Re: Hosting first-party kernel.org container images

["Theodore Tso" <tytso@mit.edu>]

On Thu, Mar 19, 2026 at 12:10:19PM +0100, Miguel Ojeda wrote:
> 
> While many kernel developers may not use them (mostly because everyone
> has their own setup already), if we had a set of "base" images that
> are maintained by someone trusted (including publishing them in the
> usual registries for easy use), then I think a bunch of us would
> actually use them for CI and possibly other tasks; just like some of
> us already use the kernel.org toolchains "manually" anyway etc.

I publish test appliance images suitable for use by kvm-xfstests and
android-xfstests on www.kernel.org[1], and have for years.  A
description of how they are generated, and what I do in order to keep
the GPL complaint can be described in this slide deck[2].  In
particular, note how I am very careful to explicitly specify where the
corresponding source can be found in a README file[3].  This is
required by the GPL, so that someone can recreate the binary image
using the exact sources that were used to generate them.  I've noted
that not all container / docker images seem to follow the letter of
the law, and fortunately various groups such as the SFLC hasn't gone
after people who publish these images.... but I think it's better to
be careful about such things.

[1] https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/tytso/kvm-xfstests/
[2] https://thunk.org/gce-xfstests
[3] https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/tytso/kvm-xfstests/README

My kvm-xfstests images are relatively small, and I don't update them
all that often, so I haven't had any complaints from the folks who
manage kernel.org about.  So aside from the GPL compliance issues, if
you think that you might be making a large number of images, which
might be potentially large, you might want to check with them first.

Cheers,

					- Ted