apple--containerization/kernel/README.md

Containerization Kernel Configuration

This directory includes an optimized kernel configuration to produce a fast and lightweight kernel for container use.

• config-arm64 and config-x86_64 include the per-arch kernel CONFIG_ options.
• Makefile includes the kernel version and source package URL.
• build.sh scripts the kernel build process.
• image/ includes the configuration for an image with build tooling.

Building

1. The build process relies on having the container tool installed (https://github.com/apple/container/releases).
2. Run make. This should create the image used for building the resulting Linux kernel, and then run a container with that image to perform the kernel build.

Target architecture

The build target is selected by the TARGET_ARCH make variable, which accepts either arm64 or x86_64. When unset, it falls back to the build host's architecture (as reported by uname -m, with aarch64/amd64 normalized to arm64/x86_64).

• make (default) → builds for the host arch
• make TARGET_ARCH=arm64 → vmlinux-arm64 (uncompressed Image)
• make TARGET_ARCH=x86_64 → vmlinuz-x86_64 (compressed bzImage, cross-compiled inside the arm64 container)
• make x86_64 → convenience alias for make TARGET_ARCH=x86_64

The z suffix on the x86 name follows Linux convention for a compressed kernel image. The resulting kernel is copied into the repo's bin/ directory.