smolBSD is a tool for constructing minimal NetBSD systems by selecting only the necessary components. It does not require an existing NetBSD installation and can be built from any GNU/Linux, NetBSD, or macOS environment.
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smolBSD based on NetBSD released as minimal VM build tool with service startup in 10ms range
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According to the developer, the use of PVH boot and various optimizations allows the system to launch QEMU or Firecracker directly on modern x86 CPUs, starting services in approximately 10ms. The build process is deterministic, making version control straightforward.
Users can choose between two methods of operation: Docker-native or POSIX shell scripting. By using smoler.sh, services can be defined using Dockerfile-compatible syntax, enabling the building, running, pushing, and pulling of images. Images can be shared via OCI registries and are managed using the name-arch:tag format.
For low-level operations, startnb.sh is available. This is the VM launcher used internally by smoler.sh, providing full control over QEMU flags and direct access to raw .img files within the images/ directory.
Examples of services include a minimal rescue environment of approximately 10MB, sshd with key authentication support, the static file delivery server bozohttpd, and the caddy web server. These images support amd64, i386, and aarch64 architectures.
Source: SmolBSD – build your own minimal BSD system (HN 265pt, 25 comments) (HN Search (backfill), 2025-10-15)