[PATCH 1/2] scripts: add TOML config to container tool

[PATCH 1/2] scripts: add TOML config to container tool

[Guillaume Tucker]

Add support for a TOML configuration file to the scripts/container
tool.  This improves user experience by not having to keep passing the
same command line options all the time or overly relying on built-in
default values.  Include the concept of 'profiles' with different
named sections in the file to cover various use cases.

Command line options take precedence over the config file, and values
defined in profile sections take precedence over the default one.

Add a -c option to override the location of the .container.toml config
file which should otherwise be located in the current working
directory.  If not found, the file is silently ignored as it is not
strictly required unless the -c option is used.

Add a -p option to choose a particular profile section in the config
file rather than the default.

Signed-off-by: Guillaume Tucker <gtucker@gtucker.io>
---
 scripts/container | 81 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
 1 file changed, 70 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/scripts/container b/scripts/container
index b05333d8530b..cf126fa13510 100755
--- a/scripts/container
+++ b/scripts/container
@@ -1,17 +1,19 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
-# Copyright (C) 2025 Guillaume Tucker
+# Copyright (C) 2025-2026 Guillaume Tucker
 
 """Containerized builds"""
 
 import abc
 import argparse
+import dataclasses
 import logging
 import os
 import pathlib
 import shutil
 import subprocess
 import sys
+import tomllib
 import uuid
 
 
@@ -20,10 +22,14 @@ class ContainerRuntime(abc.ABC):
 
     name = None  # Property defined in each implementation class
 
-    def __init__(self, args, logger):
-        self._uid = args.uid or os.getuid()
-        self._gid = args.gid or args.uid or os.getgid()
-        self._env_file = args.env_file
+    def __init__(self, args, config, logger):
+        self._uid = args.uid or config.uid or os.getuid()
+        self._gid = (
+            args.gid or config.gid or
+            args.uid or config.uid or
+            os.getgid()
+        )
+        self._env_file = args.env_file or config.env_file
         self._shell = args.shell
         self._logger = logger
 
@@ -131,6 +137,41 @@ class Runtimes:
         raise ValueError("no runtime found")
 
 
+@dataclasses.dataclass
+class Config:
+    """Container configuration"""
+    image: str = None
+    runtime: str = None
+    registry: str = None
+    env_file: str = None
+    uid: int = None
+    gid: int = None
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_toml(cls, config_file_path, profile_name):
+        """Create a config object from a TOML file"""
+        if not config_file_path:
+            config_file_path = '.container.toml'
+            if not os.path.exists(config_file_path):
+                return cls()
+        elif not os.path.exists(config_file_path):
+            raise ValueError(f"config file not found: {config_file_path}")
+        with open(config_file_path, 'rb') as config_file:
+            config = tomllib.load(config_file)
+        default = config.get('DEFAULT', {})
+        if not profile_name:
+            profile = {}
+        else:
+            profile = config.get(profile_name)
+            if profile is None:
+                raise ValueError(f"unknown profile: {profile_name}")
+        fields = (field.name for field in dataclasses.fields(cls))
+        kwargs = {
+            opt: profile.get(opt) or default.get(opt) for opt in fields
+        }
+        return cls(**kwargs)
+
+
 def _get_logger(verbose):
     """Set up a logger with the appropriate level"""
     logger = logging.getLogger('container')
@@ -147,13 +188,21 @@ def main(args):
     """Main entry point for the container tool"""
     logger = _get_logger(args.verbose)
     try:
-        cls = Runtimes.get(args.runtime) if args.runtime else Runtimes.find()
+        config = Config.from_toml(args.config_file, args.config_profile)
+        runtime = args.runtime or config.runtime
+        cls = Runtimes.get(runtime) if runtime else Runtimes.find()
     except ValueError as ex:
         logger.error(ex)
         return 1
     logger.debug("runtime: %s", cls.name)
-    logger.debug("image: %s", args.image)
-    return cls(args, logger).run(args.image, args.cmd)
+    image = args.image or config.image
+    if not image:
+        logger.error("no image specified")
+        return 1
+    if config.registry:
+        image = '/'.join((config.registry, image))
+    logger.debug("image: %s", image)
+    return cls(args, config, logger).run(image, args.cmd)
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
@@ -162,18 +211,28 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
         description="See the documentation for more details: "
         "https://docs.kernel.org/dev-tools/container.html"
     )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        '-c', '--config-file',
+        help="Path to the config file.  If not specified, the default is to "
+        "look for .container.toml in the current working directory."
+    )
     parser.add_argument(
         '-e', '--env-file',
         help="Path to an environment file to load in the container."
     )
     parser.add_argument(
-        '-g', '--gid',
+        '-g', '--gid', type=int,
         help="Group ID to use inside the container."
     )
     parser.add_argument(
-        '-i', '--image', required=True,
+        '-i', '--image',
         help="Container image name."
     )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        '-p', '--config-profile',
+        help="Profile section to use in the config file.  This will override"
+        "any values defined in the DEFAULT section."
+    )
     parser.add_argument(
         '-r', '--runtime', choices=Runtimes.get_names(),
         help="Container runtime name.  If not specified, the first one found "
@@ -184,7 +243,7 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
         help="Run the container in an interactive shell."
     )
     parser.add_argument(
-        '-u', '--uid',
+        '-u', '--uid', type=int,
         help="User ID to use inside the container.  If the -g option is not "
         "specified, the user ID will also be set as the group ID."
     )
-- 
2.47.3

[PATCH 2/2] Documentation: dev-tools: update container.rst with config file

[Guillaume Tucker]

Update the container.rst documentation page with a new section for the
TOML configuration file, its associated command line options and an
intro paragraph.

