DISTROBOX-ASSEMBLE(1)

NAME

    distrobox assemble
    distrobox-assemble

DESCRIPTION

distrobox-assemble takes care of creating or destroying containers in batches, based on a manifest file. The manifest file by default is ./distrobox.ini, but can be specified using the --file flag.

SYNOPSIS

distrobox assemble

    --file:         path to the distrobox manifest/ini file
    --name/-n:          run against a single entry in the manifest/ini file
    --replace/-R:       replace already existing distroboxes with matching names
    --dry-run/-d:       only print the container manager command generated
    --verbose/-v:       show more verbosity
    --version/-V:       show version

EXAMPLES

This is an example manifest file to create two containers:

    [ubuntu]
    additional_packages="git vim tmux nodejs"
    image=ubuntu:latest
    init=false
    nvidia=false
    pull=true
    root=false
    replace=true
    start_now=false
    # You can add comments using this #
    [arch] # also inline comments are supported
    additional_packages="git vim tmux nodejs"
    home=/tmp/home
    image=archlinux:latest
    init=false
    start_now=true
    init_hooks="touch /init-normal"
    nvidia=true
    pre_init_hooks="touch /pre-init"
    pull=true
    root=false
    replace=false
    volume="/tmp/test:/run/a /tmp/test:/run/b"

Create

We can bring them up simply using

    distrobox assemble create

If the file is called distrobox.ini and is in the same directory you’re launching the command, no further arguments are needed. You can specify a custom path for the file using

    distrobox assemble create --file /my/custom/path.ini

Replace

By default, distrobox assemble will replace a container only if replace=true is specified in the manifest file.

In the example of the manifest above, the ubuntu container will always be replaced when running distrobox assemble create, while the arch container will not.

To force a replace for all containers in a manifest use the --replace flag

    distrobox assemble create --replace [--file my/custom/path.ini]

Remove

We can bring down all the containers in a manifest file by simply doing

    distrobox assemble rm

Or using a custom path for the ini file

    distrobox assemble rm --file my/custom/path.ini

Test

You can always test what distrobox would do by using the --dry-run flag. This command will only print what commands distrobox would do without actually running them.

Available options

This is a list of available options with the corresponding type:

Flag Name | Type
additional_flags | string
additional_packages | string
home | string
image | string
init_hooks | string
pre_init_hooks | string
volume | string
exported_apps | string
exported_bins | string
exported_bins_path | string
entry | bool
start_now | bool
init | bool
nvidia | bool
pull | bool
root | bool
unshare_ipc | bool
unshare_netns | bool
unshare_process | bool
unshare_devsys | bool
unshare_all | bool

boolean options default to false if not specified. string options can be broken in multiple declarations additively in order to improve readability of the file:

    [ubuntu]
    image=ubuntu:latest
    additional_packages="git vim tmux nodejs"
    additional_packages="htop iftop iotop"
    additional_packages="zsh fish"

Be aware that if you’re doing lines with spaces, you need to quote them. If you’re doing multiple hooks (init or pre_init) in multiple lines, end the line with a semicolon (;) in order to execute them one after the other.

For an explanation of each of the option in the list, take a look at the distrobox create usage, each option corresponds to one of the create flags.

Advanced example

    [tumbleweed_distrobox]
    image=registry.opensuse.org/opensuse/distrobox
    pull=true
    additional_packages="acpi bash-completion findutils iproute iputils sensors inotify-tools unzip"
    additional_packages="net-tools nmap openssl procps psmisc rsync man tig tmux tree vim htop xclip yt-dlp"
    additional_packages="git git-credential-libsecret"
    additional_packages="patterns-devel-base-devel_basis"
    additional_packages="ShellCheck ansible-lint clang clang-tools codespell ctags desktop-file-utils gcc golang jq python3"
    additional_packages="python3-bashate python3-flake8 python3-mypy python3-pipx python3-pycodestyle python3-pyflakes python3-pylint python3-python-lsp-server python3-rstcheck python3-yapf python3-yamllint rustup shfmt"
    additional_packages="kubernetes-client helm"
    init_hooks=GOPATH="${HOME}/.local/share/system-go" GOBIN=/usr/local/bin go install github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/cmd/golangci-lint@latest;
    init_hooks=GOPATH="${HOME}/.local/share/system-go" GOBIN=/usr/local/bin go install github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2/ginkgo@latest;
    init_hooks=GOPATH="${HOME}/.local/share/system-go" GOBIN=/usr/local/bin go install golang.org/x/tools/cmd/goimports@latest;
    init_hooks=GOPATH="${HOME}/.local/share/system-go" GOBIN=/usr/local/bin go install golang.org/x/tools/gopls@latest;
    init_hooks=GOPATH="${HOME}/.local/share/system-go" GOBIN=/usr/local/bin go install sigs.k8s.io/kind@latest;
    init_hooks=ln -sf /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/conmon;
    init_hooks=ln -sf /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/crun;
    init_hooks=ln -sf /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/docker;
    init_hooks=ln -sf /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/docker-compose;
    init_hooks=ln -sf /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/flatpak;
    init_hooks=ln -sf /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/podman;
    init_hooks=ln -sf /usr/bin/distrobox-host-exec /usr/local/bin/xdg-open;
    exported_apps="htop"
    exported_bins="/usr/bin/htop /usr/bin/git"
    exported_bins_path="~/.local/bin"