Python module

Archinstall supports running in module mode. The way the library is invoked in module mode is limited to executing scripts under the scripts folder.

It’s therefore important to place any script or profile you wish to invoke in the examples folder prior to building and installing.

Pre-requisites

We’ll assume you’ve followed the Install using source code method. Before actually installing the library, you will need to place your custom installer-scripts under scripts as a python file.

More on how you create these in the next section.

Warning

This is subject to change in the future as this method is currently a bit stiff. The script path will become a parameter. But for now, this is by design.

Creating a script

Lets create a test_installer - installer as an example. This is assuming that the folder ./archinstall is a git-clone of the main repo. We begin by creating “scripts/test_installer.py”. The placement here is important later.

This script can now already be called using python -m archinstall test_installer after a successful installation of the library itself. But the script won’t do much. So we’ll do something simple like list all the hard drives as an example.

To do this, we’ll begin by importing archinstall in our “scripts/test_installer.py” and call a function whtin archinstall.

import archinstall

print(archinstall.disk.device_handler.devices)

Now, go ahead and reference the Install using source code installation method. After running python -m archinstall test_installer it should print something that looks like:

[
    BDevice(
        disk=<parted.disk.Disk object at 0x7fbe17156050>,
        device_info=_DeviceInfo(
            model='PC801 NVMe SK hynix 512GB',
            path=PosixPath('/dev/nvme0n1'),
            type='nvme',
            total_size=Size(value=512110190592, unit=<Unit.B: 1>,
            sector_size=SectorSize(value=512, unit=<Unit.B: 1>)),
            free_space_regions=[
                <archinstall.lib.disk.device_model.DeviceGeometry object at 0x7fbe166c4250>,
                <archinstall.lib.disk.device_model.DeviceGeometry object at 0x7fbe166c4c50>,
                <archinstall.lib.disk.device_model.DeviceGeometry object at 0x7fbe166c4a10>],
            sector_size=SectorSize(value=512, unit=<Unit.B: 1>),
            read_only=False,
            dirty=False
        ),
        partition_infos=[
            _PartitionInfo(
                partition=<parted.partition.Partition object at 0x7fbe166c4a90>,
                name='primary',
                type=<PartitionType.Primary: 'primary'>,
                fs_type=<FilesystemType.Fat32: 'fat32'>,
                path='/dev/nvme0n1p1',
                start=Size(value=2048, unit=<Unit.sectors: 'sectors'>, sector_size=SectorSize(value=512, unit=<Unit.B: 1>)),
                length=Size(value=535822336, unit=<Unit.B: 1>, sector_size=SectorSize(value=512, unit=<Unit.B: 1>)),
                flags=[
                    <PartitionFlag.Boot: 1>,
                    <PartitionFlag.ESP: 18>
                ],
                partn=1,
                partuuid='a26be943-c193-41f4-9930-9341cf5f6b19',
                uuid='6EE9-2C00',
                disk=<parted.disk.Disk object at 0x7fbe17156050>,
                mountpoints=[
                    PosixPath('/boot')
                ],
                btrfs_subvol_infos=[]
            ),
            _PartitionInfo(...)
        ]
    )
]

That means your script is in the right place, and archinstall is working as intended.

Note

Most calls, including the one above requires root privileges.