matchstick

README

matchstick

A /sbin/init shim that enables read-only root filesystems for Debian.

Installation

From APT

Add the immutos apt repository to your system.

Then install matchstick:

Currently packages are only published for Debian 12 (Bookworm).

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y matchstick

GitHub Releases

Download statically linked binaries from the GitHub releases page:

Latest Release

Usage

Make sure a /sbin/init symlink exists in the root filesystem, and that it points to the matchstick binary.

Configuration

Matchstick is configured via kernel command line arguments.

• matchstick.data: The device to which write operations will be redirected.
• matchstick.datafstype: The filesystem type of the data device.

Or, if you don't want to persist changes:

• matchstick.volatile: If set to true, the data filesystem will be mounted as a tmpfs, and all changes will be lost on reboot.

And the following optional options are available for advanced users:

• matchstick.mount: The mountpoint to be used for the data filesystem, defaults to /mnt/data.
• matchstick.dirs: A comma-separated list of directories that will be made writable.
• matchstick.cmd: The init process to be executed after the filesystem has been mounted, defaults to /lib/systemd/systemd.