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
livecd@lists.fedoraproject.org