System container and VM image builder for Incus and LXC.
Incus images may also be compatible with Canonical's LXD.
| Type | Service | Status |
|---|---|---|
| CI | GitHub |  |
| Project status | CII Best Practices |
The following are the command line options of distrobuilder. You can use distrobuilder to create container images for both Incus and LXC.
$ distrobuilder
System container and VM image builder for Incus and LXC
Usage:
distrobuilder [command]
Available Commands:
build-dir Build plain rootfs
build-incus Build Incus image from scratch
build-lxc Build LXC image from scratch
help Help about any command
pack-incus Create Incus image from existing rootfs
pack-lxc Create LXC image from existing rootfs
repack-windows Repack Windows ISO with drivers included
Flags:
--cache-dir Cache directory
--cleanup Clean up cache directory (default true)
--debug Enable debug output
--disable-overlay Disable the use of filesystem overlays
-h, --help help for distrobuilder
-o, --options Override options (list of key=value)
-t, --timeout Timeout in seconds
--version Print version number
Use "distrobuilder [command] --help" for more information about a command.
distrobuilder is available from the Snap Store.
sudo snap install distrobuilder --classic
To compile distrobuilder from source, first install the Go programming language, and some other dependencies.
-
Debian-based:
sudo apt update sudo apt install -y golang-go debootstrap rsync gpg squashfs-tools git make -
ArchLinux-based:
sudo pacman -Syu sudo pacman -S go debootstrap rsync gnupg squashfs-tools git make --needed
NOTE: Distrobuilder requires Go 1.20 or higher, if your distribution doesn't have a recent enough version available, get it from upstream.
Second, download the source code of the distrobuilder repository (this repository).
mkdir -p $HOME/go/src/github.com/lxc/
cd $HOME/go/src/github.com/lxc/
git clone https://github.com/lxc/distrobuilder
Third, enter the directory with the source code of distrobuilder and run make to compile the source code. This will generate the executable program distrobuilder, and it will be located at $HOME/go/bin/distrobuilder.
cd ./distrobuilder
make
Finally, you can run distrobuilder as follows.
$HOME/go/bin/distrobuilder
You may also add the directory $HOME/go/bin/ to your $PATH so that you do not need to run the command with the full path.
See How to use distrobuilder for instructions.