GENIMAGE(1)

📦

version 19 · 2 versions

19 · fedora 44 (latest)
19 · fedora 43

💫 Genimage — The Image Creation Tool 💫

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, genimage is literally the tool for generating multiple filesystem and flash/disk images from a given root filesystem tree. 🦋 It's intended to be run inside a fakeroot environment — no cap. It also supports creating flash/disk images out of different file-system images and files. 💅

Configuration lives in a config file that gets parsed by libconfuse. Stuff like the path to tools can be handed over via environment variables, the config file, or from commandline switches. ✨

🦋 The Configuration File 🦋

The config file of genimage uses a simple configuration language, provided by libconfuse — that's over at the libconfuse repo on GitHub. 👑 It supports nested sections, plus simple key-value pairs.

Single-line comments can be introduced with # or //, and multi-line comments look like /* … */ (as in C). 💀

The config file is separated into the main sections image, flash and config, and it provides an include primitive. 🎀

🌸 The image section 🌸

An image section describes a single filesystem or disk image to be built. 🫶 It can be given multiple times to generate multiple images. An image can also have multiple partitions which refer to images themselves. Each image must have a type, which can have different suboptions depending on the type. Periodt.

Let's have a look at an example:

image nand-pcm038.img {
        flash {
        }
        flashtype = "nand-64M-512"
        partition barebox {
                image = "barebox-pcm038.bin"
                size = 512K
        }
        partition root {
                image = "root-nand.jffs2"
                size = 24M
        }
}

This would generate a nand-pcm038.img, which is a flash of type "nand-64M-512". 💖 The image contains two partitions, "barebox-pcm038.bin" and "root-nand.jffs2", which must refer to images described elsewhere in the config file. For example, the "root-nand.jffs2" partition could be described like this:

image root-nand.jffs2 {
        name = "root"
        jffs2 {}
        size = 24M
        mountpoint = "/"
}

In this case a single jffs2 image is generated from the root mountpoint. 🌈

Here are all options for images:

name — the name of this image. It's used for some image types to set the name of the image.
size — size of this image in bytes. 'k', 'M' or 'G' can be used as a suffix to specify the size in a multiple of 1024 etc. The suffix 's' specifies a multiple of the (traditional) sector size of 512. If the image is filled from a mountpoint, then '%' as a suffix indicates a percentage. '200%' means the resulting filesystem should be about 50% filled. Note that this is only a rough estimate based on the original size of the content. 🙈
mountpoint — mountpoint if image refers to a filesystem image. The default is "/". The content of "${rootpath}${mountpoint}" will be used to fill the filesystem.
srcpath — if this is set, the specified path will be directly used to fill the filesystem. It ignores rootpath/mountpoint logic. The path might be absolute or relative to the current working directory. 🧚
empty — if this is set to true, then the specified rootpath and mountpoint are ignored for this image and an empty filesystem is created. This option is only used for writeable filesystem types, such as extX, vfat, ubifs and jffs2. Defaults to false.
temporary — if this is set to true, the image is created in tmppath rather than outputpath. This can be useful for intermediate images defined in the configuration file which aren't needed by themselves after the main image is created. Defaults to false.
exec-pre — custom command to run before generating the image. The available variables are documented in the Environment Variables section below. ⭐
exec-post — custom command to run after generating the image.
flashtype — refers to a flash section. Optional for non flash like images, like hd images.
partition — can be given multiple times and refers to a partition described below.

Additionally each image can have one of the following sections describing the type of the image: 🎀

cpio, cramfs, custom, erofs, ext2, ext3, ext4, f2fs, file, flash, hdimage, iso, jffs2, mdraid, qemu, squashfs, tar, ubi, ubifs, vfat.

