nspawn,machined: change default container image location from /var/lib/container to /var/lib/machines

Given that this is also the place to store raw disk images which are
very much bootable with qemu/kvm it sounds like a misnomer to call the
directory "container". Hence, let's change this sooner rather than
later, and use the generic name, in particular since we otherwise try to
use the generic "machine" preferably over the more specific "container"
or "vm".

1 files changed, 50 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/man/machinectl.xml b/man/machinectl.xml
index 91bdb5e11..19531866c 100644
--- a/man/machinectl.xml
+++ b/man/machinectl.xml
@@ -291,10 +291,10 @@
                                 name. <command>systemd-nspawn</command>
                                 looks for a container image by the
                                 specified name in
-                                <filename>/var/lib/container</filename>
-                                and runs it. Use
-                                <command>list-images</command> (see
-                                below), for listing available
+                                <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename>
+                                (and other search paths, see below) and runs
+                                it. Use <command>list-images</command>
+                                (see below), for listing available
                                 container images to start.</para>
 
                                 <para>Note that
@@ -488,7 +488,7 @@
                                 images. This enumerates all raw disk
                                 images and container directories and
                                 subvolumes in
-                                <filename>/var/lib/container/</filename>. Use
+                                <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename> (and other search paths, see below). Use
                                 <command>start</command> (see above)
                                 to run a container off one of the
                                 listed images. Note that by default
@@ -596,6 +596,51 @@
         </refsect1>
 
         <refsect1>
+                <title>Files and Directories</title>
+
+                <para>Machine images are preferably stored in
+                <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename>, but are also
+                searched for in
+                <filename>/usr/local/lib/machines/</filename> and
+                <filename>/usr/lib/machines/</filename>. For
+                compatibility reasons the directory
+                <filename>/var/lib/container/</filename> is searched,
+                too. Note that images stored below
+                <filename>/usr</filename> are always considered
+                read-only. It is possible to symlink machines images
+                from other directories into
+                <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename> to make them
+                available for control with
+                <command>machinectl</command>.</para>
+
+                <para>Disk images are understood in three formats:</para>
+
+                <itemizedlist>
+                        <listitem><para>A simple directory tree,
+                        containing the files and directories of the
+                        container to boot.</para></listitem>
+
+                        <listitem><para>A subvolume (on btrfs file
+                        systems), which are similar to the simple
+                        directories, described above. However, they
+                        have additional benefits, such as efficient
+                        cloning and quota reporting.</para></listitem>
+
+                        <listitem><para>"Raw" disk images, i.e. binary
+                        images of disks with a GPT or MBR partition
+                        table. Images of this type are regular
+                        files with the suffix
+                        <literal>.raw</literal>.</para></listitem>
+                </itemizedlist>
+
+                <para>See
+                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+                for more information on image formats, in particular
+                it's <option>--directory=</option> and
+                <option>--image=</option> options.</para>
+        </refsect1>
+
+        <refsect1>
                 <title>Exit status</title>
 
                 <para>On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure