Linux OCI containers as plain FreeBSD jails (without Podman)

Abstract: Linux software distributed as OCI container images can be extracted into a FreeBSD jail with Linux compatibility enabled. With a couple of mounts set up to make the extracted root a valid Linux userland, the "container" can run like a regular jail without involving virtual machines or a separate control interface (podman). Isolation is handled by the jail subsystem. FreeBSD has a respectable library of ported software in the ports tree. Getting ported software set up is usually just a pkg install away. Sometimes you have to take a couple of extra steps and run a make install. Some programs do not have a port but can be made to run anyway, by tweaking a Makefile, setting up an ad-hoc Python environment, or something to that effect. Some programs, however, are designed to be run in a very particular, Dockerfile-specified, Linux-library-dependent environment. My first encounter with this kind of challenge was Immich: a self-hostable personal photo and video gallery. Immich has…

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