💅 Partition options 💅

offset — the offset of this partition as a total offset to the beginning of the device.
size — the size of this partition in bytes. If the size and autoresize are both not set then the size of the partition image is used.
align — alignment value to use for automatic computation of offset and size. Defaults to 1 for partitions not in the partition table, otherwise to the image's align value.
partition-type — used by dos partition tables to specify the partition type.
image — the image file this partition shall be filled with.
imageoffset — the offset within the partition image to start reading from.
fill — boolean specifying that all bytes of the partition should be explicitly initialized. Any bytes beyond the size of the specified image will be set to 0.
sparse — if true (the default) 'holes' in the input images are preserved and the remaining free space in the partition is also a 'hole'. If false, the 'holes' in the input image are explicitly filled with zeros when the image is copied. If fill is specified as well then the remaining free space is also filled with zeros.
autoresize — boolean specifying that the partition should be resized automatically. For UBI volumes this means that the autoresize flag is set, and only one volume can have this flag. For hd images this can be used for the last partition — if set, the partition will fill the remaining space of the image. 🔥
bootable — boolean specifying whether to set the bootable flag.
hidden — boolean specifying whether to set the hidden flag (only with GPT).
no-automount — boolean specifying whether to set the no-automount flag (only with GPT).
read-only — boolean specifying whether to set the read-only flag (only with GPT).
in-partition-table — boolean specifying whether to include this partition in the partition table. Defaults to true.
forced-primary — force this partition to be a primary partition in the MBR partition table, useful when the extended partition should be followed by primary partitions. If there are more partitions defined after the first forced-primary, they must be also defined as forced-primary. Defaults to false.
partition-uuid — UUID string used by GPT partition tables to specify the partition id. Defaults to a random value.
partition-type-uuid — string used by GPT partition tables to specify the partition type. Either a UUID or a shortcut:
- L, linux, linux-generic: Linux filesystem (0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4)
- S, swap: Swap (0657fd6d-a4ab-43c4-84e5-0933c84b4f4f)
- H, home: Home (933ac7e1-2eb4-4f13-b844-0e14e2aef915)
- U, esp, uefi: EFI System Partition (c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b)
- R, raid: Linux RAID (a19d880f-05fc-4d3b-a006-743f0f84911e)
- V, lvm: Linux LVM (e6d6d379-f507-44c2-a23c-238f2a3df928)
- F, fat32: FAT32 / Basic Data Partition (ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7)
- barebox-state (previously B): Barebox State (4778ed65-bf42-45fa-9c5b-287a1dc4aab1)
- barebox-env: Barebox Environment (6c3737f2-07f8-45d1-ad45-15d260aab24d)
- u-boot-env: U-Boot Environment (3de21764-95bd-54bd-a5c3-4abe786f38a8)

Furthermore, for {arch} being one of alpha, arc, arm, arm64, ia64, loongarch64, mips, mips64, mips-le, mips64-le, parisc, ppc, ppc64, ppc64-le, riscv32, riscv64, s390, s390x, tilegx, x86, x86-64, the following shortcuts from the Discoverable Partitions Specification (https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification/) are accepted (see the spec for the respective UUIDs): 🌟

root-{arch}: Root Partition
usr-{arch}: /usr Partition
root-{arch}-verity: Root Verity Partition
usr-{arch}-verity: /usr Verity Partition
root-{arch}-verity-sig: Root Verity Signature Partition
usr-{arch}-verity-sig: /usr Verity Signature Partition
xbootldr: Extended Boot Loader Partition
srv: Server Data Partition
var: Variable Data Partition
tmp: Temporary Data Partition
user-home: Per-user Home Partition

Custom shortcuts can be defined in the global config section: 🎀

config {
      gpt-shortcuts {
              forty-two = "2a422a42-2a42-2a42-2a42-2a422a422a42"
      }
}

Defaults to L.

For each partition, its final alignment, offset and size are determined as follows:

If the align option is not present, it defaults to the value of the image's align option if the partition is in the partition table, otherwise to 1.
If the offset option is absent or zero, and in-partition-table is true, the partition is placed after the end of all previously defined partitions, with the final offset rounded up to the partition's align value.
Otherwise, the offset option is used as-is. Note that if absent, that option defaults to 0, so in practice one must specify an offset for any partition that is not in the partition table (with at most one exception, e.g. a bootloader). 🙈
If the partition has the autoresize flag set, its size is computed as the space remaining in the image from its offset (for a GPT image, space is reserved at the end for the backup GPT table), rounded down to the partition's align value. If the partition also has a size option, it is ensured that the computed value is not less than that size.
Otherwise, if the size option is present and non-zero, its value is used as-is.
Otherwise, if the partition has an image option, the size of that image, rounded up to the partition's align value, is used to determine the size of the partition. ✨

okay so before we even get into the actual image types, genimage does a little sanity check on the final values — and honestly in many cases these are automatically satisfied when the value came from one of the rules above instead of you typing it in explicitly:

For a partition in the partition table, the partition's align value must be greater than or equal to the image's align value.
The partition's offset and size must both be multiples of its align.
The size must not be 0.
The partition must not overlap any other partition, or the areas occupied by the partition table.

