DEBOOTSTRAP(8) Debian GNU/Linux manual DEBOOTSTRAP(8)NAME
debootstrap - Bootstrap a basic Debian system
SYNOPSIS
debootstrap [OPTION...] SUITE TARGET [MIRROR [SCRIPT]]
debootstrap [OPTION...] --second-stage
DESCRIPTION
debootstrap bootstraps a basic Debian system of SUITE into TARGET from
MIRROR by running SCRIPT. MIRROR can be an http:// URL, a file:///
URL, or an ssh:/// URL.
The SUITE may be a release code name (eg, sid, jessie, wheezy) or a
symbolic name (eg, unstable, testing, stable, oldstable)
Notice that file:/ URLs are translated to file:/// (correct scheme as
described in RFC1738 for local filenames), and file:// will not work.
ssh://USER@HOST/PATH URLs are retrieved using scp; use of ssh-agent or
similar is strongly recommended.
Debootstrap can be used to install Debian in a system without using an
installation disk but can also be used to run a different Debian flavor
in a chroot environment. This way you can create a full (minimal)
Debian installation which can be used for testing purposes (see the
EXAMPLES section). If you are looking for a chroot system to build
packages please take a look at pbuilder.
OPTIONS
--arch=ARCH
Set the target architecture (use if dpkg isn't installed). See
also --foreign.
--include=alpha,beta
Comma separated list of packages which will be added to download
and extract lists.
--exclude=alpha,beta
Comma separated list of packages which will be removed from
download and extract lists. WARNING: you can and probably will
exclude essential packages, be careful using this option.
--components=alpha,beta
Use packages from the listed components of the archive.
--no-resolve-deps
By default, debootstrap will attempt to automatically resolve
any missing dependencies, warning if any are found. Note that
this is not a complete dependency resolve in the sense of dpkg
or apt, and that it is far better to specify the entire base
system than rely on this option. With this option set, this be‐
haviour is disabled.
--variant=minbase|buildd|fakechroot|scratchbox
Name of the bootstrap script variant to use. Currently, the
variants supported are minbase, which only includes essential
packages and apt; buildd, which installs the build-essential
packages into TARGET; and fakechroot, which installs the pack‐
ages without root privileges. Finally there is variant scratch‐
box, which is for creating targets for scratchbox usage. The
default, with no --variant=X argument, is to create a base
Debian installation in TARGET.
--keyring=KEYRING
Override the default keyring for the distribution being boot‐
strapped, and use KEYRING to check signatures of retrieved
Release files.
--no-check-gpg
Disables checking gpg signatures of retrieved Release files.
--verbose
Produce more info about downloading.
--print-debs
Print the packages to be installed, and exit. Note that a TAR‐
GET directory must be specified so debootstrap can download
Packages files to determine which packages should be installed,
and to resolve dependencies. The TARGET directory will be
deleted unless --keep-debootstrap-dir is specified.
--download-only
Download packages, but don't perform installation.
--foreign
Do the initial unpack phase of bootstrapping only, for example
if the target architecture does not match the host architecture.
A copy of debootstrap sufficient for completing the bootstrap
process will be installed as /debootstrap/debootstrap in the
target filesystem. You can run it with the --second-stage
option to complete the bootstrapping process.
--second-stage
Complete the bootstrapping process. Other arguments are gener‐
ally not needed.
--second-stage-target=DIR
Run second stage in a subdirectory instead of root. (can be used
to create a foreign chroot) (requires --second-stage)
--keep-debootstrap-dir
Don't delete the /debootstrap directory in the target after com‐
pleting the installation.
--unpack-tarball=FILE
Acquire .debs from tarball FILE instead of downloading via http.
--make-tarball=FILE
Instead of bootstrapping, make a tarball (written to FILE) of
the downloaded packages. The resulting tarball may be passed to
a later --unpack-tarball.
--debian-installer
Used for internal purposes by the debian-installer
--extractor=TYPE
Override automatic .deb extractor selection to TYPE. Supported
extractors are: dpkg-deb and ar.
--no-check-certificate
Do not check certificate against certificate authorities
--certificate=FILE
Use the client certificate stored in file (PEM)
--private-key=FILE
Read the private key from file
EXAMPLES
To setup a wheezy system:
debootstrap wheezy ./wheezy-chroot http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian
debootstrap wheezy ./wheezy-chroot file:///LOCAL_MIRROR/debian
Full process to create a complete Debian installation of sid (unstable)
in a chroot:
main # debootstrap sid sid-root http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/
[ ... watch it download the whole system ]
main # echo "proc sid-root/proc proc defaults 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
main # mount proc sid-root/proc -t proc
main # echo "sysfs sid-root/sys sysfs defaults 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
main # mount sysfs sid-root/sys -t sysfs
main # cp /etc/hosts sid-root/etc/hosts
main # chroot sid-root /bin/bash
AUTHOR
debootstrap was written by Anthony Towns <ajt@debian.org>. This man‐
page was written by Matt Kraai <kraai@debian.org>.
Debian Project 2001-04-27 DEBOOTSTRAP(8)