Provide a sample config using the TuxMake images with an example to
show how to simplify the command line syntax.

Bump the requirement from Python 3.10 to 3.11 which is when tomllib
was introduced.  Also, Python 3.10 is about to reach its end of life.

Signed-off-by: Guillaume Tucker <gtucker@gtucker.io>
---
 Documentation/dev-tools/container.rst | 98 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 95 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/dev-tools/container.rst b/Documentation/dev-tools/container.rst
index 452415b64662..5847637e0396 100644
--- a/Documentation/dev-tools/container.rst
+++ b/Documentation/dev-tools/container.rst
@@ -26,6 +26,11 @@ Command line syntax::
 
 Available options:
 
+``-c, --config-file CONFIG_FILE``
+
+    Path to the config file.  If not specified, the default is to look for
+    ``.container.toml`` in the current working directory.
+
 ``-e, --env-file ENV_FILE``
 
     Path to an environment file to load in the container.
@@ -38,6 +43,11 @@ Available options:
 
     Container image name (required).
 
+``-p, --config-profile CONFIG_PROFILE``
+
+    Profile section to use in the config file.  This will override any values
+    defined in the ``DEFAULT`` section.
+
 ``-r, --runtime RUNTIME``
 
     Container runtime name.  Supported runtimes: ``docker``, ``podman``.
@@ -53,8 +63,8 @@ Available options:
 
     User id to use inside the container.
 
-    If the ``-g`` option is not specified, the user id will also be used for
-    the group id.
+    If the ``-g`` option is not specified, the user id will also be set as the
+    group id.
 
 ``-v, --verbose``
 
@@ -86,9 +96,13 @@ container with SIGINT (Ctrl-C).  To run commands interactively with a TTY, the
 shell directly rather than the parent ``container`` process.  To exit an
 interactive shell, use Ctrl-D or ``exit``.
 
+A :ref:`configuration file<config_file>` may be used to facilitate running
+containers for various use cases.  It also removes the burden of repeatedly
+providing the same options on the command line.
+
 .. note::
 
-   The only host requirement aside from a container runtime is Python 3.10 or
+   The only host requirement aside from a container runtime is Python 3.11 or
    later.
 
 .. note::
@@ -225,3 +239,81 @@ To build the HTML documentation, which requires the ``kdocs`` image built with
 ``make PREFIX=kernel.org/ extra`` as it's not a compiler toolchain::
 
   scripts/container -i kernel.org/kdocs make htmldocs
+
+.. _config_file:
+
+Configuration File
+==================
+
+By default, the tool will look for configuration a file named
+``.container.toml`` in the current working directory.  If not found, it will be
+silently ignored as it's not required.  Alternatively, any other path can be
+specified with the ``-c`` option in which case the file needs to be present or
+an error will be raised.
+
+Its data follows the standard TOML format and is made up of different sections
+with ``DEFAULT`` as the default one.  Other sections may be used to define
+alternative profiles under arbitrary names which can be selected by the ``-p``
+option.  Command line options take precedence over configuration values, and
+profile sections take precedence over the default one.
+
+Supported options in each section are:
+
+``env_file``
+
+    Path to an environment file to load in the container, equivalent to the
+    ``-e`` command line option.
+
+``image``
+
+    Name of the container image to use, equivalent to the ``-i`` command line
+    option.
+
+``registry``
+
+    Name of the container image registry to use.  This will be used as a prefix
+    before the image name with a ``/`` separator.
+
+    For example, a ``docker.io`` registry and a ``myuser/myimage`` image will
+    result in ``docker.io/myuser/myimage`` as the full image path.
+
+``runtime``
+
+    Name of the container runtime, equivalent to the ``-r`` command line option.
+
+``uid`` / ``gid`` (integers)
+
+    User and group id numbers to use inside the container, equivalents to the
+    ``-u`` and ``-g`` command line options respectively.
+
+
+Here's a sample configuration with an extra ``clang`` profile::
+
+  [DEFAULT]
+  runtime = "podman"
+  registry = "docker.io"
+  image = "tuxmake/korg-gcc"
+
+  [clang]
+  image = "tuxmake/korg-clang"
+  env_file = ".clang.env"
+
+It mentions a ``.clang.env`` file which simply contains this flag::
+
+  LLVM=1
+
+Let's take a look again at this example mentioned earlier::
+
+  scripts/container -i docker.io/tuxmake/korg-clang -- make LLVM=1 defconfig
+
+Using the configuration file, it can now be simplified into this::
+
+  scripts/container -p clang -- make defconfig
+
+Then to override the default runtime, the ``-r`` option can still be used::
+
+  scripts/container -p clang -r docker -- make defconfig
+
+This also illustrates how values take precedence over each other: the registry
+is loaded from the ``DEFAULT`` section, the image from the ``clang`` section
+and the runtime from the command line ``-r`` option.
-- 
2.47.3

Re: [PATCH 2/2] Documentation: dev-tools: update container.rst with config file

[Guillaume Tucker]

On 24/08/2026 12:05, Guillaume Tucker wrote:
> +By default, the tool will look for configuration a file named
> +``.container.toml`` in the current working directory.  If not found, it will be

Sorry, a small typo crept in:

-By default, the tool will look for configuration a file named
+By default, the tool will look for a configuration file named

Guillaume