✨ The image configuration options ✨

🦋 android-sparse 🦋

okay so this one generates android sparse images. They are typically used by fastboot. Sparse images encode "don't care" areas and areas that are filled with a single 32 bit value. As a result, they are often much smaller than raw disk images. Genimage assumes that all 'holes' in the input file are "don't care" areas. This is a reasonable assumption: Tools to generate filesystems typically operate on devices. So they only create holes in areas they don't care about. Genimage itself operates the same way when generating HD images.

Options:

image — The source image that will be converted.
block-size — The granularity that the sparse image uses to find "don't care" or "fill" blocks. The supported block sizes depend on the user. The default is 4k.
fill-holes — If enabled, 'holes' are filled with zero instead of "don't care". Disabled by default.
add-crc — Generate sparse comptible images containing the CRC. Ensure that your sparse tool can handle CRC sparse images. Defaults to false.

🌸 cpio 🌸

Generates cpio images.

Options:

format — archive format. Passed to the -H option to the cpio command. Valid options are bin, odc, newc, crc, tar, ustar, hpbin and hpodc
extraargs — Extra arguments passed to the cpio tool
compress — If given, pipe image through compression tool. Valid options are for example gzip, lzop or any other tool that compresses from stdin to stdout.

🎀 cramfs 🎀

Generates cramfs images.

Options:

extraargs — Extra arguments passed to mkfs.cramfs

💅 custom 💅

Generate images with a custom command.

exec — The command that creates the image.

If the image size is set, then image is created with the configured size before the exec command is executed. Otherwise the file is removed and the size is queried after the command is executed.

The image file that should be generated is defined in the environment variable $IMAGEOUTFILE. It can be used directly in the exec command. For more variables and pitfalls when using them, see the Environment Variables section below.

🌈 erofs 🌈

Generates erofs images.

Options:

extraargs — Extra arguments passed to mkfs.erofs.

👑 ext2, ext3, ext4 👑

Generates ext* images.

Options:

use-mke2fs — If set to true, then mke2fs is used to create the image. Otherwise, genext2fs is used. Defaults to false.
mke2fs-conf — mke2fs.conf that should be used. If unspecified, the system default is used.
extraargs — Extra arguments passed to genext2fs or mke2fs.
features — Filesystem features. Passed to the -O option of tune2fs. This is a comma separated list of enabled or disabled features. See man ext4 for features. For genext2fs all feature are specified. Default for ext3 images is has_journal. Default for ext4 images is extents,uninit_bg,dir_index,has_journal. For mke2fs these features are added in addition to the default features of the ext type. Already enabled features can be disabled by prefixing the feature with ^.
label — Specify the volume-label. Passed to the -L option of tune2fs
fs-timestamp — Sets different timestamps in the image. Sets the given timestamp using the debugfs commands set_current_time, set_super_value mkfs_time and set_super_value lastcheck
root-owner — User and group IDs for the root directory. Defaults to 0:0. Only valid with mke2fs.
usage-type — Specify the usage type for the filesystem. Only valid with mke2fs. More details can be found in the mke2fs man-page.

💜 f2fs 💜

Generates F2FS images.

Options:

label — Specify the volume-label.
extraargs — Extra arguments passed to mkfs.f2fs

🦋 file 🦋

This represents a pre-existing image which will be used as-is. When a partition section references an image that is not defined elsewhere in the configuration file, a file rule is implicitly generated. It is up to the user to ensure that the image exists in the input directory, or to use an absolute path to the image.

It is possible to add a file image explicitly, which allows one to provide genimage with some information about the image which can not be deduced automatically. Currently, one such option exists:

holes — A list of "(<start>;<end>)" pairs specifying ranges of the file that do not contain meaningful data, and which can therefore be allowed to overlap other partitions or image metadata.

