+# BubbleBox: Simple Application Sandboxing
+
+## Introduction
+
+This is the documentation of [BubbleBox](https://www.ralfj.de/projects/bubblebox), a
+tool to easily sandbox Linux applications.
+
+The primary use-case for BubbleBox is running applications that you do not trust enough
+to give them full access to hour home directory, and in particular the secret keys stored there.
+In this regard it is similar to [firejail] and [bubblejail], but less powerful and in exchange hopefully easier to configure.
+BubbleBox is based on [bubblewrap] and [xdg-dbus-proxy] which do all of the heavy lifting.
+
+[firejail]: https://firejail.wordpress.com/
+[bubblejail]: https://github.com/igo95862/bubblejail
+[bubblewrap]: https://github.com/containers/bubblewrap
+[xdg-dbus-proxy]: https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-dbus-proxy
+
+## Usage
+
+The typical way to use BubbleBox is to create a new "jail" script in the BubbleBox source folder.
+For instance, if you want a "gamejail" that you can use to run games, create a file `gamejail`
+in a BubbleBox checkout with contents like this:
+
+```python
+#!/bin/python3
+from bubblebox import *
+
+bubblebox(
+ profiles.DEFAULT,
+ profiles.DESKTOP,
+ dbus_proxy_flags("--own=com.steampowered.*"),
+
+ home_access({
+ ".steam": Access.Write,
+ }),
+)
+```
+
+Then add a symlink to this file somewhere to your PATH, and now you can use `gamejail <application>`
+to run arbitrary games inside the BubbleBox.
+
+### Configuration directives
+
+A BubbleBox sandbox is configured by passing a list of directives to the
+`bubblebox` functions that declare things the sandbox has access to. Everything
+else is blocked by default.
+
+These directives are basically lists of bubblewrap and xdg-dbus-proxy flags,
+but BubbleBox provides some convenience functions
+to allow higher-level configuration and to share common patterns.
+
+The `profiles.py` file contains some useful directives that are needed by most applications:
+- `profiles.DEFAULT` adds the basic flags to isolate the sandbox from the environment
+ by unsharing all namespaces except for the network.
+ This profile gives access to `/usr`, `/sys`, and `/etc` and also creates a
+ stub file system inside the sandbox that is basically always required. It
+ assumes a merged-usr setup, e.g. it will add `/bin` as a symlink to
+ `/usr/bin`. It also gives read-only access to some files in the home directory
+ that are often needed to make a basic shell work: `.bashrc`, `.bash_aliases`,
+ `.profile` and the `bin` directory.
+- `profiles.DESKTOP` is intended to make GUI applications work. It provides
+ access to DRI, X11, ALSA, Wayland, and PulseAudio. Furthermore, some GUI
+ configuration files (`.XCompose`, fontconfig, and default mime-type
+ associations) are made available to the sandbox. This also sets up the D-Bus
+ proxy and gives the application access to notifications, screen saver control,
+ status icons, and the flatpak portals (however, actually using these portals
+ is untested and would likely require further integration). Finally, it makes
+ clicking on links inside the sandbox work properly if your default browser is
+ Firefox.
+
+I recommend looking at the sources in `default.py` to learn how to configure your
+own sandboxes. Here are the key directives to use:
+- `host_access` gives the sandbox read-only or read-write access to some part
+ of the host file system. This is declared via nested Python dicts and supports
+ glob expressions.
+- `home_access` works the same as `host_access` except all paths are relative
+ to the home directory.
+- `bwrap_flags` allows passing flags directly to `bwrap`. This is rarely needed.
+- `dbus_proxy_flags` allows passing flags directly to `xdg-dbus-proxy`.
+ This is the typical way to provide access to given D-Bus names.
+- `shared_runtime_dir("name")` ensures that all instances of the sandbox with this
+ name have a shared XDG_RUNTIME_DIR. This is needed e.g. for VSCodium instances
+ to find each other. This must be declared *before* `profiles.DESKTOP`.
+
+## Source, License
+
+You can find the sources in the
+[git repository](https://git.ralfj.de/bubblebox.git) (also available
+[on GitHub](https://github.com/RalfJung/bubblebox)). They are provided under the
+[GPLv2](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html) or (at your
+option) any later version of the GPL. See the file `LICENSE-GPL2` for more
+details.
+
+## Contact
+
+If you found a bug, or want to leave a comment, please
+[send me a mail](mailto:post-AT-ralfj-DOT-de). I'm also happy about pull
+requests :)