KIWI(8) KIWI NG KIWI(8)

kiwi - Creating Operating System Images

kiwi-ng [global options] service <command> [<args>]
kiwi-ng -h | --help
kiwi-ng [--profile=<name>...]
        [--temp-dir=<directory>]
        [--type=<build_type>]
        [--logfile=<filename>]
        [--logsocket=<socketfile>]
        [--loglevel=<number>]
        [--debug]
        [--debug-run-scripts-in-screen]
        [--color-output]
        [--config=<configfile>]
        [--kiwi-file=<kiwifile>]
    image <command> [<args>...]
kiwi-ng [--logfile=<filename>]
        [--logsocket=<socketfile>]
        [--loglevel=<number>]
        [--debug]
        [--debug-run-scripts-in-screen]
        [--color-output]
        [--config=<configfile>]
    result <command> [<args>...]
kiwi-ng [--profile=<name>...]
        [--shared-cache-dir=<directory>]
        [--temp-dir=<directory>]
        [--target-arch=<name>]
        [--type=<build_type>]
        [--logfile=<filename>]
        [--logsocket=<socketfile>]
        [--loglevel=<number>]
        [--debug]
        [--debug-run-scripts-in-screen]
        [--color-output]
        [--config=<configfile>]
        [--kiwi-file=<kiwifile>]
    system <command> [<args>...]
kiwi-ng -v | --version
kiwi-ng help


KIWI NG is an imaging solution that is based on an image XML description. A description can consist of a single config.xml or .kiwi file. It may also include additional files, such as scripts or configuration data.

A collection of example image descriptions can be found in the following GitHub repository: https://github.com/OSInside/kiwi-descriptions. Most of the descriptions provide a so-called appliance image. Appliance is a small, text-based image including a predefined remote source setup to allow installation of missing software components.

Although KIWI NG operates in two steps, the system build command combines both steps into one to make it easier to start with KIWI NG.

The first step is to prepare a directory that includes the contents of a new filesystem based on one or more software package sources. The second step uses the prepared contents of the new image root tree to create an output image.

KIWI NG supports the creation of the following image types:

  • ISO Live Systems
  • virtual disk for e.g cloud frameworks
  • OEM expandable disk for system deployment from ISO or the network
  • file system images for deployment in a PXE boot environment

Depending on the image type, different disk formats and architectures are supported.

Use escape sequences to print different types of information in colored output. for this option to work, the underlying terminal must support those escape characters. Error messages appear in red, warning messages in yellow, and debugging information is printed in light grey.
Use specified runtime configuration file. If not specified, the runtime configuration is expected to be in the ~/.config/kiwi/config.yml or /etc/kiwi.yml files.
Print debug information on the command line. Same as: --loglevel 10.
--debug-run-scripts-in-screen
Run scripts called by KIWI NG in a screen session.
Specify log file. The logfile contains detailed information about the process. The special call: --logfile stdout sends all information to standard out instead of writing to a file.
Send log data to the specified Unix Domain socket in the same format as with --logfile.
Specify logging level as a number. Further info about the available log levels can be found at: https://docs.python.org/3/library/logging.html#logging-levels Setting a log level displays all messages above the specified level.

----------------------------
| Level    | Numeric value |
----------------------------
| CRITICAL | 50            |
| ERROR    | 40            |
| WARNING  | 30            |
| INFO     | 20            |
| DEBUG    | 10            |
| NOTSET   | 0             |
----------------------------


Select profile to use. The specified profile must be part of the XML description. The option can be specified multiple times to allow a combination of profiles.
Specify an alternative shared cache directory. The directory is shared via bind mount between the build host and image root system, and it contains information about package repositories and their cache and meta data. The default location is /var/cache/kiwi.
Specify an alternative base temporary directory. The provided path is used as base directory to store temporary files and directories. Default is /var/tmp.
Specify an image architecture. By default, the host architecture is used as the image architecture. If the specified architecture name does not match the host architecture (thus requesting a cross architecture image build), you must configure the support for the image architecture and binary format on the building host. This must be done during the preparation stage, and it is beyond the scope of KIWI NG.
Select an image build type. The specified build type must be configured as part of the XML description.
Basename of kiwi file that contains the main image configuration elements. If not specified, kiwi uses a file named config.xml or a file matching *.kiwi
Show program version

$ git clone https://github.com/OSInside/kiwi
$ sudo kiwi-ng system build \
    --description kiwi/build-tests/x86/leap/test-image-disk \
    --set-repo obs://openSUSE:Leap:15.5/standard \
    --target-dir /tmp/myimage


Marcus Schäfer

2020-2024, Marcus Schäfer

November 26, 2024 10.2.0