For example:

image foo {
        hdimage {
                partition-table-type = "gpt"
                gpt-location = 64K
        }

        partition bootloader {
                in-partition-table = false
                offset = 0
                image = "/path/to/bootloader.img"
        }

        partition rootfs {
                offset = 1M
                image = "rootfs.ext4"
        }
}

image /path/to/bootloader.img {
        file {
                holes = {"(440; 1K)", "(64K; 80K)"}
        }
}

This tells genimage that despite the bootloader partition overlapping both the last 72 bytes of the MBR (where the DOS partition table is located) and the GPT header occupying the sector starting at offset 512, this is all OK because bootloader.img does not contain useful data in that range. Further, in this example, the bootloader image has been carefully crafted to also allow placing the GPT array at offset 64K (the GPT header is always at offset 512).

If the bootloader image is not declared explicitly and only used once then the holes can also be configured in the partition. This simplifies the config file for simple use-cases.

For example:

image bar {
        hdimage {}

        partition bootloader {
                in-partition-table = false
                offset = 0
                image = "/path/to/bootloader.img"
                holes = {"(440; 512)"}
        }

        partition rootfs {
                offset = 1M
                image = "rootfs.ext4"
        }
}

🌟 FIT 🌟

Generates U-Boot FIT images.

Options:

its — String option holding the path of the input its file
keydir — String option holding the directory containing the keys used for signing.

🔥 flash 🔥

Generates flash images. These are basically the partition contents padded to the partition sizes concatenated together. There is no partition table. Needs a valid flashtype where the flash parameters are read from.

👑 hdimage 👑

Generates DOS partition images.

Options:

align — Partition alignment. Defaults to 512 bytes
partition-table — Boolean. If true, writes a partition table. If false, no partition table is generated. Defaults to true. Deprecated: use partition-table-type instead.
partition-table-type — Define what kind of partition table should be used. Valid options are:

System Message: ERROR/3 (README.rst:, line 456) Unexpected indentation.

none: No partition table at all. In this case, the in-partition-table option for each partition is ignored.
mbr: Legacy DOS/MBR partition table
gpt: GUID Partition Table
hybrid: A hybrid MBR/GPT partition table. Partitions with an explicit partition-type will be placed in in the MBR table. At most 3 such partitions are allowed. This limit does not effect the maximum number of GPT partition entries in the same image.

extended-partition — Number of the extended partition. Contains the number of the extended partition between 1 and 4 or 0 for automatic. Defaults to 0.
disk-signature — 32 bit integer used as disk signature (offset 440 in the MBR). Using a special value random will result in using random 32 bit number.
gpt — Boolean. If true, a GPT type partition table is written. If false a DOS type partition table is written. Defaults to false. Deprecated: use partition-table-type instead.
gpt-location — Location of the GPT table. Occasionally useful for moving the GPT table away from where a bootloader is placed due to hardware requirements. All partitions in the table must begin after this table. Regardless of this setting, the GPT header will still be placed at 512 bytes (sector 1). Defaults to 1024 bytes (sector 2).
gpt-no-backup — Boolean. If true, then the backup partition table at the end of the image is not written.
disk-uuid — UUID string used as disk id in GPT partitioning. Defaults to a random value.
fill — If this is set to true, then the image file will be filled up to the end of the last partition. This might make the file bigger. This is necessary if the image will be processed by such tools as libvirt, libguestfs or parted.

✨ GPT partition flags ✨

Okay so listen — when you've got a GPT partition table, genimage is gonna take these partition configs and translate them into the matching GPT flags, then set them in the GPT partition table. Look at her go 💅

read-only → GPT_PE_FLAG_READ_ONLY (Bit 60)
bootable → GPT_PE_FLAG_BOOTABLE (Bit 2)
hidden → GPT_PE_FLAG_HIDDEN (Bit 62)
no-automount → GPT_PE_FLAG_NO_AUTO (Bit 63)

Other GPT Flags are currently not supported. That's the whole menu, periodt. ✨

🌈 iso 🌈

Generates an ISO image. Iconic behaviour, no notes.

Options:

boot-image — path to the El Torito boot image. Gets handed to the -b option of genisofs.
bootargs — bootargs for the El Torito boot image. Defaults to -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -c boot.cat -hide boot.cat.
extraargs — extra arguments passed to genisofs.
input-charset — the input charset. Passed to the -input-charset option of genisofs. Defaults to default.
volume-id — Volume ID. Passed to the -V option of genisofs.

