Overlay filesystem
From the initial kernel commit:
- Overlayfs allows one, usually read-write, directory tree to be overlaid onto another, read-only directory tree. All modifications go to the upper, writable layer. This type of mechanism is most often used for live CDs but there is a wide variety of other uses.
- The implementation differs from other "union filesystem" implementations in that after a file is opened all operations go directly to the underlying, lower or upper, filesystems. This simplifies the implementation and allows native performance in these cases.
Overlayfs has been in the linux kernel since 3.18.
Installation
Overlayfs is enabled in the default kernel and the overlay module is automatically loaded upon issuing a mount command.
Usage
To mount an overlay use the following mount options:
# mount -t overlay overlay -o lowerdir=/lower,upperdir=/upper,workdir=/work /merged
workdir) needs to be an empty directory on the same filesystem mount as the upper directory.The lower directory can actually be a list of directories separated by :, all changes in the merged directory are still reflected in upper.
Example:
# mount -t overlay overlay -o lowerdir=/lower1:/lower2:/lower3,upperdir=/upper,workdir=/work /merged
The above example will have the order:
/upper /lower1 /lower2 /lower3
To add an overlayfs entry to /etc/fstab use the following format:
/etc/fstab
overlay /merged overlay noauto,x-systemd.automount,lowerdir=/lower,upperdir=/upper,workdir=/work 0 0
The noauto and x-systemd.automount mount options are necessary to prevent systemd from hanging on boot because it failed to mount the overlay. The overlay is now mounted whenever it is first accessed and requests are buffered until it is ready. See fstab#Automount with systemd.
Read-only overlay
Sometimes, it is only desired to create a read-only view of the combination of two or more directories. In that case, it can be created in an easier manner, as the directories upper and work are not required:
# mount -t overlay overlay -o lowerdir=/lower1:/lower2 /merged
When upperdir is not specified, the overlay is automatically mounted as read-only.