DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / kiwi / kiwi::system::build.8.en
KIWI::SYSTEM::BUILD(8) KIWI NG KIWI::SYSTEM::BUILD(8)

kiwi::system::build - Build image in combined prepare and create step

kiwi-ng [global options] service <command> [<args>]
kiwi-ng system build -h | --help
kiwi-ng system build --description=<directory> --target-dir=<directory>

[--allow-existing-root]
[--clear-cache]
[--ignore-repos]
[--ignore-repos-used-for-build]
[--set-repo=<source,type,alias,priority,imageinclude,package_gpgcheck,{signing_keys},components,distribution,repo_gpgcheck>]
[--set-repo-credentials=<user:pass_or_filename>]
[--add-repo=<source,type,alias,priority,imageinclude,package_gpgcheck,{signing_keys},components,distribution,repo_gpgcheck>...]
[--add-repo-credentials=<user:pass_or_filename>...]
[--add-package=<name>...]
[--add-bootstrap-package=<name>...]
[--delete-package=<name>...]
[--set-container-derived-from=<uri>]
[--set-container-tag=<name>]
[--add-container-label=<label>...]
[--signing-key=<key-file>...] kiwi-ng system build help


build an image in one step. The build command combines kiwi's prepare and create steps in order to build an image with just one command call. The build command creates the root directory of the image below <target-dir>/build/image-root and if not specified differently writes a log file <target-dir>/build/image-root.log. The result image files are created in the specified target-dir.

specify package to install as part of the early kiwi bootstrap phase. The option can be specified multiple times
add a container label in the container configuration metadata. It overwrites the label with the provided key-value pair in case it was already defined in the XML description
specify package to add(install). The option can be specified multiple times
Add a new repository to the existing repository setup in the XML description. This option can be specified multiple times. For details about the provided option values see the --set-repo information below
For uri://user:pass@location type repositories, set the user and password connected with an add-repo specification. The first add-repo-credentials is connected with the first add-repo specification and so on. If the provided value describes a filename in the filesystem, the first line of that file is read and used as credentials information.
Allow to use an existing root directory from an earlier build attempt. Use with caution this could cause an inconsistent root tree if the existing contents does not fit to the former image type setup
delete repository cache for each of the used repositories before installing any package. This is useful if an image build should take and validate the signature of the package from the original repository source for any build. Some package managers unconditionally trust the contents of the cache, which is ok for cache data dedicated to one build but in case of kiwi the cache is shared between multiple image builds on that host for performance reasons.
specify package to delete. The option can be specified multiple times
Path to the XML description. This is a directory containing at least one _config.xml_ or _*.kiwi_ XML file.
Ignore all repository configurations from the XML description. Using that option is usually done with a sequence of --add-repo options otherwise there are no repositories available for the image build which would lead to an error.
Works the same way as --ignore-repos except that repository configurations which has the imageonly attribute set to true will not be ignored.
Overwrite the first repository entry in the XML description with the provided information:
  • source

    source url, pointing to a package repository which must be in a format supported by the selected package manager. See the URI_TYPES section for details about the supported source locators.

  • type

    repository type, could be one of rpm-md, rpm-dir or yast2.

  • alias

    An alias name for the repository. If not specified kiwi calculates an alias name as result from a sha sum. The sha sum is used to uniquely identify the repository, but not very expressive. We recommend to set an expressive and uniq alias name.

  • priority

    A number indicating the repository priority. How the value is evaluated depends on the selected package manager. Please refer to the package manager documentation for details about the supported priority ranges and their meaning.

  • imageinclude

    Set to either true or false to specify if this repository should be part of the system image repository setup or not.

  • package_gpgcheck

    Set to either true or false to specify if this repository should validate the package signatures.

  • {signing_keys}

    List of signing_keys enclosed in curly brackets and delimited by semicolon. The reference to a signing key must be provided as URI format

  • components

    Component list for debian based repos as string delimited by a space

  • distribution

    Main distribution name for debian based repos

  • repo_gpgcheck

    Set to either true or false to specify if this repository should validate the repository signature.


For uri://user:pass@location type repositories, set the user and password connected to the set-repo specification. If the provided value describes a filename in the filesystem, the first line of that file is read and used as credentials information.
Overwrite the source location of the base container for the selected image type. The setting is only effective if the configured image type is setup with an initial derived_from reference
Overwrite the container tag in the container configuration. The setting is only effective if the container configuraiton provides an initial tag value
set the key file to be trusted and imported into the package manager database before performing any operation. This is useful if an image build should take and validate repository and package signatures during build time. This option can be specified multiple times
Path to store the build results.

  • http:// | https:// | ftp://

    remote repository delivered via http or ftp protocol.

  • obs://

    Open Buildservice repository. The source data is translated into an http url pointing to http://download.opensuse.org.

  • ibs://

    Internal Open Buildservice repository. The source data is translated into an http url pointing to download.suse.de.

  • iso://

    Local iso file. kiwi loop mounts the file and uses the mount point as temporary directory source type

  • dir://

    Local directory


Marcus Schäfer

2022, Marcus Schäfer

December 22, 2022 9.24.56