Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
prepare-root: Switch to a tmpfs for transient root
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
We're debating this over in CentOS/centos-bootc-dev#27
and I have come to the conclusion that having changes to `/`
persist across reboot by default was a bad idea.

- It conflicts with any kind of secure boot scenario
- Having things only go away on upgrades is in some ways even *more* surprising
- The term `transient` implies this

There may be a use case in the future for having something like `root.transient = persistent`,
but this is just a better default.

Signed-off-by: Colin Walters <[email protected]>
  • Loading branch information
cgwalters committed Feb 13, 2024
1 parent eeccac7 commit 0cff65d
Showing 1 changed file with 18 additions and 14 deletions.
32 changes: 18 additions & 14 deletions src/switchroot/ostree-prepare-root.c
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -308,17 +308,6 @@ main (int argc, char *argv[])
if (mkdirat (AT_FDCWD, OTCORE_RUN_OSTREE_PRIVATE, 0) < 0)
err (EXIT_FAILURE, "Failed to create %s", OTCORE_RUN_OSTREE_PRIVATE);

g_autofree char *transient_root_workdir = NULL;
g_autofree char *transient_root_upperdir = NULL;
if (root_transient)
{
g_autofree char *backingdir = g_strdup_printf ("../../backing/%s", deploy_directory_name);
transient_root_workdir
= g_build_filename (backingdir, OSTREE_DEPLOYMENT_ROOT_TRANSIENT_DIR, "work", NULL);
transient_root_upperdir
= g_build_filename (backingdir, OSTREE_DEPLOYMENT_ROOT_TRANSIENT_DIR, "upper", NULL);
}

/* Fall back to querying the repository configuration in the target disk.
* This is an operating system builder choice. More info:
* https://github.com/ostreedev/ostree/pull/1767
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -387,11 +376,26 @@ main (int argc, char *argv[])

g_autofree char *expected_digest = NULL;

// For now we just stick the transient root on the default /run tmpfs;
// however, see
// https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/604b2001081adcbd64ee1fbe7de7a6d77c5209fe/src/basic/mountpoint-util.h#L36
// which bumps up these defaults for the rootfs a bit.
g_autofree char *root_upperdir
= root_transient ? g_build_filename (OTCORE_RUN_OSTREE_PRIVATE, "root/upper", NULL)
: NULL;
g_autofree char *root_workdir
= root_transient ? g_build_filename (OTCORE_RUN_OSTREE_PRIVATE, "root/work", NULL) : NULL;

// Propagate these options for transient root, if provided
if (transient_root_upperdir)
if (root_transient)
{
cfs_options.workdir = transient_root_workdir;
cfs_options.upperdir = transient_root_upperdir;
if (!glnx_shutil_mkdir_p_at (AT_FDCWD, root_upperdir, 0755, NULL, &error))
errx (EXIT_FAILURE, "Failed to create %s: %s", root_upperdir, error->message);
if (!glnx_shutil_mkdir_p_at (AT_FDCWD, root_workdir, 0700, NULL, &error))
errx (EXIT_FAILURE, "Failed to create %s: %s", root_workdir, error->message);

cfs_options.workdir = root_workdir;
cfs_options.upperdir = root_upperdir;
}
else
{
Expand Down

0 comments on commit 0cff65d

Please sign in to comment.