bootc-switch
Switch the base OS to a different container image
TLDR
Change base OS to a container image from registry
$ sudo bootc switch [image]
Switch to a new image and reboot immediately$ sudo bootc switch --apply [image]
Change to image from local container storage$ sudo bootc switch --transport containers-storage [image]
Change to image from an OCI archive$ sudo bootc switch --transport oci-archive [path/to/image.tar]
SYNOPSIS
bootc switch [options] image
DESCRIPTION
bootc switch changes the base operating system to a different container image. This allows switching between different OS variants or versions while maintaining a transactional, rollback-capable system.The new image is staged and becomes active on the next reboot. The previous deployment is retained for rollback if needed. This operation is similar to `bootc upgrade` but additionally changes the container image reference.
PARAMETERS
--transport type
Image source type: registry (default), containers-storage, oci-archive--apply
Restart or reboot into the new target image immediately after staging. Currently always performs a full reboot; future versions may use a userspace-only restart when no kernel changes are queued.--soft-reboot mode
Controls soft reboot behaviour when used with --apply. Values: auto (use soft reboot if available, otherwise fall back to full reboot), required (fail if soft reboot is unavailable).--enforce-container-sigpolicy
Require that /etc/containers/policy.json includes a default policy enforcing image signatures.--retain
Retain a reference to the currently booted image.--quiet
Suppress progress output.
CAVEATS
Switching to incompatible images may result in a non-bootable system. Ensure the target image is compatible with the system's architecture and configuration. Requires root privileges.
SEE ALSO
bootc(1), podman(1), skopeo(1), rpm-ostree(1), ostree(1)
