Basic Usage

zedenv can be used to manage boot environments using ZFS. If your system is set up in a way compatible with boot environments, you can start using them right away.

Create and activate a new Boot Environment.

$ zedenv create default-0
$ zedenv activate default-0

This will make it the Boot Environment used on reboot.

$ zedenv list

Name       Active   Mountpoint   Creation
default    N        -            Wed-May-23-23:48-2018
default-0  R        /            Thu-May-24-23:54-2018

This can be shown with a list, command. The boot environment currently being used will have a ‘N’ in the active column signifying the boot environment is being used now. An ‘R’ in the active column means this environment will be used on reboot.

In order to integrate with a bootloader, an extra flag ‘-b/--bootloader’ must be used to specify a bootloader plugin. The plugin will make the necessary changes to boot from the new Boot Environment.

If you expect you will always be using a certain bootloader, you can set the org.zedenv:bootloader property on your boot environments, and the bootloader plugin will be used without you having to specify.

$ zedenv set org.zedenv:bootloader=<bootloader plugin>

Plugins available for your system can be listed with zedenv --plugins.

If you’re using zedenv to activate a boot environment, and a plugin isn’t available, you may need to edit some config files to specify the new dataset, depending on your bootloader.

Usage information can be given at any time by running zedenv --help.

Usage: zedenv [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

ZFS boot environment manager cli

Options:
--version
--plugins  List available plugins.
--help     Show this message and exit.

Commands:
activate  Activate a boot environment.
create    Create a boot environment.
destroy   Destroy a boot environment or snapshot.
get       Get boot environment properties.
list      List all boot environments.
mount     Mount a boot environment temporarily.
rename    Rename a boot environment.
set       Set boot environment properties.
umount    Unmount a boot environment.

More specific information about a specific subcommand can be requested as well.

zedenv create --help

Usage: zedenv create [OPTIONS] BOOT_ENVIRONMENT

Create a boot environment.

Options:
-v, --verbose        Print verbose output.
-e, --existing TEXT  Use existing boot environment as source.
--help               Show this message and exit.