rpm-ostree: A true hybrid image/package system

rpm-ostree combines libostree (an image system), with libdnf (a package system), bringing many of the benefits of both together.

                         +-----------------------------------------+
                         |                                         |
                         |       rpm-ostree (daemon + CLI)         |
                  +------>                                         <---------+
                  |      |     status, upgrade, rollback,          |         |
                  |      |     pkg layering, initramfs --enable    |         |
                  |      |                                         |         |
                  |      +-----------------------------------------+         |
                  |                                                          |
                  |                                                          |
                  |                                                          |
+-----------------|-------------------------+        +-----------------------|-----------------+
|                                           |        |                                         |
|         libostree (image system)          |        |            libdnf (pkg system)          |
|                                           |        |                                         |
|   C API, hardlink fs trees, system repo,  |        |    ties together libsolv (SAT solver)   |
|   commits, atomic bootloader swap         |        |    with librepo (RPM repo downloads)    |
|                                           |        |                                         |
+-------------------------------------------+        +-----------------------------------------+

For more information, see the online manual: Read The Docs (rpm-ostree)

Features:

• Transactional, background image-based (versioned/checksummed) upgrades
• OS rollback without affecting user data (/usr but not /etc, /var) via libostree
• Client-side package layering (and overrides)
• Easily make your own: rpm-ostree compose tree

Projects using rpm-ostree

Project Atomic is an umbrella project for delivering upstream container technologies and combined with a minimized, atomically upgradable host system to Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and CentOS.

rpm-ostree is the underlying technology for host updates. The headlining project is "Atomic Host", which is a server variant oriented towards running Linux containers using e.g. Kubernetes. However, there is now also a Workstation variant, showing the full generality of the rpm-ostree model.

Manual

For more information, see the online manual: Read The Docs (rpm-ostree)

Talks and media

A number of Project Atomic talks are available; see for example this post which has a bigger collection that also includes talks on containers.

rpm-ostree specific talks:

• devconf.cz 2018: Colin Walters: Hybrid image/package OS updates with rpm-ostree slides
• devconf.cz 2018: Peter Robinson: Using Fedora and OSTree for IoT