Incul

Lightweight container-based desktop compartmentalization.

Incul leverages Incus and Xpra under the hood to let you run isolated environments for everyday tasks without the overhead of full virtual machines. You can keep different applications, projects, or libraries neatly compartmentalized, making it easy to isolate and organize your desktop activities.

Why Compartmentalization?

Stop cluttering your host OS with every library, tool, and service. Incul promotes a workflow where your projects live in silos:

• Development: Spin up dedicated containers for different programming languages or conflicting library versions.
• Testing: Run browsers, office, or media tools in isolation.
• Privacy & Organization: Separate personal activities and work activities into their own secure containers.

Using Xpra, graphical applications inside containers are rendered seamlessly as standard windows on your desktop .

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• A fresh installation of Debian 13 (Trixie) with the XFCE desktop environment.

Installation

1. Install the package:

   sudo apt install ./incul_2.0.0_all.deb

   

2. Bootstrap the system: This process will configure the necessary backends and will require a reboot upon completion.

   incul init

   

Basic Workflow

1. Create a template:

   incul create-template debian

   

   Note: Incul generates a config for each container in ~/.config/<container_name>. Use the exclusions.yaml file to hide or show specific menu entries on the host.

   

2. Launch a container from your template:

   incul create personal debian-template

   

3. Synchronize the application menu: This integrates the container's apps into your host XFCE menu.

   incul sync personal

   

4. Run applications: Simply select an entry in your host menu under the specific container category.

Default Credentials:

• Username: incul
• Password: incul

Command Reference

Action	Example Usage	Explanation
list	incul list	List all existing containers.
init	incul init	Bootstrap the Incul system.
start	incul start <name>	Start a container.
pause	incul pause <name>	Pause a running container.
stop	incul stop <name>	Stop a container.
restart	incul restart <name>	Restart a container.
delete	incul delete <name>	Remove a container permanently.
export	incul export <name>	Backup a container to a file.
import	incul import <path> --name <new_name>	Restore a container from backup.
sync	incul sync <name>	Sync container entries to the host menu.
create	incul create <name> <template>	Create a container from a template.
create-template	incul create-template <name>	Create a new base template.

Architecture

• Incus: A modern, secure, and powerful system container and virtual machine manager.
• Xpra: Known as "screen for X." Its seamless mode allows Incul to direct the display of individual X11 programs to your local machine.
• XFCE Integration: Incul bridges the gap between Incus containers and the host, ensuring .desktop entries are automatically categorized and accessible.

Feedback & Contributions

Contributions and feedback are highly appreciated!