How can I start a named instance of a container in Singularity?

Question

I need to start many containers using Singularity.

If I don't assign them a name, it will be difficult to keep track of them.

I could store the correspondence between their IDs and what they do in an external file, but it's cumbersome.

I need something equivalent to docker run --name, for Singularity.

Singularity documentation didn't help and there is nothing in the manpage.

Answer 1

What Singularity version do you use?

Singularity 2.4 is out since a few days, you can now start named instances of a container. I'll give an example from the Singularity website

$ singularity instance.start shub://GodloveD/lolcow cow1

You can also use containers from Docker Hub according to the Singularity documentation. Maybe this answers your question.