Treat the operating system as a versioned, immutable container image — built, deployed, and transactionally updated with rollback — using bootc.

Welcome to bootc: Bootable Containers for the OS.

A practical, in-depth guide to bootc (bootable containers), the project that lets you build, deploy, and transactionally update an operating system using standard OCI container images. Learn how bootc brings container practices to the OS: the OS update problem, the ostree/composefs architecture, building bootable container images, day-1 install and disk/cloud images, transactional updates and rollback (A/B deployments), the /usr-/etc-/var state split, immutability and supply-chain security, and operating image-based Linux fleets at scale.

This title is part of the ShriIra library and is free to read in full, right here — our small contribution to making world-class knowledge easy to reach.

A note on reading it: open the Contents menu at the top of the reader to jump between chapters, use the Aa menu to set a comfortable text size, theme (light, sepia, or night), and single- or two-page layout. Your place is saved automatically, so you can always pick up where you left off.

We hope it serves you well.

— Shriira Press

Contents

1. Chapter 1 — What bootc Is
2. Chapter 2 — The OS Update Problem
3. Chapter 3 — Architecture
4. Chapter 4 — Building Bootable Container Images
5. Chapter 5 — Installing and Deploying (Day 1)
6. Chapter 6 — Transactional Updates and Rollback (Day 2)
7. Chapter 7 — Configuration and State
8. Chapter 8 — Security and Integrity
9. Chapter 9 — Operations and Observability
10. Chapter 10 — bootc in Practice