Various distributions are adding or are in the process of adding support
for system extensions and in the future configuration extensions through
various tools. A more detailed explanation on system and configuration
extensions can be found on the manpage which is listed below at [1].

System extension images may – dynamically at runtime — extend the /usr/
and /opt/ directory hierarchies with additional files. This is
particularly useful on immutable system images where a /usr/ and/or
/opt/ hierarchy residing on a read-only file system shall be extended
temporarily at runtime without making any persistent modifications.

When one or more system extension images are activated, their /usr/ and
/opt/ hierarchies are combined via overlayfs with the same hierarchies
of the host OS, and the host /usr/ and /opt/ overmounted with it
("merging"). When they are deactivated, the mount point is disassembled
— again revealing the unmodified original host version of the hierar...