bcvk-to-disk - Man Page

bcvk to-disk [-h|--help] [Options] IMAGE

Performs automated installation of bootc containers to disk images using ephemeral VMs as the installation environment. Supports multiple filesystems, custom sizing, and creates bootable disk images ready for production deployment.

The installation process:

1. Creates a new disk image with the specified filesystem layout
2. Boots an ephemeral VM with the target container image
3. Runs `bootc install to-disk` within the VM to install to the disk
4. Produces a bootable disk image that can be deployed anywhere

SOURCE_IMAGE

Container image to install

This argument is required.

TARGET_DISK

Target disk/device path

This argument is required.

--filesystem=FILESYSTEM

Root filesystem type (e.g. ext4, xfs, btrfs)

--root-size=ROOT_SIZE

Root filesystem size (e.g., '10G', '5120M')

--storage-path=STORAGE_PATH

Path to host container storage (auto-detected if not specified)

--target-transport=TARGET_TRANSPORT

The transport; e.g. oci, oci-archive, containers-storage.  Defaults to `registry`

--karg=KARG

Set a kernel argument

--composefs-backend

Default to composefs-native storage

--disk-size=DISK_SIZE

Disk size to create (e.g. 10G, 5120M, or plain number for bytes)

--format=FORMAT

Output disk image format

Possible values:
- raw
- qcow2

Default: raw

--itype=ITYPE

Instance type (e.g., u1.nano, u1.small, u1.medium). Overrides vcpus/memory if specified.

--memory=MEMORY

Memory size (e.g. 4G, 2048M, or plain number for MB)

Default: 4G

--vcpus=VCPUS

Number of vCPUs (overridden by --itype if specified)

--console

Enable console output to terminal for debugging

--debug

Enable debug mode (drop to shell instead of running QEMU)

--virtio-serial-out=NAME:FILE

Add virtio-serial device with output to file (format: name:/path/to/file)

--execute=EXECUTE

Execute command inside VM via systemd and capture output

-K, --ssh-keygen

Generate SSH keypair and inject via systemd credentials

--install-log=INSTALL_LOG

Configure logging for `bootc install` by setting the `RUST_LOG` environment variable

--label=LABEL

Add metadata to the container in key=value form

--dry-run

Check if the disk would be regenerated without actually creating it

IMAGE

Container image reference to install (e.g., `registry.example.com/my-bootc:latest`)

Create a raw disk image:

bcvk to-disk quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream10 /path/to/disk.img

Create a qcow2 disk image (more compact):

bcvk to-disk --format qcow2 quay.io/fedora/fedora-bootc:42 /path/to/fedora.qcow2

Create with specific disk size:

bcvk to-disk --disk-size 20G quay.io/fedora/fedora-bootc:42 /path/to/large-disk.img

Create with custom filesystem and root size:

bcvk to-disk --filesystem btrfs --root-size 15G quay.io/fedora/fedora-bootc:42 /path/to/btrfs-disk.img

Development workflow - test then create deployment image:

# Test the container as a VM first
bcvk ephemeral run-ssh my-app

# If good, create the deployment image
bcvk to-disk my-app /tmp/my-app.img

v0.1.0

bcvk(8).