images¶
The multipass images command lists the images Multipass can use to run instances with launch on your system and associated version information. For example:
Image Aliases Version Description
22.04 jammy 20261004 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
24.04 noble 20260926 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
26.04 resolute,lts,ubuntu 20260927 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
debian trixie 20261001 Debian 13
fedora 20260422 Fedora 44
If no arguments are provided, multipass images only lists images from the default remotes.
The --all option includes images from all available remotes.
Remote Image Aliases Version Description
(default) 22.04 jammy 20261004 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
(default) 24.04 noble 20260926 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
(default) 26.04 resolute,lts,ubuntu 20260927 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
(default) debian trixie 20261001 Debian 13
(default) fedora 20260422 Fedora 44
core core16 current Ubuntu Core 16
core core18 current Ubuntu Core 18
...
snapcraft 26.04 resolute,lts,core26 20260802 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
snapcraft 26.10 stonking,devel 20261006 Ubuntu 26.10
Launch aliases, version information and a brief description are shown next to each name in the command output.
Launching an image using its name or its alias gives the same result. For example, multipass launch 23.10 and multipass launch mantic will launch the same image.
The aliases lts and devel are dynamic, that is, they change the image they alias from time to time, depending on the Ubuntu release.
The available aliases are:
default- the default image on that remotelts- the latest Long Term Support imagedevel- the latest development series image (only ondaily:)<codename>- the code name of a Ubuntu series<c>- the first letter of the code name<XX.YY>- the version number of a series
The list of available images is updated periodically. The option --force-update forces an immediate update of the list from the servers, before showing the output.
The option --show-unsupported includes old Ubuntu images, which were available at some point but are not supported anymore. This means that some features of Multipass might not work on these images and no user support is given. However, they are still available for testing.
The command also supports searching through available images by providing a filter. This filter can be:
the name or an alias of the image,
its major version number,
a prefix of either its name or one of its aliases.
The matching is performed case-insensitively.
For example:
$ multipass images res
Image Aliases Version Description
26.04 resolute,lts,ubuntu 20260927 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
$ multipass images Lts --all
Remote Image Aliases Version Description
(default) 26.04 resolute,lts,ubuntu 20260927 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
daily 26.04 resolute,lts 20260927 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
snapcraft 26.04 resolute,lts,core26 20260802 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
$ multipass images 22 --show-unsupported
Image Aliases Version Description
22.04 jammy 20261004 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
22.10 kinetic 20230716 Ubuntu 22.10
To search images within a specific remote, <remote>: can be passed as parameter.
For instance, multipass images daily: returns:
Image Aliases Version Description
22.04 jammy 20261004 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
24.04 noble 20260926 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
26.04 resolute,lts 20260927 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
26.10 stonking,devel 20261006 Ubuntu 26.10
If the user forgets to put the mandatory colon after the remote name, a hint advises them to retry their prompt with the missing colon.
$ multipass images core
No images found. To search a specific remote, use ‘multipass images core:’
Run ‘multipass images --remotes’ to see all available remotes.
To list all available remotes, use multipass images --remotes:
Remote
core
daily
release
snapcraft
Like list, images supports the --format option to get machine-readable output (json, csv or yaml).
Note
The json, csv and yaml formats cover regular output only. Errors and log messages are printed to the standard error stream as plain text, with failures signaled by a non-zero exit status.
The full multipass help images output explains the available options:
Usage: multipass images [options] [<remote>:][<filter>]
Lists available images matching <filter> for creating instances from.
With no query parameter, lists all images available from default remotes.
Options:
-h, --help Displays help on commandline options
-v, --verbose Increase logging verbosity. Repeat the 'v' in the short
option for more detail. Maximum verbosity is obtained with
4 (or more) v's, i.e. -vvvv.
--remotes List all available remotes.
--all Show images from all remotes.
--show-unsupported Show unsupported cloud images as well
--format <format> Output list in the requested format.
Valid formats are: table (default), json, csv and yaml.
The json, csv and yaml formats cover regular output only.
Errors and log messages are printed to the standard error
stream as plain text, with failures signaled by a non-zero
exit status.
--force-update Force the image information to update from the network
Arguments:
query An optional value to search for in [<remote>:][<filter>]
format, where <remote> is one of the available remotes. If
<remote> is omitted, the default remotes will be searched.
<filter> can be a codename, an alias, a major version, or
an alias prefix.