BILIBOP.CONF(5)

NAME
bilibop.conf - configuration file of bilibop packages

SYNOPSIS
/etc/bilibop/bilibop.conf

DESCRIPTION
bilibop.conf is the configuration file of bilibop-* packages, which are intended to be used on systems running from an external and writable media (USB, FireWire, MMC, eSATA). It is composed of VARIABLE=VALUE pairs, where VARIABLE is a string beginning by 'BILIBOP_', and VALUE must be inserted between quotes if it contains blank characters (spaces or tabulations). Spaces around the equal sign (=) are not allowed. Empty lines or lines beginning by a hash sign (#) are ignored.

Valid configuration options can be divided in 'common' and 'specific' sections, as follows:

COMMON VARIABLES

  BILIBOP_COMMON_BASENAME
This variable defines the basename of bilibop subdirectories (or symlink) that will be created in /dev and /run at boot time, from into the initramfs environment or from into the running system. If it is empty or unset, the value will fallback to 'bilibop'. If you modify it to anything else, you have to take care that some symlinks or custom settings of your system reflect the new location. At least, if bilibop-rules is installed, you should execute the helper scripts provided by this package, either by hand or with 'dpkg-reconfigure bilibop-rules'. So, maybe it is not a good idea to modify it.

Default is unset.

BILIBOP-LOCKFS SPECIFIC VARIABLES

  BILIBOP_LOCKFS
This variable defines the main behaviour of the bilibop-lockfs initramfs script. It is a boolean:

If set to false, the system will boot normally, and other BILIBOP_LOCKFS_* variables will be ignored, except BILIBOP_LOCKFS_NOTIFY_POLICY. If set to true, the initramfs script will move the normal root filesystem to another mountpoint used as the lower/readonly branch of an aufs(5) or overlay mountpoint (depending on the version of your kernel) used itself as the actual root filesystem. After what the temporary and writable /etc/fstab file will be modified to prepare other filesystems — if not whitelisted — to be mounted as readonly branches of aufs or overlay too.

If empty, unset, or set to anything else, then a heuristic will be used to set it to true or false, depending on the removable flag of the disk in the sysfs attributes, knowing that generally USB keys are seen as removable devices (true), and USB HDDs are seen as non removable devices (false).

In all cases, the value of this variable can be overridden from the boot commandline by adding 'lockfs' or 'nolockfs' to the line of kernel parameters. However, if the drive is physically locked by a switch, this will be detected and all previous settings will be overridden to set BILIBOP_LOCKFS as true.

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_LOCKFS_POLICY
This variable defines an additional 'lock' level to be enabled or not. Its value can be overridden from the boot commandline with 'lockfs=hard' or 'lockfs=soft'.

•   soft
    The readonly branches of aufs(5) or overlay mountpoints will be set to 'ro' (readonly). Later, these readonly filesystems can be remounted manually as writable to allow root to save some changes on them. This kind of action is highly discouraged here, but is possible if you REALLY know what you do; otherwise it can lead to unexpected results, including of course data loss.

•   hard
    The readonly branches of aufs mountpoints will be set to 'rr' (real readonly); this is used by aufs to optimize some internal operations. Additionally, the corresponding block devices will be set as readonly too by using the read_only_volume_list variable in lvm.conf(5) for Logical Volumes, or blockdev(8) for other block devices, avoiding low-level write access to them (even by root) and avoiding the filesystems to be remounted later as writable.

If empty, unset, or set to anything else, the value will fallback to hard. However, if the drive is physically locked, previous settings will be overridden and the hard policy will be automatically applied.

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_LOCKFS_UNION_METHOD
This variable defines which unionfs module is preferred and must be tried first. As this module may be unsupported by the current kernel, the other module supported by 'bilibop-lockfs' is the fallback. Its value can be overridden from the boot commandline with 'lockfs=aufs' or 'lockfs=overlay'.

•   aufs
    Try to load 'aufs' first, otherwise 'overlay'.

•   overlay
    Try to load 'overlay' first, otherwise 'aufs'.

