NAME

       kiwi - Creating Operating System Images

SYNOPSIS

          kiwi-ng [global options] service <command> [<args>]

          kiwi-ng -h | --help
          kiwi-ng [--profile=<name>...]
                  [--temp-dir=<directory>]
                  [--type=<build_type>]
                  [--logfile=<filename>]
                  [--debug]
                  [--debug-run-scripts-in-screen]
                  [--color-output]
                  [--config=<configfile>]
                  [--kiwi-file=<kiwifile>]
              image <command> [<args>...]
          kiwi-ng [--debug]
                  [--debug-run-scripts-in-screen]
                  [--color-output]
                  [--config=<configfile>]
              result <command> [<args>...]
          kiwi-ng [--profile=<name>...]
                  [--shared-cache-dir=<directory>]
                  [--temp-dir=<directory>]
                  [--target-arch=<name>]
                  [--type=<build_type>]
                  [--logfile=<filename>]
                  [--debug]
                  [--debug-run-scripts-in-screen]
                  [--color-output]
                  [--config=<configfile>]
                  [--kiwi-file=<kiwifile>]
              system <command> [<args>...]
          kiwi-ng compat <legacy_args>...
          kiwi-ng -v | --version
          kiwi-ng help

DESCRIPTION

       KIWI  NG  is  an  imaging  solution  that  is  based  on an image XML description.  Such a
       description is represented by a directory which includes at least one config.xml or  .kiwi
       file and may as well include other files like scripts or configuration data.

       A  collection  of  example  image descriptions can be found on the github repository here:
       https://github.com/OSInside/kiwi-descriptions. Most  of  the  descriptions  provide  a  so
       called appliance image. Appliance means that it's a small, text only based image including
       a predefined remote source setup to allow installation of missing software components at a
       later point in time.

       KIWI  NG  operates  in two steps. The system build command combines both steps into one to
       make it easier to start with KIWI NG. The first step is the preparation step and  if  that
       step  was  successful,  a  creation  step  follows which is able to create different image
       output types.

       In the preparation step, you prepare a  directory  including  the  contents  of  your  new
       filesystem  based  on one or more software package source(s) The creation step is based on
       the result of the preparation step and uses the contents of the new  image  root  tree  to
       create the output image.

       KIWI NG supports the creation of the following image types:

       • ISO Live Systems

       • Virtual Disk for e.g cloud frameworks

       • OEM Expandable Disk for system deployment from ISO or the network

       • File system images for deployment in a pxe boot environment

       Depending  on  the  image  type  a variety of different disk formats and architectures are
       supported.

GLOBAL OPTIONS

       --color-output
              Use Escape Sequences to print different types of information in colored output. The
              underlaying  terminal  has  to  understand  those escape characters. Error messages
              appear red, warning messages yellow and debugging information will be printed light
              grey.

       --config=<configfile>
              Use   specified   runtime   configuration   file.  If  not  specified  the  runtime
              configuration is looked up at ~/.config/kiwi/config.yml or /etc/kiwi.yml

       --debug
              Print debug information on the commandline.

       --debug-run-scripts-in-screen
              Run scripts called by kiwi in a screen session.

       --logfile=<filename>
              Specify log file. the logfile contains detailed information about the process.  The
              special  call:  --logfile  stdout  sends all information to standard out instead of
              writing to a file

       --profile=<name>
              Select profile to use. The specified profile must be part of the  XML  description.
              The  option  can  be  specified  multiple  times  to  allow  using a combination of
              profiles.

       --shared-cache-dir=<directory>
              Specify an alternative shared cache directory. The directory  is  shared  via  bind
              mount  between  the build host and image root system and contains information about
              package repositories and their cache and meta data. The default location is set  to
              /var/cache/kiwi.

       --temp-dir=<directory>
              Specify  an alternative base temporary directory. The provided path is used as base
              directory to store temporary files and directories. By default /var/tmp is used.

       --target-arch=<name>
              Specify the image architecture. By default the host architecture  is  used  as  the
              image  architecture.  If  the  specified  architecture name does not match the host
              architecture and is therefore requesting a cross  architecture  image  build,  it's
              important to understand that for this process to work a preparatory step to support
              the image architecture and binary format on the building host is required and not a
              responsibility of KIWI NG.

       --type=<build_type>
              Select image build type. The specified build type must be configured as part of the
              XML description.

       --kiwi-file=<kiwifile>
              Basename of kiwi file which contains the main image configuration elements. If  not
              specified kiwi searches for a file named config.xml or a file matching *.kiwi

       --version
              Show program version

EXAMPLE

          $ git clone https://github.com/OSInside/kiwi

          $ sudo kiwi-ng system build \
              --description kiwi/build-tests/x86/leap/test-image-disk \
              --set-repo obs://openSUSE:Leap:15.3/standard \
              --target-dir /tmp/myimage

AUTHOR

       Marcus Schäfer

COPYRIGHT

       2022, Marcus Schäfer