junest VS bubblewrap

Explore the Junest Git project and follow the installation instructions. Activate the environment with junest setup and enable the running-from-host options.

PS: about JuNest (see https://github.com/fsquillace/junest ) this is a lightweight Arch Linux based distro that runs, without root privileges, on top of any other Linux distro. I also suggest to take a look at it.

About JuNest, all the apps installed using it whave always worked well for me. I've also wrote a script and done a pull request (rejected) for a tool that exports the apps to the launcher (as distrobox-export already do) https://github.com/fsquillace/junest/pull/322

JuNest https://github.com/fsquillace/junest looks very complete and good, though I dislike the approach of having to download or build an image. It would be nice to be able to do stuff like clone my filesystem (already ZFS) and branch an environment off that instantly.

I have already done a PR (see here)to the main repository https://github.com/fsquillace/junest but I still get errors in merging this utility during the automatic github-action's test/check. Any idea?

- I have pacman installed through junest. It works for command line programs, did not test for gui software

Have you tried installing JuNest? It will allow you to download, install, and use Arch's precompiled binaries directly (in addition to making it easy to compile, install, and use AUR packages).

As for the rest, I've been testing stuff with distrobox, junest (which is like distrobox, but for arch guest and without the container), and Conty (a lot like Junest but as a single hyper-compressed executable file). Anything requiring an escalation or wanting actual access to root remains an issue, but for the most part, it works well enough.

Nothing nix specific but you may be interested in https://github.com/containers/bubblewrap

Recently, I came across Chainguard and wrote the article How to build Docker Images with Melange and Apko. As a fervent supporter of Kubernetes and GitLab CI, I was eager to experiment with building images using Melange in this particular setup. GitLab's shared Runners work seamlessly with Bubblewrap, eliminating the need for additional configurations. This post is intended for enthusiasts like myself, interested in hosting their own Kubernetes Runners and leveraging the Kubernetes Runner Type of Melange.

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This is basically manually invoking what Flatpak does:

https://github.com/containers/bubblewrap

This is also useful for more than just security. E.G., you can test how your app would behave on a fresh install by masking your user configuration files. I personally also have a tool that uses it to basically bundle all dependencies from an entire Linux distribution in order to make highly portable AppImages— Been meaning to post that, will get around to it eventually maybe.

The flags above should hide your user data (`--tmpfs`), disable network access (`--unshare-all`), hide/virtualize devices and OS state (`--dev` and `--proc`), and make the rest of the root filesystem read-only (`--ro-bind`­— Including the insecure X11 socket in `/tmp`, which you might want to expose for GUI apps).

Check them against `bwrap --help`; I might have omitted one or two more things you'd need.

While trying to find out more comparison information, found this light on details issue:

https://github.com/containers/bubblewrap/issues/81

It mentions nsjail and minijail.