If empty, unset, or set to anything else, the value will fallback to aufs. So as soon as aufs-dkms package is installed, it is used.

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_LOCKFS_PATH_PREFIX
This variable defines the main directory under which all readonly and writable branches are set. It may be any arbitrary string, as long as it is a valid name and the directory does not exist yet. Its value can be overridden from the boot commandline with 'lockfs=:prefix' (note the leading colon that is a marker).

If empty or unset, it defaults to the name of the module currently in use (i.e. aufs or overlay).

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_LOCKFS_PATH_SCHEME
This variable defines the structure of each set of ro and rw branches, regarding the others. It exists only because unlike aufs, overlay does not allow one to easily nest mount points (especially the upperdirs). Its value can be overridden from the boot commandline with 'lockfs=isolated' or 'lockfs=hybrid' or 'lockfs=nested'.

•   isolated
    Each set of readonly and writable branches is created into a dedicated directory. For example, to set up an aufs or overlay for /usr/local, /$union/usr/local/ro and /$union/usr/local/rw are used. So with this scheme, branches related to a specific mount point are clearly identified, but symlinks crossing filesystem boundaries are broken (on the branches, not on their union mount).

•   nested
    All readonly branches are set under the same reaonly sub-tree, and all writable branches are set under the same writable sub-tree. So branches are easily browsable, and symlinks are preserved. For example, to set an aufs for /usr/local, /aufs/ro/usr/local and /aufs/rw/usr/local are used. This scheme is not avalaibable with overlay, and is the default with aufs, for backward compatibility with versions of bilibop until 0.4.23.

•   hybrid
    Readonly branches are nested, and writable branches are isolated.

If empty, unset, or set to anything else, the value will fallback to nested with aufs, and isolated with overlay.

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_LOCKFS_WHITELIST
Once the root filesystem is locked as the readonly branch of an aufs or overlay filesystem, the /etc/fstab file is modified on the writable branch to lock all other local filesystems as readonly branches of aufs or overlay mountpoints. This variable gives the ability to avoid the lockfs mechanism for some mountpoints: this is a whitespace separated list of mountpoints or device names (as known in fstab(5)) or tokens of the form UUID=fsuuid, LABEL=fslabel or TYPE=fstype. If the LABEL of a device contains spaces, replace them by underscores (_), as given by the output of 'udevadm info --query property --name DEVICE' or 'blkid -o udev -p DEVICE' for ID_FS_UUID, ID_FS_LABEL and ID_FS_TYPE variables. Note that whitelisting a mountpoint, a device name or any token matching the corresponding fstab entry makes the device is whitelisted by the initramfs script, that is faster. Otherwise, mount.lockfs(8) will query metadata about the device to check if it must skip it or not.

Note that since mounting of /usr is now done into the initramfs, locking it must be done into the initramfs too. It means that only the simple and early parser is available at this time, and the simplest way to whitelist /usr is to call it /usr, and nothing else, to avoid boot failures or unexpected results.

Also note that it is possible to override (and blank) the value of this variable by adding 'lockfs=all' on the boot commandline. This is also automatically done when the drive is physically locked. On the contrary, to append mountpoints to this whitelist from the boot commandline, it is also possible to use an option of the form 'lockfs=-/foobar', where /foobar is the mountpoint to not lock; not that it is preceded by a minus sign (-).

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_LOCKFS_FALLBACK_POLICY
If a mount option or a filesystem type is not supported by aufs(5) or overlay, mount.lockfs will fail to lock it as expected. This variable defines the policy to apply in case of mount error. Its value can be overridden from the boot commandline with 'lockfs=ro' or 'lockfs=asis'.

•   ro
    The mount helper script will retry to mount the filesystem as if it was whitelisted, but readonly to avoid mistaken changes.

•   asis
    The mount helper script will retry to mount the filesystem as if it was whitelisted.

If empty, unset, or set to anything else, the value will fallback to ro. However, if the drive is physically locked, previous settings will be overridden and the ro policy will be automatically applied.