🌸 jffs2 🌸

Generates a JFFS image. She needs a valid flashtype tho, bc that's where the flash parameters get read from. 🔥

Options:

extraargs — extra arguments passed to mkfs.jffs2.

💜 mdraid 💜

Okay so the original README.rst literally ships a Sphinx build warning right here and we're keeping it bc facts are facts: System Message: WARNING/2 (README.rst:, line 531) — Title underline too short. Yeah. The mdraid heading's underline was too short. Not a genimage thing, just the docs being dramatic. 💀

Generates MD RAID images.

Options:

label — optional hostname and name of array separated by colon, eg: any:42. Special hostname any can be used to make array local to machine with any hostname. Name will be used by OS to name /dev/md/* device (as long as the hostname matches).
level — RAID level, currently only level 1 (default) is supported.
devices — number of devices in array (default 1).
role — 0 based index of this image in whole array. (autoassigned by default).
timestamp — Unix timestamp of array creation (current time by default, has to match across array devices).
raid-uuid — UUID of whole array (has to be identical across all disks in array, random by default).
disk-uuid — UUID of disk (has to be unique for each array member disk, random by default).
image — image of data to be preloaded into array (optional).
parent — image to inherit array identity/config from (when creating extra members of existing array). Effectively overrides all array-wide options mentioned here and replaces them with values from parent.

For example, here only the first image has configuration and the UUID/timestamp is generated on demand:

image mdraid-a.img {
        mdraid {
                level = 1
                devices = 2
                image = "mdraid-ext4.img"
        }
}

Then to create the second member of that array we just inherit config from the parent member:

image mdraid-b.img {
        mdraid {
                parent = "mdraid-a.img"
        }
}

Default role number is 0 for the parent image, and when other images inherit configuration from it, they are assigned roles from an autoincrementing counter. Cute, right? 🎀

🦋 qemu 🦋

Generates a QEMU image. Needs at least one valid partition, bestie — don't skip that part.

Options:

format — a valid qemu-img like qcow, qcow2, parallels, vdi, vhdx or vmdk. Check qemu-img convert --help for the complete list of possible values. Defaults to qcow2.
extraargs — extra arguments passed to qemu-img convert.

🍓 squashfs 🍓

Generates a squashfs image.

Options:

extraargs — extra arguments passed to mksquashfs.
compression — compression type for the image. Possible values are gzip (default), none and any other compressors supported by mksquashfs such as lzo, lz4, xz, zstd or lzma.
block-size — Block size. Passed to the -b option of mksquashfs. Defaults to 4096.

👑 rauc 👑

Generates a RAUC update bundle.

Options:

extraargs — extra arguments passed to RAUC.
file — specify a file to be added into the RAUC bundle. Usage is: file foo { image = "bar" } which adds a file "foo" in the RAUC bundle from the input file "bar".
files — a list of filenames added into the RAUC bundle. Like file above, but without the ability to add the files under a different name.
key — path to the key file or PKCS#11 URI. Passed to the --key option of RAUC.
cert — path to the certificate file or PKCS#11 URI. Passed to the --cert option of RAUC.
keyring — optional path to the keyring file. Passed to the --keyring option of RAUC.
manifest — content of the manifest file.

🧚 tar 🧚

Generates a tar image. The image will be compressed as defined by the filename suffix. Yes bestie, the suffix is doing the heavy lifting here. 💅

💖 ubi 💖

Generates an UBI image. Needs a valid flashtype where the flash parameters are read from.

Options:

extraargs — extra arguments passed to ubinize.

⭐ ubifs ⭐

Generates a UBIFS image. Needs a valid flashtype where the flash parameters are read from.

Options:

extraargs — extra arguments passed to mkubifs.
max-size — maximum size of the UBIFS image.
space-fixup — instructs the file-system free space to be freed up on first mount.

🎀 vfat 🎀

Generates a VFAT image.

Options:

extraargs — extra arguments passed to mkdosfs.
label — specify the volume-label. Passed to the -n option of mkdosfs.
file — specify a file to be added into the filesystem image. Usage is: file foo { image = "bar" } which adds a file "foo" in the filesystem image from the input file "bar".
files — a list of filenames added into the filesystem image. Like file above, but without the ability to add the files under a different name.

