Thin jails with pkgbase

[pgauret]

I’m running about 20 thin jails, created and managed with a home made script.
How does this work in pkgbase world?
- Do we have separate pkg databases for the base system and for ports? I.e. can I update the base jail system once and then manage local packages in each jail as I do today?
- If not, is there a way to have thin jails at all, or do you switch to thick jails with zfs clones to limit disk usage?

Keen to hear how others are approaching this.

 

[adriel-tech]

I use BastilleBSD as my jail manager. It creates a release with pkg base and nothing really changes from the old way. From my testing, I disable the pkgbase repo inside the jail as the jail does not manage pkgbase, Bastille handles updates outside the jail.

In general it works like the old way of doing things, I do not suggest using pkgbase 'minimal-jail' though as it causes its own issues.

 

[SirDice]

Do we have separate pkg databases for the base system and for ports?

Yes,
On <=14 it's FreeBSD (and FreeBSD-kmods) for the ports/packages, and FreeBSD-base for the pkgbase packages.
On 15=> it's FreeBSD-ports (and FreeBSD-ports-kmods) for the ports/packages, and FreeBSD-base for the pkgbase packages.

Assuming you want to use the official FreeBSD repositories of course. You can build your own custom pkgbase packages, just like you can build your own custom package repositories.

 

[Emrion]

This question haunts me since I know pkgbase is to replace freebsd-update. Because, like you, I have some home made scripts which manage my thin jails.

I think that at a given time a migration has to be made concerning the base(s). Remove the base(s) that don't use pkgbase and install new one(s).

In the base(s), you will have /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf containing 3 repos enabled: FreeBSD-ports, FreeBSD-ports-kmods and FreeBSD-base. I think that it will be no use of FreeBSD-ports-kmods and for FreeBSD-ports, its use will be limited to install pkg(8) and update it. So, we need FreeBSD-ports in the base*.

In the jails, the simpler is to disable FreeBSD-base with the help of a conf file in /etc/local/etc/pkg/repos/. And as you are here, you can also disable FreeBSD-ports-kmods.

Edit: (*) No if we use pkg of the host which is even simpler. I need to think more about all of this.