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_LOCKFS_SIZE
By default, bilibop-lockfs allocates half of RAM size (or TMPFS_SIZE if set in /etc/default/tpmfs) for each aufs or overlay writable branch of a locked filesystem. It is possible to override this value for some mountpoints in a whitespace separated list of mountpoint=size pairs. Sizes can be absolute (suffixed with k, K, m, M, g or G), or relative to the total amount of RAM (and suffixed with %). The size allocated to the root filesystem can be fixed here too, but can be overridden from the boot commandline with a 'lockfs=size' kernel parameter.

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_LOCKFS_SWAP_POLICY
This variable defines what to do with swap devices listed in /etc/fstab (and optionally in /etc/crypttab). Generally, there is no sense to setup a swap device on a flash memory stick, but this can be done on USB, FireWire or eSATA HDDs. Five policies are available:

•   soft
    Nothing is changed: lines in fstab(5) and crypttab(5) are kept as is.

•   hard
    Swap entries in fstab and crypttab are disabled (commented).

•   noauto
    The 'noauto' keyword is appended to the list of options of swap entries in fstab and crypttab. This means swap devices can be enabled manually with swapon(8).

•   crypt
    Entries about encrypted swap devices are kept as is, others are disabled. ATTENTION: this option makes no difference between swap devices encrypted with a random key (and whose the content is unrecoverable after system halt) and those whose the content is written in clear on a Logical Volume being itself included in an encrypted Volume Group.

•   random
    Entries about swap devices encrypted with a random key are kept as is, others are disabled.

If BILIBOP_LOCKFS_SWAP_POLICY is not set to a known value, crypt or hard are the fallbacks, depending on the removable flag of the disk in the sysfs attributes: for devices seen as removable (USB sticks), the policy is to not use swap devices at all (hard policy). Note that in all cases, swap usage can be disabled from the boot commandline with the noswap kernel parameter, which is not a bilibop(7) specific boot option, but leads to set BILIBOP_LOCKFS_SWAP_POLICY to hard. This is also the case if the script detects that the drive is physically locked.

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_LOCKFS_NOTIFY_POLICY
This variable defines when to notify the user that filesystems are locked or not. Such notifications can be sent at system boot (needs plymouth package installed to work) as well as desktop session startup (needs libnotify-bin package installed to work). What follows describes desktop notifications; plymouth(8) messages are less verbose. There are four available policies:

•   always
    This is the fallback when the variable is unset or set to something else than never, lockfs or nolockfs. If the bilibop-lockfs feature is disabled, then a notification will be send to say that all information of the session can be written on the disk. If the feature is enabled, a notification will be send to say that all changes under the (listed) aufs or overlay mountpoints will be lost at shutdown. If some mountpoints have been whitelisted, a second notification will be sent to say that all changes under them will be kept at shutdown.

•   never
    Never send notification about filesystems status.

•   lockfs
    If the bilibop-lockfs feature is enabled, then a notification will be send to say that all changes under aufs or overlay mountpoints will be lost at shutdown.

•   nolockfs
    If the bilibop-lockfs feature is disabled, does the same thing as for always. If the feature is enabled and some mountpoints have been whitelisted, then a notification will be send to say that all changes under them will be kept at shutdown.

In all cases, any user can (for its own desktop session) override the admin settings by copying lockfs-notify.desktop (normally in /etc/xdg/autostart) in its own .config/autostart directory and by modifying the lines beginning by Exec= or Hidden=. See lockfs-notify(1) for details.

Default is unset.

BILIBOP-RULES SPECIFIC VARIABLES
Unlike the previous variables whose modifications take effect only after the system has been rebooted, most of the following BILIBOP_RULES_* variables — except the first one — can be modified, and the changes applied during a same session by running 'lsbilibop -c'. See lsbilibop(8).

  BILIBOP_RULES_SYSTEM_INTERNAL
By default, bilibop rules use udisks (both versions 1.x and 2.x) facilities to override the usual bus type detection of whether a device is considered 'system internal'. This means root privileges will be needed to manage devices hosted by the same disk than the root filesystem. If you don't need this global behaviour, explicitly set this to false (all other values have no effect, i.e. have the same effect than true).

