ostreeOSTreeDeveloperColinWalterswalters@verbum.orgostree1ostreeManage multiple bootable versioned filesystem treesostreeCOMMANDOPTIONSDescription
OSTree is a tool for managing multiple bootable
versioned filesystem trees, or just "tree" for
short. In the OSTree model, operating systems no
longer live in the physical "/" root directory.
Instead, they parallel install to the new toplevel
/ostree directory. Each
installed system gets its own
/ostree/deploy/stateroot
directory. (stateroot is the
newer term for osname).
Unlike rpm or
dpkg, OSTree is only aware of
complete filesystem trees. It has no built-in
knowledge of what components went into creating the
filesystem tree.
It is possible to use OSTree in several modes; the
most basic form is to replicate pre-built trees from
a build server. Usually, these pre-built trees are
derived from packages. You might also be using
OSTree underneath a higher level tool which computes
filesystem trees locally.
It must be emphasized that OSTree only supports
read-only trees. To change to
a different tree (upgrade, downgrade, install
software), a new tree is checked out, and a 3-way
merge of configuration is performed. The currently
running tree is not ever modified; the new tree will
become active on a system reboot.
To see the man page for a command run man ostree COMMAND or man ostree-admin COMMANDOptionsThe following options are understood:
For most commands, a repository is
required. If unspecified, the current
directory is used if it appears to be an
OSTree repository. If it isn't, either
the OSTREE_REPO
environment variable is used, or the
system repository located at
/sysroot/ostree/repo.
Produce debug level output.
Print version information, including the features enabled
at compile time, and exit.
CommandsSystem administrators will primarily interact
with OSTree via the subcommand ostree
admin.ostree-admin-cleanup1
Delete untagged
deployments and repository objects.
ostree-admin-config-diff1
See changes to
/etc as compared
to the current default (from
/usr/etc).
ostree-admin-deploy1
Takes a particular
commit or revision, and sets it up for
the next boot.
ostree-admin-init-fs1
Initialize a root filesystem
in a specified path.
ostree-admin-instutil1
Utility functions intended primarily for operating system installation programs
ostree-admin-os-init1
Initialize the
deployment location for an operating
system with a specified name.
ostree-admin-status1
Show and list the deployments.
ostree-admin-switch1
Choose a different ref
to track from the same remote as the
current tree.
ostree-admin-undeploy1
Remove the previously
INDEX
deployed tree from the bootloader
configuration.
ostree-admin-upgrade1
Download the latest version for the
current ref, and deploy it.
Both administrators and operating system
builders may interact with OSTree via the regular
filesystem manipulation commands.
ostree-cat1
Concatenate contents of files
ostree-checkout1
Check out a commit into a filesystem tree.
ostree-checksum1
Gives checksum of any file.
ostree-commit1
Given one or more
trees, create a new commit using those contents.
ostree-config1
Change settings.
ostree-create-usb1
Put the given refs on an external drive for P2P distribution.
ostree-diff1
Concisely list
differences between the given refs.
ostree-find-remotes1
Find remotes to serve the given refs.
ostree-fsck1
Check a repository for consistency.
ostree-init1
Initialize a new repository.
ostree-log1
Show revision log.
ostree-ls1
List the contents of a given commit.
ostree-prune1
Search for unreachable objects.
ostree-pull-local1
Copy data from source-repo.
ostree-pull1
Download data from remote repo. If you have libsoup.
ostree-refs1
List refs.
ostree-remote1
Manipulate remote archive configuration.
ostree-reset1
Reset a ref to a previous commit.
ostree-rev-parse1
Show the SHA256 corresponding to a given rev.
ostree-show1
Given an OSTree SHA256 checksum, display its contents.
ostree-static-delta1
Manage static delta files.
ostree-summary1
Regenerate the repository summary metadata.
Examples
For specific examples, please see the man page regarding the specific ostree command. For example:
man ostree init or man ostree-admin statusGPG verification
OSTree supports signing commits with GPG. Operations on the system
repository by default use keyring files in
/usr/share/ostree/trusted.gpg.d. Any
public key in a keyring file in that directory will be
trusted by the client. No private keys should be present
in this directory.
In addition to the system repository, OSTree supports two
other paths. First, there is a
gpgkeypath option for remotes, which must point
to the filename of an ASCII-armored GPG key, or a directory containing
ASCII-armored GPG keys to import. Multiple file and directory paths
to import from can be specified, as a comma-separated list of paths. This option
may be specified by using --set in ostree remote add.
Second, there is support for a per-remote
remotename.trustedkeys.gpg
file stored in the toplevel of the repository (alongside
objects/ and such). This is
particularly useful when downloading content that may not
be fully trusted (e.g. you want to inspect it but not
deploy it as an OS), or use it for containers. This file
is written via ostree remote add
--gpg-import.
Terminology
The following terms are commonly used throughout the man pages. Terms in upper case letters
are literals used in command line arguments.
BRANCH
Branch name. Part of a REF.
CHECKSUM
A SHA256 hash of a object stored in the OSTree repository. This can be a content,
a dirtree, a dirmeta or a commit object. If the SHA256 hash of a commit object is
meant, the term COMMIT is used.
COMMIT
A SHA256 hash of a commit object.
REF
A reference to a particular commit. References are text files stored in
refs/ that name (refer to) a particular commit. A
reference can only be the branch name part, in which case a local reference
is used (e.g. mybranch/stable). If a remote branch
is referred to, the remote name followed by a colon and the branch name
needs to be used (e.g. myremote:mybranch/stable).
REVREFSPEC
A specific revision, a commit. This can be anything which can be resolved to a
commit, e.g. a REF or a
COMMIT.
SHA256
A cryptographic hash function used to store objects in the OSTree
repository. The hashes have a length of 256 bites and are typically
shown and passed to ostree in its 64 ASCII character long hexadecimal
representation
(e.g. 0fc70ed33cfd7d26fe99ae29afb7682ddd0e2157a4898bd8cfcdc8a03565b870).
See Alsoostree.repo5