bootstrap

The bootstrap sub-command is used to download and extract releases and templates for use with Bastille jail. A valid release is needed before jails can be created. Templates are optional but are managed in the same manner.

Note: your mileage may vary with unsupported releases, and releases newer than the host system likely will NOT work at all. Bastille tries to filter for valid release names, but if you find it will not bootstrap a valid release, please let us know.

Releases

Example

To bootstrap a FreeBSD release, run the bootstrap sub-command with the release version as the argument.

ishmael ~ # bastille bootstrap 15.0-RELEASE
ishmael ~ # bastille bootstrap 14.4-RELEASE

To bootstrap a HardenedBSD release, run the bootstrap sub-command with the build version as the argument.

ishmael ~ # bastille bootstrap 15-stable

This command will ensure the required directory structures are in place and download the requested release. For each requested release, bootstrap will download the base.txz. These files are verified (sha256 via MANIFEST file) before they are extracted for use.

EOL Releases

It is sometimes necessary to run end-of-life releases for testing or legacy application support. By default Bastille will only install supported releases but you can bootstrap EOL / unsupported releases with a simple trick.

ishmael ~ # export BASTILLE_URL_FREEBSD=http://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/old-releases/
ishmael ~ # bastille bootstrap 11.2-RELEASE

By overriding the BASTILLE_URL_FREEBSD variable you can now bootstrap archived releases from the FTP archive.

Tips

The bootstrap sub-command can now take (0.5.20191125+) an optional second argument of update. If this argument is used, bastille update will be run immediately after the bootstrap, effectively bootstrapping and applying security patches and errata in one motion.

Notes

The bootstrap subcommand is generally only used once to prepare the system. The only other use case for the bootstrap command is when a new FreeBSD version is released and you want to start deploying containers on that version.

To update a release as patches are made available, see the bastille update command.

Downloaded artifacts are stored in the bastille/cache/version directory. “bootstrapped” releases are stored in bastille/releases/version.

To manually bootstrap a release (aka bring your own archive), place your archive in bastille/cache/name and extract to bastille/releases/name. Your mileage may vary; let me know what happens.

Templates

Bastille aims to integrate container automation into the platform while maintaining a simple, uncomplicated design. Templates are git repositories with automation definitions for packages, services, file overlays, etc.

To download one of these templates see the example below.

Example

ishmael ~ # bastille bootstrap https://gitlab.com/bastillebsd-templates/nginx
ishmael ~ # bastille bootstrap https://gitlab.com/bastillebsd-templates/mariadb-server
ishmael ~ # bastille bootstrap https://gitlab.com/bastillebsd-templates/python3

Tips

See the documentation on templates for more information on how they work and how you can create or customize your own. Templates are a powerful part of Bastille and facilitate full container automation.

Notes

If you don’t want to bother with git to use templates you can create them manually on the Bastille system and apply them.

Templates are stored in bastille/templates/namespace/name. If you’d like to create a new template on your local system, simply create a new namespace within the templates directory and then one for the template. This namespacing allows users and groups to have templates without conflicting template names.

Once you’ve created the directory structure you can begin filling it with template hooks. Once you have a minimum number of hooks (at least one) you can begin applying your template.

ishmael ~ # bastille bootstrap help
Usage: bastille bootstrap [option(s)] RELEASE [update|ARCH]
                                      TEMPLATE

    Options:

    -p | --pkgbase     Bootstrap using pkgbase (FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE and above).
    -u | --update      Update the release after bootstrap.
    -x | --debug       Enable debug mode.