Note: if no content is specified with file or files then rootpath and mountpoint are used to provide the content.

🔥 fip 🔥

Generates a Firmware Image Package (FIP). A format used to bundle firmware to be loaded by ARM Trusted Firmware.

Options:

extraargs — extra arguments passed to fiptool.
fw-config — Firmware Configuration (device tree), usually provided by BL2 (Trusted Firmware).
nt-fw — Non-Trusted Firmware (BL33).
hw-config — Hardware Configuration (device tree), passed to BL33.
tos-fw — Trusted OS (BL32) binaries. Second and third binary are used as extra1 and extra2 binaries if specified. Example: tos-fw = {"tee-header_v2.bin", "tee-pager_v2.bin", "tee-pageable_v2.bin"}.
scp-fwu-cfg — SCP Firmware Updater Configuration FWU SCP_BL2U.
ap-fwu-cfg — AP Firmware Updater Configuration BL2U.
fwu — Firmware Updater NS_BL2U.
fwu-cert — Non-Trusted Firmware Updater certificate.
tb-fw — Trusted Boot Firmware BL2.
scp-fw — SCP Firmware SCP_BL2.
soc-fw — EL3 Runtime Firmware BL31.
tb-fw-config — TB_FW_CONFIG.
soc-fw-config — SOC_FW_CONFIG.
tos-fw-config — TOS_FW_CONFIG.
nt-fw-config — NT_FW_CONFIG.
rot-cert — Root Of Trust key certificate.
trusted-key-cert — Trusted key certificate.
scp-fw-key-cert — SCP Firmware key certificate.
soc-fw-key-cert — SoC Firmware key certificate.
tos-fw-key-cert — Trusted OS Firmware key certificate.
nt-fw-key-cert — Non-Trusted Firmware key certificate.
tb-fw-cert — Trusted Boot Firmware BL2 certificate.
scp-fw-cert — SCP Firmware content certificate.
soc-fw-cert — SoC Firmware content certificate.
tos-fw-cert — Trusted OS Firmware content certificate.
nt-fw-cert — Non-Trusted Firmware content certificate.
sip-sp-cert — SiP owned Secure Partition content certificate.
plat-sp-cert — Platform owned Secure Partition content certificate.

🫶 The Flash Section 🫶

The flash section can be given multiple times and each section describes a flash chip. The option names are mostly derived from the UBI terminology, iykyk. There are the following options:

pebsize — the size of a physical eraseblock in bytes.
lebsize — the size of a logical eraseblock in bytes (for ubifs).
numpebs — number of physical eraseblocks on this device. The total size of the device is determined by pebsize * numpebs.
minimum-io-unit-size — the minimum size in bytes accessible on this device.
vid-header-offset — offset of the volume identifier header.
sub-page-size — the size of a sub page in bytes.

Several flash related image types need a valid flash section. From the image types, the flash type section is referred to using the flashtype option which contains the name of the flash type to be used.

For more information on the meaning of these values see the ubi(fs) and mtd FAQs:

<http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/faq/general.html>

Example flash section:

flash nand-64M-512 {
        pebsize = 16384
        lebsize = 15360
        numpebs = 4096
        minimum-io-unit-size = 512
        vid-header-offset = 512
        sub-page-size = 512
}
...
image jffs2 {
        flashtype = "nand-64M-512"
}

✨ The config section ✨

Okay bestie, this part is all about how genimage behaves globally. 💅 Unless it says otherwise below, every single option here can come from environment variables, the config file, or command line switches. So if you have a config option called foo, you can pass it as a --foo command line switch or as a GENIMAGE_FOO environment variable. No cap. ✨

