BOOTC-DESTR...ANUP.SERVICE(5)

💖 NAME 💖

bootc-destructive-cleanup.service — bestie, this is the lil systemd glow-up that tidies up your old OS after you move in next to it 🧹✨

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so picture this: this systemd service shows up on first boot right after an "alongside" installation that you did with bootc install to-existing-root --cleanup. Its whole job? Clean up the files from the previous operating system. it's giving ✨spring cleaning✨ but for an entire OS 💅

The service is a oneshot unit, and it runs a distribution-specific cleanup script that lives at /usr/lib/bootc/fedora-bootc-destructive-cleanup — that's the path for Fedora derivatives, iykyk 🐧

🦋 How it works 🦋

1. While you're doing bootc install to-existing-root --cleanup, a stamp file gets created at /sysroot/etc/bootc-destructive-cleanup 📌
2. Then a systemd generator, bootc-systemd-generator, spots that stamp file at boot time and enables the bootc-destructive-cleanup.service unit. like. it literally goes "oh? 👀 stamp? guess we're doing this"
3. And then the service runs the cleanup script on first boot. slay, that's the whole pipeline 🔥

🌈 What the cleanup script does 🌈

On Fedora derivatives, bestie, the cleanup script does all of this:

• Remounts /sysroot as read-write 📝
• Removes all RPM packages installed in the physical root (aka the previous OS) — yes, ALL of them, no crumbs left 😭
• Removes all container images from /sysroot/var/lib/containers using podman system prune --all -f 🗑️✨

Note: the cleanup script does not remove stopped containers, so some storage may remain. Lowkey annoying, but that's how it is right now — this behavior may change in the future 👀

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🎀 CUSTOMIZING THE CLEANUP SCRIPT 🎀

Right now the implementation ships with a Fedora-specific cleanup script. But other distributions?? they can absolutely bring their own ✨ — either by creating an executable at /usr/lib/bootc/fedora-bootc-destructive-cleanup, or by editing the systemd unit file so it points at a different path. main character energy, do your own thing 🫶

Want an example implementation to peek at? Go see the Fedora cleanup script: https://github.com/bootc-dev/bootc/blob/main/contrib/scripts/fedora-bootc-destructive-cleanup 📖

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🌟 PREVIOUS FILESYSTEM DATA 🌟

So after an alongside installation, all your previous root filesystem data is still chillin' at /sysroot (everyone calls it the "physical root" 💜).

But ngl, here's the tea: previous mount points or subvolumes will not be automatically mounted in the new system. For example, a btrfs subvolume for /home will not be automatically mounted to /sysroot/home. 🙈

These filesystems do persist though — so you can handle them manually, or define them as mount points in the bootc image. your call, you got this 👑

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• bootc(8)
• bootc-install-to-existing-root(8)
• system-reinstall-bootc(8)

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⭐ VERSION ⭐

v1.17.1

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okay that's the whole page bestie, no cap 💖 this was the BOOTC-DESTR...ANUP.SERVICE(5) page from the File Formats Manual, brought to you by version v1.17.1. go forth and clean up that old OS, you're literally iconic 🦋✨