I’ve read that containers are preferred for development, but they aren’t persistent and it doesn’t seem like files such as /etc/fstab can be accessed through them when running distrobox (I enjoy editing such files using vim).

It’s also a bit annoying having to enter a specific container to run something like btop.

Are you supposed to layer them with rpm-ostree?

  • TaintTaul
    71·
    7 hours ago

    Just to be very clear: the name “immutable distro” is unfortunately a misnomer. In practice, the restrictions found on so-called “immutable” atomic distros are very tame.

    For example, on Fedora Atomic[1], it’s mostly a paradigm shift. That is, you can achieve (almost) everything that you can on a traditional distro, the only difference being how.

    So, if we would take OP’s query as an example, they are not able to do sudo dnf install vim btop. Instead[2], they have to do brew install vim btop. Additionally, these changes persist, as you’d expect. Please note that this is just one of the ways/methods you can achieve this on Bluefin (and other Fedora Atomic derivatives). Other methods include:

    • Install within a distrobox and export it.
    • Simply layer it.
    • Make a custom image that installs these by default and switch to said custom image.
    • Install as a sysext.

    As you’d expect, each one of these comes with its own set of tradeoffs.

    1. The atomic distro I’m most familiar with. ↩︎

    2. Knowing that they’re on Bluefin, a derivative. ↩︎