Brainstorm: How to solve issues in the mutable directories?

Project Discussion
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Related OSTree factory reset issue

On the atomic versions, /etc is mutable. /var too, but this may be more complex and less troublesome.

The default /etc lives in /usr/etc, while the mutable /ostree/deploy/fedora/<ID>/deploy/etc is linked to /etc.

Users can completely mess up their systems, example: overwrite some random files, like

# editing
/etc/systemd/resolved.conf
# instead of 
/etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d/some-override.conf

(spare me, I did that once)

Show the diffs

Docs page

sudo ostree admin config-diff

or with more detail

sudo diff -yrW200 --suppress-common-lines --color=always /usr/etc /etc 2>/dev/null
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Doesn’t /etc also live (from the release image) in /var/lib or /usr/lib` on the atomic system?

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I’m fairly new to ostree, but here are my thoughts.

It should be possible to see the difference between the default config and the current deployment using ostree admin config-diff. It will show which files are modified, new or deleted.

The default configuration can be found inside /usr/etc, so using diff on /etc and /usr/etc should also work.

What you are trying to do here sounds much like this github issue. From what I understand doing something like this should already be possible using ostree admin deploy and --no-merge. No idea what the exact command for that would be though.

Using rsync to copy the default config into the /etc directory should also work. See this comment from cgwalters.

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yes, this is the solution. I think adding such a feature to rsync those default settings might be good for usability? Even though it sounds like this is possible without.

so the rsync should be a reliable and perfect solution, as that one is upstream and immutable. I wonder if that could be added to rpm-ostree, or if that would not be possible

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I don’t think that rsync is a perfect solution. There are files that shouldn’t be deleted (fstab, crypttab) or the system doesn’t remain bootable. A reset command should probably have a build in list with files to keep. Using rsync will also modify the current deployment which isn’t great, it would be better to create a new one with the restored /etc so it is easy to rollback.

So I think that seeing the difference is possible, but doing a complete reset isn’t yet. It is possible, but you would need to carefully look at the diff and keep the important files. Would probably be interesting to have a full list of files that should be kept. After that we could probably create a script that does the reset.

Here are some github issues for coreos, silverblue and ublue for the reset feature.
coreos: Add factory reset capability · Issue #399 · coreos/fedora-coreos-tracker · GitHub
silverblue: Implement factory reset capability · Issue #337 · fedora-silverblue/issue-tracker · GitHub
ublue: Investigate a state reset feature · Issue #95 · ublue-os/main · GitHub

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Good points. I think it would be beneficial to document that diff command, and maybe a few more.

I think this would fit well in the desktops, but I dont know how many sites are symlinked/shared, or if it should be in coreOS etc.

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I searched the docs and the ostree admin config-diff command is already documented in the silverblue docs.

Also has this neat command to show the diff with more details:

 sudo diff -yrW200 --suppress-common-lines --color=always /usr/etc /etc 2>/dev/null
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There is also the very excellent libostree documentation at libostree | ostreedev/ostree and of course the rpm-ostree documentation found at A true hybrid image/package system | rpm-ostree
And libostree would need to “know” what is different in order to perform the three-way merge that creates the local commit.

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the last one is especially useful!

I really like utils like “cheat” which present an opinionated, small subset of commands.

Is maintaining a page like that in scope of Fedora?

cat >> ~/.config/fish/functions/custom-functions.fish <<EOF
function cheat
  curl cheat.sh/$argv[1]
end
EOF

$ cheat rpm-ostree
# rpm-ostree
# A hybrid image/package system.
# Manage ostree deployments, package layers, filesystem overlays, and boot configuration.
# More information: <https://coreos.github.io/rpm-ostree/administrator-handbook/>.

# Show rpm-ostree deployments in the order they will appear in the bootloader:
rpm-ostree status

# Show packages which are outdated and can be updated:
rpm-ostree upgrade --preview

# Prepare a new ostree deployment with upgraded packages and reboot into it:
rpm-ostree upgrade --reboot

# Reboot into the previous ostree deployment:
rpm-ostree rollback --reboot

# Install a package into a new ostree deployment and reboot into it:
rpm-ostree install package --reboot

cheat ostree                                                                                                                                                             master â—Ľ
# ostree
# Version control for binary files similar to git but optimized for operating system root filesystems.
# OSTree is the foundation for immutable image-based operating systems such as Fedora Silverblue, Fedora IoT or Fedora CoreOS.
# More information: <https://ostreedev.github.io/ostree>.

# Initialize a repository of the files in `$PWD` with metadata in `$PWD/{{path/to/repo}}`:
ostree init --repo path/to/repo

# Create a commit (snapshot) of the files:
ostree commit --repo path/to/repo --branch branch_name

# Show files in commit:
ostree ls --repo path/to/repo commit_id

# Show metadata of commit:
ostree show --repo path/to/repo commit_id

# Show list of commits:
ostree log --repo path/to/repo branch_name

# Show repo summary:
ostree summary --repo path/to/repo --view

# Show available refs (branches):
ostree refs --repo path/to/repo