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| 1 | +[Toolbx](https://containertoolbx.org/) is a tool for Linux, which allows the |
| 2 | +use of interactive command line environments for software development and |
| 3 | +troubleshooting the host operating system, without having to install software |
| 4 | +on the host. It is built on top of [Podman](https://podman.io/) and other |
| 5 | +standard container technologies from [OCI](https://opencontainers.org/). |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +Toolbx environments have seamless access to the user's home directory, |
| 8 | +the Wayland and X11 sockets, networking (including Avahi), removable devices |
| 9 | +(like USB sticks), systemd journal, SSH agent, D-Bus, ulimits, /dev and the |
| 10 | +udev database, etc.. |
| 11 | + |
| 12 | +This is particularly useful on |
| 13 | +[OSTree](https://ostreedev.github.io/ostree/) based operating systems like |
| 14 | +[Fedora CoreOS](https://fedoraproject.org/coreos/) and |
| 15 | +[Silverblue](https://fedoraproject.org/silverblue/). The intention of these |
| 16 | +systems is to discourage installation of software on the host, and instead |
| 17 | +install software as (or in) containers — they mostly don't even have package |
| 18 | +managers like DNF or YUM. This makes it difficult to set up a development |
| 19 | +environment or troubleshoot the operating system in the usual way. |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +Toolbx solves this problem by providing a fully mutable container within |
| 22 | +which one can install their favourite development and troubleshooting tools, |
| 23 | +editors and SDKs. For example, it's possible to do `yum install ansible` |
| 24 | +without affecting the base operating system. |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +However, this tool doesn't *require* using an OSTree based system. It works |
| 27 | +equally well on Fedora Workstation and Server, and that's a useful way to |
| 28 | +incrementally adopt containerization. |
| 29 | + |
| 30 | +The Toolbx environment is based on an [OCI](https://www.opencontainers.org/) |
| 31 | +image. On Fedora this is the `fedora-toolbox` image. This image is used to |
| 32 | +create a Toolbx container that offers the interactive command line |
| 33 | +environment. |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +Note that Toolbx makes no promise about security beyond what's already |
| 36 | +available in the usual command line environment on the host that everybody is |
| 37 | +familiar with. |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +## Installation & Use |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | +See our guides on |
| 43 | +[installing & getting started](https://containertoolbx.org/install/) with |
| 44 | +Toolbx and [Linux distro support](https://containertoolbx.org/distros/). |
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