SAL Virt Package
The sal-virt package provides comprehensive virtualization and containerization tools for building, managing, and deploying containers and filesystem layers.
Features
- Buildah: OCI/Docker image building with builder pattern API
 - Nerdctl: Container lifecycle management with containerd
 - RFS: Remote filesystem mounting and layer management
 - Cross-Platform: Works across Windows, macOS, and Linux
 - Rhai Integration: Full support for Rhai scripting language
 - Error Handling: Comprehensive error types and handling
 
Modules
Buildah
Container image building with Buildah, providing:
- Builder pattern for container configuration
 - Image management and operations
 - Content operations (copy, add, run commands)
 - Debug mode support
 
Nerdctl
Container management with Nerdctl, providing:
- Container lifecycle management (create, start, stop, remove)
 - Image operations (pull, push, build, tag)
 - Network and volume management
 - Health checks and resource limits
 - Builder pattern for container configuration
 
RFS
Remote filesystem operations, providing:
- Mount/unmount operations for various filesystem types
 - Pack/unpack operations for filesystem layers
 - Support for Local, SSH, S3, WebDAV, and custom filesystems
 - Store specifications for different backends
 
Usage
Basic Buildah Example
use sal_virt::buildah::Builder;
// Create a new builder
let mut builder = Builder::new("my-container", "alpine:latest")?;
// Configure the builder
builder.set_debug(true);
// Add content and run commands
builder.copy("./app", "/usr/local/bin/app")?;
builder.run(&["chmod", "+x", "/usr/local/bin/app"])?;
// Commit the image
let image_id = builder.commit("my-app:latest")?;
Basic Nerdctl Example
use sal_virt::nerdctl::Container;
// Create a container from an image
let container = Container::from_image("web-app", "nginx:alpine")?
    .with_port("8080:80")
    .with_volume("/host/data:/app/data")
    .with_env("ENV_VAR", "production")
    .with_restart_policy("always");
// Run the container
let result = container.run()?;
Basic RFS Example
use sal_virt::rfs::{RfsBuilder, MountType, StoreSpec};
// Mount a remote filesystem
let mount = RfsBuilder::new("user@host:/remote/path", "/local/mount", MountType::SSH)
    .with_option("read_only", "true")
    .mount()?;
// Pack a directory
let specs = vec![StoreSpec::new("file").with_option("path", "/tmp/store")];
let pack_result = pack_directory("/source/dir", "/output/pack.rfs", &specs)?;
Rhai Integration
All functionality is available in Rhai scripts:
// Buildah in Rhai
let builder = bah_new("my-container", "alpine:latest");
builder.copy("./app", "/usr/local/bin/app");
builder.run(["chmod", "+x", "/usr/local/bin/app"]);
// Nerdctl in Rhai
let container = nerdctl_container_from_image("web-app", "nginx:alpine")
    .with_port("8080:80")
    .with_env("ENV", "production");
container.run();
// RFS in Rhai
let mount_options = #{ "read_only": "true" };
rfs_mount("user@host:/remote", "/local/mount", "ssh", mount_options);
Dependencies
sal-process: For command executionsal-os: For filesystem operationsanyhow: For error handlingserde: For serializationrhai: For scripting integration
Testing
The package includes comprehensive tests:
# Run all tests
cargo test
# Run specific test suites
cargo test buildah_tests
cargo test nerdctl_tests
cargo test rfs_tests
# Run Rhai integration tests
cargo test --test rhai_integration
Error Handling
Each module provides its own error types:
BuildahError: For Buildah operationsNerdctlError: For Nerdctl operationsRfsError: For RFS operations
All errors implement std::error::Error and provide detailed error messages.
Platform Support
- Linux: Full support for all features
 - macOS: Full support (requires Docker Desktop or similar)
 - Windows: Full support (requires Docker Desktop or WSL2)
 
Security
- Credentials are handled securely and never logged
 - URLs with passwords are masked in logs
 - All operations respect filesystem permissions
 - Network operations use secure defaults
 
Configuration
Most operations can be configured through environment variables:
BUILDAH_DEBUG: Enable debug mode for BuildahNERDCTL_DEBUG: Enable debug mode for NerdctlRFS_DEBUG: Enable debug mode for RFS
License
Apache-2.0