config — default: genimage.cfg. Path to the genimage config file. 🎀
loglevel — default: 1. genimage log level. 👑
outputpath — default: images. Mandatory path where all images are written to (must exist). 🫶
inputpath — default: input. This mandatory path is searched for input images, for example bootloader binaries, kernel images (must exist). 🌸
rootpath — default: root. Mandatory path to the root filesystem (must exist). 💖
tmppath — default: tmp. Optional path to a temporary directory. There must be enough space available here to hold a copy of the root filesystem. 🦋
includepath — Colon-separated list of directories to search for files included via the include function. The current directory is searched after these. Thus, if this option is not given, only the current directory is searched. This has no effect when given in the config file. 💀
configdump — File to write the final configuration to. This includes the results of all include directives, expansions of environment variables and application of default values - think gcc -E. Use - for stdout. 🔥
cpio — path to the cpio program (default cpio).
dd — path to the dd program (default dd).
e2fsck — path to the e2fsck program (default e2fsck).
genext2fs — path to the genext2fs program (default genext2fs).
genisoimage — path to the genisoimage program (default genisoimage).
mcopy — path to the mcopy program (default mcopy).
mmd — path to the mmd program (default mmd).
mkcramfs — path to the mkcramfs program (default mkfs.cramfs).
mkdosfs — path to the mkdosfs program (default mkdosfs).
mkfserofs — path to the mkfs.erofs program (default mkfs.erofs).
mkfsf2fs — path to the mkfs.f2fs program (default mkfs.f2fs).
mkfsjffs2 — path to the mkfs.jffs2 program (default mkfs.jffs2).
mkfsubifs — path to the mkfs.ubifs program (default mkfs.ubifs).
mksquashfs — path to the mksquashfs program (default mksquashfs).
qemu-img — path to the qemu-img program (default qemu-img).
tar — path to the tar program (default tar).
tune2fs — path to the tune2fs program (default tune2fs).
ubinize — path to the ubinize program (default ubinize).
fiptool — path to the fiptool utility (default fiptool).

🌈 Include Configurations Fragments 🌈

To include a "foo.cfg" config file, use the following statement:

include("foo.cfg")

This allows to re-use, for example flash configuration files, across different image configurations. Obsessed. 💖

🧚 Environment Variables 🧚

The following environment variables are defined when the commands that create images are executed. This includes the exec-pre, exec-post commands and the exec command of the custom image type. ✨

Warning: If an exec* command is quoted with double-quotes and a variable is specified with curly braces then variables are substituted when the config file is parsed. At that point variables defined by genimage are not yet set. So use single quotes instead. ⚠️

🎀 Common Variables for all Images 🎀

OUTPUTPATH — Directory where images are created. 🫶
INPUTPATH — Directory where input images are searched. 🔍
ROOTPATH — Root directory of the content for the images. 🌱
TMPPATH — Directory where temporary files are created. 🗂️

👑 Image Specific Variables 👑

IMAGE — File name relative to $OUTPUTPATH. 📁
IMAGEOUTFILE — Full path of the file. 📍
IMAGENAME — Name of the image. 🏷️
IMAGESIZE — Configured size. 📏
IMAGEMOUNTPOINT — Absolute 'mountpoint' to use. It defines with directory relative to $ROOTPATH should be used. 🤔
IMAGEMOUNTPATH — Full path to the data to use. This is effectively $ROOTPATH/$IMAGEMOUNTPOINT. 🔗

💅 License and Developing 💅

To contribute to genimage please prepare a pull request on Github. To make it possible to include your modifications it's required that your code additions are licensed under the same terms as genimage itself. So you are required to agree to the following document:

Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1

By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:

a. The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I have
   the right to submit it under the open source license indicated in
   the file; or

b. The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best of
   my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source license
   and I have the right under that license to submit that work with
   modifications, whether created in whole or in part by me, under
   the same open source license (unless I am permitted to submit
   under a different license), as indicated in the file; or

c. The contribution was provided directly to me by some other person
   who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified it.

d. I understand and agree that this project and the contribution are
   public and that a record of the contribution (including all
   personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
   maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
   this project or the open source license(s) involved.

Your agreement is expressed by adding a sign-off line to each of your commits (e.g. using git commit -s) looking as follows:

Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <<random@developer.example.org>>

with your identity and email address matching the commit meta data. 💅

Before creating pull request, please make sure your tree is passing all unit tests by running make distcheck. 🏁

Slay, bestie! 💖 That's the whole Genimage - The Image Creation Tool vibe — source/version and date are in the footer, go check them there. Periodt. ✨👑

📦 where this page comes from

fedora 44: genimage 19-5.fc44 · GPL-2.0-only
fedora 44: genimage 19-6.fc44 · GPL-2.0-only
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on 2026-10-13: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms