration).
+	// Defaults to 1 hour. Set to 0 to use containerd's default (24h).
+	Timeout time.Duration
 	types.EstargzOptions
 	types.ZstdChunkedOptions
 }
@@ -174,8 +177,16 @@ func Commit(ctx context.Context, client *containerd.Client, container containerd
 		sn     = client.SnapshotService(snName)
 	)
 
-	// Don't gc me and clean the dirty data after 1 hour!
-	ctx, done, err := client.WithLease(ctx, leases.WithRandomID(), leases.WithExpiration(1*time.Hour))
+	// Set lease expiration based on the configured timeout.
+	// The CLI flag defaults to 1h for backward compatibility.
+	// Set --timeout=0 to use containerd's default lease expiration (24h).
+	var done func(context.Context) error
+	if opts.Timeout <= 0 {
+		// Use containerd's default lease expiration (24h) by passing no opts.
+		ctx, done, err = client.WithLease(ctx)
+	} else {
+		ctx, done, err = client.WithLease(ctx, leases.WithRandomID(), leases.WithExpiration(opts.Timeout))
+	}
 	if err != nil {
 		return emptyDigest, fmt.Errorf("failed to create lease for commit: %w", err)
 	}