Immutable Volumes

An immutable volume is a file containing a Squashfs filesystem that can be mounted read-only inside the virtual machine running programs in on-demand or persistent execution modes. This type of volume is typically used to provide additional libraries or data to the program.

Immutable volumes have the following properties:

• comment: A custom comment from the user about the volume.
• mount: The path on the filesystem of the virtual machine to mount the volume.
• ref: The item_hash of the STORE message that references the uploaded filesystem.
• use_latest: A flag indicating that the program should be restarted to use the last version of the volume.

ℹ️ Squashfs is a standard Linux format and can be mounted on any Linux system to test.

Providing Additional Data

Additional data can be provided to a program by bundling it in an immutable volume.

1. Create a Squashfs volume from the data

mksquashfs ./custom-data data.squashfs

2. Publish the file on aleph.im

aleph file upload ./data.squashfs

This command will provide you with the item_hash of the immutable volume, which you can then use to create the program.

Providing Additional Python Libraries

Additional Python libraries can be provided to a program by bundling them in an immutable volume mounted on /opt/packages.

1. Create a directory that contains the dependencies

mkdir ./packages
pip3 install -t ./packages -r ./requirements.txt

2. Create a Squashfs volume from the directory

mksquashfs ./packages packages.squashfs

3. Publish the file on aleph.im

aleph file upload ./packages.squashfs

This command will provide you with the item_hash of the immutable volume, which you can then use to create the program.