[Fedora-livecd-list] livecd-creator feature suggestions...

[Tom Lisjac]

A few weeks ago, I was looking for a tool to build bootable and easily
customized DVD's for archiving media and other gigabyte sized items.
>From some of the recent list postings, a few other people appear to
have similar goals. Adding the following 3 switches to a version of
livecd-creator provided a fully automated solution that I've been very
happy with:

--install-root  - Where the build root will be (a hardcoded /var/tmp
didn't work for my setups)
--append-files  - takes multiple path args for user data to be added
in the mkisofs process
--script  - post install script that fires after the build tree is
complete; passes --install-root

The post install script allowed the implementation of simple build
inheritance by applying (cp -a) successive overlay trees to the build
root. These trees are mirrors of the root filesystem, but only contain
files and directories to be added... so if a /home directory (or
symlink) were placed in the root of an overlay tree, it would be
copied to the build root automatically during the postinstall. A
script is optionally run in chroot following each overlay in order to
install additional packages or make "class" specific configuration
changes. The overlay trees contain the scripts so their sequential
appearance in the build root is automatic.

I already had a collection of scripts and "build classes" from another
project and adding the --script hook allowed me to leverage them. I
was going to add another switch that would force a shell after the
build, but found that the --script automation resolved the post
install customization issue completely.

The hacks and changes I made to the older code are incompatible with
the current version, so these switches are offered as a suggestion
rather then a patch.  Although the old code is working well for me,
perhaps others could benefit from this added flexibility in a future
release.

BTW, the livecd-creator code was easy to work with and the overall
package does an amazing job... thanks much! :)

-Tom