Include local files¶

When crafting your image, you may need to copy custom scripts, pre-built packages, or other static files from your local machine to the image’s file system. This is done by placing them in your image project directory and copying them to the overlay file system with the Dump plugin.

Prepare the files¶

In your project directory, create a directory to hold the custom files:

mkdir my-files

Place the files you want to include in this directory, preserving the directory structure they should have in the final image.

Copy the files to the image¶

Copy the files to the image with a new part that uses the Dump plugin and the organize key. This part must be processed after the root file system is in place.

For example, to copy the script my-files/my-script.sh to /usr/local/bin/:

imagecraft.yaml¶

parts:
  my-files:
    after: [rootfs]
    plugin: dump
    source: my-files/
    organize:
      my-script.sh: (overlay)/usr/local/bin/my-script.sh

The (overlay)/ prefix in the destination file path causes the file to be copied into the image’s overlay file system, which is where the image’s contents are prepared.

Perform additional file operations¶

To apply custom operations to the files, use the override-overlay key in a separate part to run commands in the overlay file system.

For example, to modify the file permissions on /usr/local/bin/my-script.sh in the final image:

imagecraft.yaml¶

parts:
  my-files-perms:
    after: [my-files]
    plugin: nil
    override-overlay: |
      chmod +x /usr/local/bin/my-script.sh

This technique is not limited to custom scripts and can be used for key components of the image. The following parts, for example, install a custom kernel from a set of local Debian files:

imagecraft.yaml¶

parts:
  custom-kernel:
    after: [rootfs]
    plugin: dump
    source: my-files/
    organize:
      "*.deb": (overlay)/tmp/custom-kernel

  install-kernel:
    after: [custom-kernel]
    plugin: nil
    override-overlay: |
      apt-get install -y /tmp/custom-kernel/*.deb
      rm -rf /tmp/custom-kernel

For more information on the overlay step, see Overlay step.