README.md: Update to link to Read The Docs, describe a bit better

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Colin Walters 2016-02-08 14:35:09 +01:00
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OSTree
======
New! See the docs online at [Read The Docs (OSTree)](https://ostree.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ )
-----
OSTree is a tool that combines a "git-like" model for committing and
downloading bootable filesystem trees, along with a layer for
deploying them and managing the bootloader configuration.
Traditional package managers (dpkg/rpm) build filesystem trees on the
client side. In contrast, the primary focus of OSTree is on
replicating trees composed on a server.
OSTree is like git in that it checksums individual files and has a
content-addressed-object store. It's unlike git in that it "checks
out" the files via hardlinks, and they should thus be immutable.
Therefore, another way to think of OSTree is that it's just a more
polished version of
[Linux VServer hardlinks](http://linux-vserver.org/index.php?title=util-vserver:Vhashify&oldid=2285).
**Features:**
- Atomic upgrades and rollback
- GPG signatures and "pinned TLS" support
- Atomic upgrades and rollback for the system
- Replicating content incrementally over HTTP via GPG signatures and "pinned TLS" support
- Support for parallel installing more than just 2 bootable roots
- Binary history on the server side
- Binary history on the server side (and client)
- Introspectable shared library API for build and deployment systems
This last point is important - you should think of the OSTree command
line as effectively a "demo" for the shared library. The intent is that
package managers, system upgrade tools, container build tools and the like
use OSTree as a "deduplicating hardlink store".
Projects using OSTree
---------------------
[rpm-ostree](https://github.com/projectatomic/rpm-ostree) is a tool
that uses OSTree as a shared library, and supports committing RPMs
into an OSTree repository, and deploying them on the client.
into an OSTree repository, and deploying them on the client. This is
appropriate for "fixed purpose" systems. There is in progress work
for more sophisticated hybrid models, deeply integrating the RPM
packaging with OSTree.
[Project Atomic](http://www.projectatomic.io/) uses rpm-ostree
to provide a minimal host for Docker formatted Linux containers.
[Project Atomic](http://www.projectatomic.io/) uses rpm-ostree to
provide a minimal host for Docker formatted Linux containers.
Replicating a base immutable OS, then using Docker for applications
meshes together two different tools with different tradeoffs.
[xdg-app](https://github.com/alexlarsson/xdg-app) uses OSTree
for desktop application containers.
@ -63,12 +80,11 @@ make install DESTDIR=/path/to/dest
More documentation
------------------
New! See the docs online at [Read The Docs (OSTree)](https://ostree.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ )
Some more information is available on the old wiki page:
https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/OSTree
The intent is for that wiki page content to be migrated into Markdown
in this git repository.
Contributing
------------