Using Systemd to Ship Container Runtimes. How?
So, what is Flatcar? The SparkNotes version: we’re a community-driven, fully open-source, minimal, secure-by-default, and always up-to-date container host Linux distribution. It doesn’t feature a package manager (no apt!), and all OS components reside in a protected read-only partition. The build system for the OS takes after CoreOS’s build system, which itself is derived from ChromeOS. During my internship with the Flatcar team, I was tasked with adding a systemd-sysext build tool to the Flatcar Container Linux SDK and using it for a Docker sysext image, migrating from Torcx to it. Torcx is a boot-time add-on manager used to ship Docker and Containerd. My project was structured mainly around plumbing efforts within Flatcar. I had the opportunity to not just work with the Flatcar team (distributed between Germany, India, the Netherlands, and France) but also collaborate and assist community members. It was a great collaborative experience for me, and I was able to work with such a diverse team!
Speaker
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Krish Jainex-Flatcar Project internKrish Jain is an undergraduate at the University of Rochester majoring in Computer Science. He has shown interest in systems, infrastructure, container runtimes, and virtualization. His academic work is complemented by practical experience, including an internship with the Flatcar team. Krish contributed to Flatcar Linux, developing a systemd build tool and transitioning from Torcx to a Docker sysext image.