Bind Host Paths

What is it?

This is a mechanism to make specific paths from the host available inside the guest container.

How to use

You can use ./app.flatimage fim-help env to get the following usage details:

fim-bind : Bind paths from the host to inside the container
Commands:
   add,del,list,
   add : Create a novel binding of type <type> from <src> to <dst>
   del : Deletes a binding with the specified index
   list : List current bindings
Usage: fim-bind add <type> <src> <dst>
   <type> : ro, rw, dev
   <src> : A file, directory, or device
   <dst> : A file, directory, or device
Usage: fim-bind del <index>
   <index> : Index of the binding to erase
Usage: fim-bind list

---

To bind a device from the host to use in the guest:

$ ./app.flatimage fim-bind add dev /dev/my_device /dev/my_device

This will make my_device available inside the container.

---

To bind a file path from the host to the guest as read-only:

$ ./app.flatimage fim-bind add ro '$HOME/Music' /Music

This will make the Music directory available inside the container in /Music, as read-only. Notice that '$HOME/Music' is inside single quotes, this means that the $HOME variable will only expand when flatimage is executed; i.e., when another user executes the app, their $HOME/Music directory will be the one bound to the container.

---

To bind a file path from the host to the guest as read-write:

$ ./app.flatimage fim-bind add rw '$HOME/Music' /Music

This will make the Music directory available inside the container in /Music, as read-write.

---

You can list the current bindings with the list command:

$ ./app.flatimage fim-bind list
{
  "1": {
    "dst": "/dev/video0",
    "src": "/dev/video0",
    "type": "dev"
  },
  "2": {
    "dst": "/Music",
    "src": "$HOME/Music",
    "type": "ro"
  }
}

---

You can erase a binding with the del command, which takes and index as argument.

$ ./app.flatimage fim-bind del 2
$ ./app.flatimage fim-bind list
{
  "1": {
    "dst": "/dev/video0",
    "src": "/dev/video0",
    "type": "dev"
  }
}

How it works

FlatImage uses bubblewrap's bind mechanisms to make devices and directories available in the guest container.