Package: ostree Version: 2016.5-2 Severity: wishlist Tags: help We should document how to prepare a Debian-derived system with specified contents (for example task-desktop) for deployment via OSTree, analogous to what <https://github.com/projectatomic/rpm-ostree> does for Red Hat systems.
<https://ostree.readthedocs.io/en/latest/manual/adapting-existing/> has some general notes based on experience of deploying RPM systems with OSTree, which should be broadly applicable to dpkg systems. In particular, carrying out the /usr merge (usrmerge) is recommended when deploying via OSTree, /etc may need some special handling, dpkg metadata needs to be moved/symlinked/bind-mounted under /usr (because it is only as mutable as /usr) or removed, and special handling will be needed for /etc/passwd and /etc/group because the OSTree deployment includes uids/gids by numeric value. Reserving a uid/gid range for the OSTree-managed system users in each ostree-deployed Debian derivative, and using libnss-extrausers or similar, might be useful. I think this aspect of OSTree is perhaps more practically useful right now for limited-scope Debian derivatives (Endless? SteamOS?) than it is for general-purpose Debian or Ubuntu. S