Documentation regarding repositories

[UweSauter]

Dear all,

I'm struggling to understand how distribution and external repositories are handled by mkosi.
(The following is in reference to RHEL derivatives but I think the situation is similar with other distributions.)

• I suspect that mkosi brings its own list of repository definitions per supported target distribution as mkosi allows to build images that differ from the host OS. Correct?
• This curated list also includes other repositories that don't belong to the target distribution but that are commonly used, like EPEL. Correct?
• How do I configure mkosi to use repositories that are not included?
  • I've seen the Mirror= configuration option but as far as I can tell this requires the repository to provide a mirror list (an URL that will forward to the real repo based on, e.g. the location the request originates) which I do not have for the mirror I have in my local network.
  • How would I give such a repo a name so I can reference that in mkosi.conf?
• How can I exclude repositories from that curated list? There might be situations were full control over the used repositories is required, e.g. to replace the provided definition with one's own.

Would it be possible to have an additional mkosi.repositories directory that contains

1. files with repository definitions in the format the target distribution's package manager understands
2. directories that represent local repositories that become available inside the chroot

as well as a configuration option in mkosi.conf to disable usage of mkosi's own repository list. (It then is the responsibility of the user to provide adequate base repo definitions inside mkosi.repositories.)

[MoltenArmor]

You can use mkosi.sandbox and mkosi.skeleton. See my comment in #3439.

[UweSauter]

Thanks, I'll try that.
Still I think that the documentation could be clearer about the items in above list.