bootc, a kind of bootable container
bootc
bootc: Generating an ecosystem around bootable OCI containers https://cfp.all-systems-go.io/all-systems-go-2024/talk/LA9LXV/
live demo
- bootc status
- bootc switch
- centos stream to fedora
- systemcl status bootc-fetch-apply-updates
What is bootable container?
- yes, container image as storage
- no, not a container or container engine; more like a deployer
What is Container?
An isolation Linux application.
- Open Container Initiative (oci)
- docker
- podman
- systemd-nspawn
- lxc
Extensions
- kubernetes - CRI (Container runtime interface)
- containerd
- cri-o
OCI Image
registry - https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec
- hub.docker.io
- quay.io
- ghcr.io
image manifest / tar
- image
- list manifest
- type
backend storage
layers, images, and containers
- docker
- overlay2 / fuse-overlayfs / btrfs and zfs / vfs
- podman / containers/storage
How it did?
Notes from 南部大聚

Note from Johnny Sung
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/129wP88YHmb/
ostree https://github.com/ostreedev/ostree Composefs https://github.com/containers/composefs 怎麼用
mount -t composefs /path/to/image.cfs -o basedir=/path/to/datafiles /mnt
EROFS: Enhanced Read-Only File System https://erofs.docs.kernel.org/en/latest/ bootc: Transactional, in-place operating system updates using OCI/Docker container images. https://github.com/containers/bootc Squashfs: compressed read-only filesystem for Linux https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/SquashFS https://docs.kernel.org/filesystems/squashfs.html bootc image builder https://docs.redhat.com/…/chap-anaconda-boot-options
Immutable solutions
Upgrade system always is a pain point for me, especially with package manager systems. They could work just sometime accident might happen, then need a lot of human operation to fix it.
There are lots of immutable solutions for os upgrade.
solution concepts:
- A/B switch
- systemd usr-merge
- file system snapshot
- oci image
solutions:
- ubuntu snap
- nixos
- talos
- bootc/ostree
- elemental-toolkit
OCI ecosystem
- container engine - podman
- build / pull images
bootc - bootable container
- ostree
- composefs
bootc as a bootable container runtime but it not really a runtime, more like a deployer.
https://github.com/containers/bootc
I really like bootc concept and thought it would the next docker.
podman with composefs as storage backend
https://github.com/containers/storage/pull/1646
https://github.com/containers/storage/blob/main/docs/containers-storage-composefs.md
containers-storage.conf /etc/containers/storage.conf
pull_options = {enable_partial_images = "true", use_hard_links = "true", ostree_repos="", convert_images = "true"}
[storage.options.overlay]
use_composefs = "true"
[storage.options.pull_options]
convert_images = "true"
#!/bin/bash
TAG=${TAG:=docker.io/library/alpine:latest}
MNT=${MNT:=/mnt}
BASEDIR=/var/lib/containers/storage/overlay
INDEX_FN=$BASEDIR/../overlay-images/images.json
LAYER=$(cat ${INDEX_FN} | jq -r '.[] | select( .names | any( "$TAG" ) ) | .layer')
mount -t composefs ${BASEDIR}/${LAYER}/composefs-data/composefs.blob -o basedir=${BASEDIR} $MNT
$ podman pull quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream9
$ podman image save quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream9 -o stream9.tar #(oci)
# podman image mount quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream9
/var/lib/containers/storage/overlay/98cf94224120f2355d5efc4df25632f6789c3b251f52cc0893562f959d72a7f6/merged
# mkcomposefs /var/lib/containers/storage/overlay/98cf94224120f2355d5efc4df25632f6789c3b251f52cc0893562f959d72a7f6/merged --digest-store=/sysroot/composefs/repo /sysroot/composefs/images/bootc-cs9.cfs
# mount -o rw,remount /sysroot/
# initrd
#mount --bind /sysroot /sysroot.tmp
Containerfile `ln -s sysroot/composefs composefs`
mkdir /sysroot.tmp
mount /dev/vda3 /sysroot.tmp
mount -t composefs /sysroot.tmp/composefs/images/bootc-cs9.cfs -o basedir=/sysroot/composefs/repo /sysroot
mount --bind /sysroot.tmp/ostree/deploy/default/deploy/37595a2f96fc23131eef6af87920858e6eecc4de5540ef3278aa7e184c7d4d5c.0/etc /sysroot/etc
mount --bind /sysroot.tmp/ostree/deploy/default/var /sysroot/var
modprobe zram
modprobe xfs