buildfs

buildfs is an easy-to-use CLI tool meant for both manual and automated (CI) use to create raw filesystem (rootfs) images that can be used to boot virtual machines. It has 4 subcommands: pack and unpack to manage packages, dry-run to test the correctness of a package and run to actually fully execute the package. A package can be a single TOML build script, a directory with the build script and references to other resources, or such a directory compressed in either a .tar or a .tar.gz.

MSRV: Rust 1.80.0.

Getting started

1. cargo install buildfs.
2. Root privileges are needed (for mkfs and mount/umount), so ensure you can run sudo on the target machine and that it is running a Linux distribution.
3. Insert the following build script contents into /tmp/build_script.toml. This is a simple configuration that will make a minified bootable Debian root filesystem from the docker.io/library/debian:bookworm-slim image:

[filesystem]
type = "Ext4"
size_mib = 250

[container]
engine = "Docker"
rootful = true
wait_timeout_s = 1
image = { name = "docker.io/library/debian", tag = "bookworm-slim" }

[[commands]]
script_inline = """
#!/bin/bash

apt update
apt install -y udev systemd-sysv iputils-ping curl

rm -f /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/systemd-resolved.service
rm -f /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.resolve1.service
rm -f /etc/systemd/system/sysinit.target.wants/systemd-timesyncd.service

systemctl disable e2scrub_reap.service
rm -vf /etc/systemd/system/timers.target.wants/*

for console in ttyS0; do
    mkdir "/etc/systemd/system/serial-getty@$console.service.d/"
    cat <<'EOF' > "/etc/systemd/system/serial-getty@$console.service.d/override.conf"
[Service]
# systemd requires this empty ExecStart line to override
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty --autologin root -o '-p -- \\u' --keep-baud 115200,38400,9600 %I dumb
EOF
done

passwd -d root

rm -rf /usr/share/{doc,man,info,locale}

cat >> /etc/sysctl.conf <<EOF
# This avoids a SPECTRE vuln
kernel.unprivileged_bpf_disabled=1
EOF
"""

[[overlays]]
source_inline = """
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4
nameserver 1.1.1.1
"""
destination = "/etc/resolv.conf"

[export.directories]
include = [ "/bin", "/etc", "/home", "/lib", "/lib64", "/root", "/sbin", "/usr" ]
create = [ "/var/lib/dpkg", "/dev", "/proc", "/sys", "/run", "/tmp", "/var/lib/systemd" ]

4. Ensure ~/.cargo/bin is on your PATH so that buildfs is accessible and ensure Docker is installed (Podman is also supported, just change the value of engine in the build script and ensure a Podman Unix socket is bound).
5. Run sudo buildfs run -o debian.ext4 /tmp/build_script.toml and wait until it produces you a ready-to-use debian.ext4 root filesystem!