Directory - dir

The directory storage driver is a basic backend that stores its data in a standard file and directory structure. This driver is quick to set up and allows inspecting the files directly on the disk, which can be convenient for testing. However, Incus operations are not optimized for this driver.

dir driver in Incus

The dir driver in Incus is fully functional and provides the same set of features as other drivers. However, it is much slower than all the other drivers because it must unpack images and do instant copies of instances, snapshots and images.

Unless specified differently during creation (with the source configuration option), the data is stored in the /var/lib/incus/storage-pools/ directory.

Quotas

The dir driver supports storage quotas when running on either ext4 or XFS with project quotas enabled at the file system level.

Configuration options

The following configuration options are available for storage pools that use the dir driver and for storage volumes in these pools.

Storage pool configuration

rsync.bwlimit

The upper limit to be placed on the socket I/O when rsync must be used to transfer storage entities

Key: rsync.bwlimit
Type:

string
Default:

0 (no limit)
Scope:

global
rsync.compression

Whether to use compression while migrating storage pools

Key: rsync.compression
Type:

bool
Default:

true
Scope:

global
source

Path to an existing directory

Key: source
Type:

string
Default:
Scope:

local

Tip

In addition to these configurations, you can also set default values for the storage volume configurations. See Configure default values for storage volumes.

Storage volume configuration

initial.gid

GID of the volume owner in the instance

Key: initial.gid
Type:

int
Default:

same as volume.initial.gid or 0
Condition:

custom volume with content type filesystem
initial.mode

Mode of the volume in the instance

Key: initial.mode
Type:

int
Default:

same as volume.initial.mode or 711
Condition:

custom volume with content type filesystem
initial.uid

UID of the volume owner in the instance

Key: initial.uid
Type:

int
Default:

same as volume.initial.uid or 0
Condition:

custom volume with content type filesystem
security.shared

Enable sharing the volume across multiple instances

Key: security.shared
Type:

bool
Default:

same as volume.security.shared or false
Condition:

custom block volume
security.shifted

Enable ID shifting overlay (allows attach by multiple isolated instances)

Key: security.shifted
Type:

bool
Default:

same as volume.security.shifted or false
Condition:

custom volume
security.size

Size/quota of the storage volume

Key: security.size
Type:

string
Default:

same as volume.size
Condition:

appropriate driver
security.unmapped

Disable ID mapping for the volume

Key: security.unmapped
Type:

bool
Default:

same as volume.security.unmapped or false
Condition:

custom volume
snapshots.expiry

Controls when snapshots are to be deleted (expects an expression like 1M 2H 3d 4w 5m 6y)

Key: snapshots.expiry
Type:

string
Default:

same as volume.snapshot.expiry
Condition:

custom volume
snapshots.expiry.manual

Controls when snapshots are to be deleted (expects an expression like 1M 2H 3d 4w 5m 6y)

Key: snapshots.expiry.manual
Type:

string
Default:

same as volume.snapshot.expiry.manual
Condition:

custom volume
snapshots.pattern

Pongo2 template string that represents the snapshot name (used for scheduled snapshots and unnamed snapshots) [1]

Key: snapshots.pattern
Type:

string
Default:

same as volume.snapshot.pattern or snap%d
Condition:

custom volume
snapshots.schedule

Cron expression (<minute> <hour> <dom> <month> <dow>), a comma-separated list of schedule aliases (@hourly, @daily, @midnight, @weekly, @monthly, @annually, @yearly), or empty to disable automatic snapshots (the default)

Key: snapshots.schedule
Type:

string
Default:

same as volume.snapshot.schedule
Condition:

custom volume

Storage bucket configuration

To enable storage buckets for local storage pool drivers and allow applications to access the buckets via the S3 protocol, you must configure the core.storage_buckets_address server setting.

Storage buckets do not have any configuration for dir pools. Unlike the other storage pool drivers, the dir driver does not support bucket quotas via the size setting.