Overview
-========
+^^^^^^^^
snf-image-creator is a simple command-line tools for creating OS images. The
original media from which the image is created, can be a block device or a
regular file that represents a hard disk. Given a media file, snf-image-creator
-will create a snapshot for it and will run a number of image preparation task
-on the snapshot, before the image is created.
+will create a snapshot for it and will run a number of system preparation
+operations on the snapshot, before the image is created.
Snapshotting
-------------
+============
snf-image-creator works on snapshots of the original media. Any changes made by
the program do not affect the original media.
Preparation
------------
+===========
-Some of the image preparation tasks that run on each image are OS specific.
-snf-image-creator will use heuristics to detect the OS of the image and
-determine which tasks should run on it. The main purpose of running those tasks
-is to:
+Some of the system preparation operations are OS specific. snf-image-creator
+will use heuristics to detect the OS of the media and determine which
+operations should perform on it. The main purpose of running them is to:
* Shrink the image
* Clear out sensitive user data (passwords, ssh keys, history files, etc.)
- * Prepare the image for being deployed on a virtual environment (change device
- names, remove persistent net rules, etc.)
+ * Prepare the guest OS for being deployed on a virtual environment (change
+ device names, remove persistent net rules, etc.)
Creation
---------
+========
The program can either dump the image file locally or directly upload it to
pithos and register it with `okeanos <http://www.okeanos.grnet.gr>`_.
Image Format
-------------
+============
The images the program creates are in diskdump format. This is the recommended
format for `snf-image <https://code.grnet.gr/projects/snf-image>`_, the Ganeti
projects / snf-image-creator / blobdiff