systemd/mkosi — an open-source project — sits at 2.0k GitHub stars. 💽 Build Bespoke OS Images
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A fancy wrapper around dnf --installroot, apt, pacman
and zypper that generates customized disk images with a number of
bells and whistles.
For a longer description and available features and options, see the man
page or run mkosi documentation. When
getting started see the EXAMPLES section.
Installation
You can install mkosi from your distribution using its package manager
or install the development version from git. If you install mkosi using
your distribution's package manager, make sure it installs at least
mkosi v16 or newer (Use mkosi --version to check). If your
distribution only packages an older version of mkosi, it is recommended
to install mkosi using one of the alternative installation methods
listed below instead.
Running mkosi from the repository
To run mkosi straight from its git repository, you can invoke the shim
bin/mkosi. The MKOSI_INTERPRETER environment variable can be set
when using the bin/mkosi shim to configure the python interpreter used
to execute mkosi. The shim can be symlinked to e.g. ~/.local/bin to
make it accessible from the PATH. Note that to make this work you
might have to add ~/.local/bin to your user's PATH.
which will transparently install mkosi into a Python virtual environment
and a mkosi binary to ~/.local/bin. This is, up to the path of the
virtual environment and the mkosi binary, equivalent to
You can also package mkosi as a
zipapp that you can
deploy anywhere in your PATH. Running this will leave a mkosi binary
in builddir/
git clone https://github.com/systemd/mkosi
cd mkosi
tools/generate-zipapp.sh
builddir/mkosi --version
Besides the mkosi binary, you can also call mkosi via
python3 -m mkosi
when not installed as a zipapp.
Please note, that the python module exists solely for the usage of the
mkosi binary and is not to be considered a public API.
Installing packages from upstream repositories
mkosi packages for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and SUSE are built from latest main
and published as repositories for the respective distributions on OBS.
Follow these instructions to enable the appropriate repository.
kernel-install plugins
mkosi can also be used as a kernel-install plugin to build initrds and addons.
It is recommended to use only one of these two plugins at a given time.
UKI plugin
To enable this feature, install kernel-install/50-mkosi.install
into /usr/lib/kernel/install.d. Extra distro configuration for the
initrd can be configured in /usr/lib/mkosi-initrd. Users can add their
own customizations in /etc/mkosi-initrd. A full self-contained UKI will
be built and installed.
Once installed, the mkosi plugin can be enabled by writing
initrd_generator=mkosi-initrd and layout=uki to /usr/lib/kernel/install.conf
or to /etc/kernel/install.conf.
Addon plugin
To enable this feature, install kernel-install/51-mkosi-addon.install into
/usr/lib/kernel/install.d. Extra distro configuration for the addon can be
configured in /usr/lib/mkosi-addon. Users can add their own customizations in
/etc/mkosi-addon and /run/mkosi-addon. Note that unless at least one of the
last two directories are present, the plugin will not operate.
This plugin is useful to enhance a vendor-provided UKI with local-only
modifications.
Hacking on mkosi
To hack on mkosi itself, you can run the full test suite locally, just
like CI does. The tests include linting, type checking, and unit tests,
all runnable via pytest.
All linters such as ruff or mypy are run inside mkosi box
(i.e. from inside mkosi.tools/) for a consistent environment. Build that with:
bin/mkosi -f box -- true
Then run the full test suite inside the tools tree:
bin/mkosi box -- pytest
You can use pytest options to only run a subset, for
example only run the linters:
bin/mkosi box -- pytest -k test_linters
Installation tests (venv, editable and zipapp installs) are marked with the
install marker and are skipped by default, as they create virtual
environments and install packages from the network. Run them explicitly with:
bin/mkosi box -- pytest -m install
When a tool that mkosi runs inside its sandbox fails, see
Debugging failing sandboxed commands for how to replay the command by hand.
Integration tests
Integration tests build and boot full images. They are marked with the
integration marker, and are skipped by default. They need a tools tree and an
image to be built first. tools/integration-test-setup.sh writes a local
configuration for the given image and tools tree distribution and builds both:
The most recent commit recorded on systemd/mkosi was 18 days ago, based on the GitHub push timestamp. The repository has 441 forks — one of the better signals of community interest.
How many stars does systemd/mkosi have?
systemd/mkosi has 2.0k GitHub stars — refresh the page for the live number, or check github.com/systemd/mkosi. TopGit mirrors GitHub's count but does not claim minute-by-minute accuracy.
Is systemd/mkosi open source?
TopGit's metadata for systemd/mkosi does not record a license. Most public repositories on GitHub ARE open source, but the exact terms vary — verify by opening the LICENSE file directly.
The project maintains a homepage at https://mkosi.systemd.io/. The README tab on this page also usually contains screenshots and a quickstart.
Where do I read more about systemd/mkosi?
This TopGit page is a snapshot — the READ ME tab shows the project's own README content (links stripped, images preserved). The GitHub repository at github.com/systemd/mkosi is the definitive source.
Read full README in the tab above.
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