VyOS toplevel build

For the most up-to-date documentation, please read the online build guide at
docs.vyos.io.

What is VyOS

VyOS is an open source operating system for network devices (routers, firewalls
and so on). If you want to use it in your network, check out download and
installation instructions at https://vyos.io

If you want to modify VyOS and/or join its development, read on.

VyOS is not new. It is a fork of Vyatta Core that was created when the open
source version of it was discontinued. If you are a Vyatta Core user, you can
upgrade your installation to VyOS.

About this repository

VyOS is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian. Just like any other
distribution, it consists of multiple packages.

Some packages are taken from the upstream, while other are modified or written
from scratch by VyOS developers. Every package maintained by the VyOS team has
its own git repository. VyOS image build is therefore a multi-step process.
Packages are compiled first, then an ISO is built from Debian packages and our
own packages.

This is the top level repository that contains links to repositories with VyOS
specific packages (organized as Git submodules) and scripts and data that are
used for building those packages and the installation image.

Repository Structure

There are several directories with their own purpose:

• build/ Used for temporary files used for the build and for build artifacts
• data/ Data required for building the ISO (e.g. boot splash/configs)
• packages/ This directory has two meanings. First it can hold arbitrary *.deb
  packages which will be embeded into the resulting ISO, but it also
  holds Jenkins Pipeline definitions for required VyOS packages.
  Among other things those packages will be: Linux Kernel, FRR,
  Netfiler...
• scripts/ Scripts that are used for the build process
• tools/ Scripts that are used for maintainer's tasks automation and other
  purposes, but not during ISO build process
• vars/ Jenkins Pipeline library for reusable functions

Building VyOS

In order to have a single manual and not maintining multiple copies the
instructions on how to build VyOS either in a Docker container or natively can
be found in our Documentation - Build VyOS.

Development Branches

The default branch that contains the most recent VyOS code is called current
rather than master. We know it's confusing, but it's not easy to fix. In a
nutshell, the code we inherited from Vyatta Core had its master branch so out
of sync with everything it was beyond any repair. Vyatta developers used to create
a new branch not when a release is ready for code freeze, but rather before
starting to work on a new release. This is hard to change in existing code, so
this is just the way it is, for now.

All new code goes to the current branch. When it's time for a code freeze, a
new branch is created for the release, and new code from current is backported
to the release branch as needed.

In packages that originate from VyOS the master branch is kept in sync with
current, but we still use current as default branch for uniformity. When the
last legacy package is gone, we will switch to using the master branch and
retire current.

Post-1.2.0 branches are named after constellations sorted by area from smallest to largest.
There are 88 of them, here's the complete list.

• 1.2.x: crux (Southern Cross)
• 1.3.x: equuleus (Little Horse)
• 1.4.x: sagitta (Arrow)
• ...