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_RULES_SYSTEM_INTERNAL_WHITELIST
If BILIBOP_RULES_SYSTEM_INTERNAL is not 'false', all partitions hosted on the same disk than the root filesystem will be considered as 'system internal'. To disable this behaviour for only some devices — for example if you want a partition mountable/unmountable without needs of root privileges — you can list them here, separated by spaces. For each device or group of devices, you must specify at least one token of the form UUID=fsuuid, LABEL=fslabel, TYPE=fstype or USAGE=fsusage. If the LABEL of a device contains spaces, replace them by underscores (_), as given by the output of 'udevadm info --query property --name DEVICE' or 'blkid -o udev -p DEVICE' for ID_FS_UUID, ID_FS_LABEL, ID_FS_TYPE and ID_FS_USAGE variables.

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_RULES_PRESENTATION_HIDE
By default, bilibop rules hide (if possible) the filesystems contained on the same physical hard disk or memory stick than the root filesystem. This applies to desktop applications based on udisks (both versions 1.x and 2.x). If you don't want to hide the bilibop volumes, explicitly set this to false (all other values have no effect, i.e. have the same effect than true).

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_RULES_PRESENTATION_HIDE_WHITELIST
If BILIBOP_RULES_PRESENTATION_HIDE is not 'false', all volumes hosted on the same disk than the root filesystem will be hidden to the user. To disable this behaviour for only some devices, you can list them here, separated by spaces. For each device or group of devices, you must specify at least one token of the form UUID=fsuuid, LABEL=fslabel, TYPE=fstype or USAGE=fsusage. If the LABEL of a device contains spaces, replace them by underscores (_), as given by the output of 'udevadm info --query property --name DEVICE' or 'blkid -o udev -p DEVICE' for ID_FS_UUID, ID_FS_LABEL, ID_FS_TYPE and ID_FS_USAGE variables.

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_RULES_PRESENTATION_ICON
If a device is not hidden, it can be shown to the user with another icon than the default one. For each device or group of devices you want to change the default icon, you must specify at least one token of the form UUID=fsuuid:icon, LABEL=fslabel:icon, TYPE=fstype:icon or USAGE=fsusage:icon. The icon name must follow the freedesktop.org icon theme specification. If the LABEL of a device contains spaces, replace them by underscores (_), as given by the output of 'udevadm info --query property --name DEVICE' or 'blkid -o udev -p DEVICE' for ID_FS_UUID, ID_FS_LABEL, ID_FS_TYPE and ID_FS_USAGE variables.

Default is unset.

  BILIBOP_RULES_PRESENTATION_NAME
If a device is not hidden, it can be shown to the user with another name than the default one (generally the label of the filesystem). For each device or group of devices you want to change the default name, you must specify at least one token of the form UUID=fsuuid:name, LABEL=fslabel:name, TYPE=fstype:name or USAGE=fsusage:name. If the LABEL of a device contains spaces, replace them by underscores (_), as given by the output of 'udevadm info --query property --name DEVICE' or 'blkid -o udev -p DEVICE' for ID_FS_UUID, ID_FS_LABEL, ID_FS_TYPE and ID_FS_USAGE variables.

Default is unset.

FILES
/etc/bilibop/bilibop.conf
/usr/share/doc/bilibop-common/examples/bilibop.conf
/usr/share/doc/bilibop-lockfs/examples/bilibop.conf
/usr/share/doc/bilibop-rules/examples/bilibop.conf

SEE ALSO
aufs(5), bilibop(7), blkid(8), crypttab(5), fstab(5), lockfs-notify(1), lsbilibop(8), mount(8), mount.lockfs(8), notify-send(1), plymouth(8), proc(5), udev(7), udevadm(8), udisks(7), udisks(8)

AUTHOR
This manual page has been written by Bilibop Project <quidame@poivron.org>.