Are storage and build cache always in the same directory?

[nschan]

Hello,

I understand that if CH_IMAGE_STORAGE is set and I run e.g. ch-image pull someimage the cache will be in $CH_IMAGE_STORAGE.

If I set $CH_IMAGE_STORAGE and ran ch-image pull -s /some/dir someimage (/some/dir not being the same directory as $CH_IMAGE_STORAGE), since -s takes priority over $CH_IMAGE_STORAGE, I assume the build cache would be in /some/dir?

Is there a way to e.g. pull an image to /some/dir, while making use of the cache in $CH_IMAGE_STORAGE?

Thanks a lot
Niklas

[reidpr]

Hello Niklas,

Not at this time, no. But does #1353 match your request?

HTH,
Reid

[nschan]

That would actually be quite helpful I think.
The issue that I need to work around is pulling images that can be run with -w (preferable without an intermediate convert) while making use of a central cache.

[reidpr]

Couple suggestions would be:

1. ch-convert, as you note. At present this just does a normal copy, though in principle it could do a reflink (metadata-only) copy, which would be quite a bit faster given appropriate filesystem support.
2. -W/--write-fake, which I think works with images in the storage directory?

[nschan]

--write-fake would be the preferred way I guess, but the cluster I am using is on an ancient kernel (4.12 iirc), so that's not an option.

With the way convert currently works, convert and pull take roughly the same time for me, so I would kind of prefer to just pull.

I think with the cache being in the same place as is used for storage with -s, the current implementation is actually ok for me. I can simply maintain a storage for images that are run with -w, separate from $CH_IMAGE_STORAGE.