Re: GSoC Proposal Idea: Developer-Friendly Container CLI for FreeBSD Jails

On Tue, Mar 17, 2026 at 11:34 AM Chandrachud Siddharth
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I hope you are doing well.
>
> My name is Chandrachud Siddharth, and I am an undergraduate student with a strong interest in systems programming, operating systems, and DevOps. I have been actively learning C/C++ and exploring low-level system concepts, particularly in UNIX-like environments.
>
> Recently, I have been studying embedded systems and lightweight operating systems used in real-world devices such as routers, industrial controllers, and smart appliances. While working in this area, I became interested in FreeBSD and its design, especially its jail-based virtualization mechanism.
>
> While experimenting with FreeBSD jails, I observed that they provide powerful and efficient isolation, which is highly suitable for embedded and edge systems. However, managing jails requires multiple manual steps using tools such as jail, jexec, and network configuration utilities. Compared to modern container platforms, this workflow can be less intuitive for developers.
>
> I also explored existing tools like iocage and BastilleBSD. While they simplify some aspects, they seem more focused on system administration and infrastructure management rather than providing a simple, developer-friendly container experience.
>
> Based on this, I would like to propose a project idea for GSoC: developing a modern container-style command line interface for managing FreeBSD jails.
>
> The goal of this project would be to design a CLI tool that enables developers to easily create, run, and manage jails using a workflow similar to container platforms. For example:
>
> bsdctl run nginx
> bsdctl ps
> bsdctl stop web
> bsdctl logs web
>
> The tool would focus on simplifying container lifecycle management, networking configuration, filesystem handling, and logging, while leveraging the performance and security advantages of FreeBSD jails.
>
> I believe this project could help make FreeBSD more accessible for developers working in embedded systems, edge computing, and lightweight infrastructure environments.
>
> I would really appreciate your feedback on this idea and whether it would be suitable for GSoC under FreeBSD. I would also be grateful for any guidance on how to refine the scope or align it better with current FreeBSD development priorities.
>
> Thank you for your time and consideration.
>
> Best regards,
> Chandrachud Siddharth

Have you looked at sysutils/runj in ports?  That might be closer to
what you want than iocage or bastille.