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Image build mechanics

The OS image that you deploy on the target hardware consists of AutoSD packages that you assemble into an OS image by using the AutoSD image build tool, automotive-image-builder.

The Automotive SIG stores source files in public Git repositories, including all of the CentOS Stream or AutoSD source code, SPEC files, and patches used to build AutoSD. The RPM Package Manager references this repository to compile AutoSD RPM packages.

Red Hat engineering teams build those RPM packages into an OS image by using automotive-image-builder, which composes a build configuration specification, called a manifest. The compose operation takes a YAML-based automotive image manifest and a set of options that affect the compose and resolves the manifest into an OSBuild JSON file. The JSON file is a precise build instruction for how to build an image with OSBuild with the very specific software, such as selected packages and container images, listed in the compose.

There are several options you set to configure how automotive-image-builder builds the image:

--distro

Define the package repositories for the distribution you intend to use. The default is “cs9”.

  • Use automotive-image-builder list-dist to see the list of distributions.
  • To extend the list-dist with custom distributions, put them in a directory called /some/dir/distro and pass --include /some/dir to the argument list.
--mode

Set to either “package” or “image”. The default value is “image”.

  • Package mode produces a readable and writeable OS that uses DNF to install a package, which is useful during development and testing.
  • Image mode produces an immutable OS image built with OSTree that supports atomic updates but not package-level modification, which is useful in production.

Important

In production, Red Hat only supports those Red Hat In-Vehicle OS images created by using image mode.

--target
Define the target hardware. The default value is “QEMU”. Use automotive-image-builder list-targets to see a list of the supported targets.
--arch
Define the hardware architecture as either “x86_64” or “aarch64”. Your native architecture is the default unless you specify a value.
--export
Define the image file type that you want to build. You can view the available options with the automotive-image-builder --list-exports command.

For more information, see Building an OS image or the Getting Started guide specific to your Linux, MacOS, or Windows host system.

Additional resources

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