🐟 remora

Local layering for bootc systems, the container-native way.

A remora rides along on a bigger fish. This one rides along on your TunaOS image: it keeps a small manifest of packages and customizations, builds them into a local derived image, and rebases your system to it — rebuilding automatically whenever the base image updates. It's the answer to "how do I just install a package?" on an image-based system, and it gives the same answer on every TunaOS variant: dnf, zypper, pacman, apt, portage (emerge), and apk.

sudo remora init                 # one-time setup
sudo remora install htop vim     # layer packages, rebuild, rebase
sudo remora enable               # rebuild automatically when the base updates

remora ships preinstalled on TunaOS images. Source: tuna-os/remora.

How it works

/etc/remora/remora.yaml ──► Containerfile ──► podman quadlet (Pull=newer)
                                                     │
                                                     ▼
                                       localhost/remora:latest
                                                     │
                                                     ▼
                            bootc switch --transport=containers-storage

Your system keeps updating exactly like stock TunaOS — except the update is rebuilt locally with your layers on top first. Nothing is mutated in place; every change is a new image, every rollback is bootc rollback.

The manifest

/etc/remora/remora.yaml

base: ""                  # empty = follow the booted image
package_manager: ""       # empty = auto-detect
packages:
  - htop
  - tailscale
extra_run:                # verbatim shell before package install (repos, keys)
  - dnf config-manager addrepo --from-repofile=https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/fedora/tailscale.repo
schedule: "*-*-* 04:00:00"

Beyond packages:

• /etc/remora/build_files/*.sh — scripts run at the end of the build (enable services, tweak configs, call BuildStream or any other builder).
• /etc/remora/system_files/ — copied over / verbatim.

Package-manager shims

sudo remora shims

After this, dnf install foo (which can't work against a read-only /usr anyway) explains what's going on and offers to run remora install foo. Read-only commands — search, info, pacman -Q — pass straight through. Remove anytime with sudo remora shims --remove.

uupd integration

If uupd is present (it is, on TunaOS desktop images), remora init hooks rebuilds into it with a plain systemd drop-in: uupd's schedule, battery/network gating, and reboot handling drive everything. No extra timers, no dependencies in either direction.

Commands

Command	Effect
remora init	Create /etc/remora, install quadlet + timer (+ uupd hook)
remora install PKG...	Add to manifest, rebuild, rebase
remora remove PKG...	Remove from manifest, rebuild, rebase
remora list	Show layered packages
remora build	Rebuild + rebase now
remora enable / disable	Toggle the rebuild timer
remora status	Booted image, manifest summary, timer state
remora generate	Regenerate the Containerfile only
remora shims [--remove]	Package-manager interception on/off