Running envbuilder CLI on a local laptop may destroy the filesystem

[bpmct]

Can we add a warning that explains the CLI is not intended to be ran locally on a laptop (Macbook) and a warning of the outcome?

VM use cases are encouraged, but we should still warn

[bpmct]

FYI @mtojek

[matifali]

I have been through this :( Lost all my data.

[mtojek]

I have been through this :( Lost all my data.

Can you share more details about what exactly happened? We may describe this in README.

[matifali]

I was logged in through SSH to a Linux VM and executed the envbuilder binary. I got disconnected and could not log in again. I assume it destroyed/overrode the filesystem.

[johnstcn]

While VM use-cases for envbuilder are definitely possible, its primary use-case is to run inside a container.

[johnstcn]

I was logged in through SSH to a Linux VM and executed the envbuilder binary. I got disconnected and could not log in again. I assume it destroyed/overrode the filesystem.

I was able to reproduce this, but needed to run envbuilder as root. I assume that's what happend here?

[johnstcn]

Root cause: util.DeleteFilesystem will delete RootDir.
In the envbuilder Dockerfile, we set KANIKO_DIR=/.envbuilder.
We will use this to determine if envbuilder is being running inside a container.
The existing FORCE_SAFE environment variable can be used to bypass this check.