1FEBOOTSTRAP(8) Virtualization Support FEBOOTSTRAP(8)
2
6 febootstrap - Bootstrap a basic Fedora system (like Debian debootstrap)
7
9 febootstrap [--options] REPO TARGET [MIRROR]
10
12 febootstrap fedora-10 /tmp/f10
13 febootstrap rawhide /tmp/rawhide
14 febootstrap rawhide /tmp/rawhide http://mymirror/rawhide/x86_64/os
15 febootstrap --groupinstall="Mail Server" fedora-10 /tmp/mailserver
16
18 febootstrap creates a Fedora root filesystem, based on the Fedora
19 version specified by REPO under the directory specified by TARGET.
20 Optionally MIRROR can point to a local mirror (otherwise the public
21 Fedora mirrors are used). REPO names are "fedora-VERSION" (eg.
22 "fedora-10") or "rawhide".
23 febootstrap does not need to be run as root. If for some reason you do
25 run it as root, then it works slightly differently and may have side
26 effects such as stopping or starting system daemons.
27 For more advanced needs, take a look at mock(1), "livecd-creator" and
29 thincrust.net's "appliance-creator".
30 The normal output is a root directory located at TARGET and a fakeroot
32 logfile at "TARGET/fakeroot.log".
33
35 -i package
36 --install=package
37 -g "group"
38 --groupinstall="group"
39 Specify the package or group to install. To list multiple packages
40 or groups, you must give multiple "-i" or "-g" options. Group
41 names can contain spaces, so use quotes where necessary.
42 These are passed directly to "yum install" or "yum groupinstall"
44 commands, and thus any dependencies are also resolved by yum. You
45 can also use shell globs and filenames here, as with ordinary yum.
46 If no packages or groups are given, then we install the "Core"
48 group which is a small working Fedora installation (but by no means
49 minimal). Use "yum groupinfo Core" to list the packages currently
50 in the "Core" group.
51 --no-clean
53 Normally febootstrap will clean up the yum repository
54 ("/var/cache/yum" inside the image). This contains the downloaded
55 RPMs and metadata. However if you give the "--no-clean" option,
56 then the yum repository is left. This is useful if you want to run
57 further yum commands inside the filesystem by hand.
58 -p "proxyurl"
60 --proxy="proxyurl"
61 URL to the proxy server that yum should use.
62 -u source
64 --updates=source
65 Pull in updates from an additional updates repository. The
66 possible sources are:
67 -u "http://..." (a URL)
69 Get updates from the specific URL.
70 -u "updates-released-fN" (an updates repository name)
72 Get updates from the public mirrors of the named repository
73 (eg. "updates-released-f10"). See REPOSITORIES below.
74 -u "none" (default)
76 Don't add an updates repository. This is the default.
77
79 You can list available repositories by visiting this URL:
80 <http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=help&arch=i386>
82 (If necessary replace "i386" with your architecture, but it seems
84 unlikely that this list will change based on architecture).
85
87 If you want to run further commands inside the root filesystem, for
88 example additional "yum" installs, then use "febootstrap-run". See the
89 febootstrap-run(8) manual page for more details.
90 You have to be careful about modifying files in the root filesystem
92 directly (without using "febootstrap-run"). It's easy to confuse
93 fakeroot and end up with the wrong permissions on files (see FAKEROOT
94 LOGFILE below).
95 "febootstrap-run" runs the command inside the root filesystem, which
97 means it won't normally have access to files outside the root. You can
98 use "FAKECHROOT_EXCLUDE_PATH" environment variable (see fakechroot(1))
99 or copy files into the root first.
100 FAKEROOT LOGFILE
102 When febootstrap is run as non-root (the normal case) we use fakeroot
103 so that yum thinks it is running as root. Fakeroot keeps track of
104 "real" file permissions in a log file which is saved into the target
105 directory as "TARGET/fakeroot.log".
106 This logfile is indexed by inode number, which makes certain operations
108 safe and other operations unsafe. Files should be replaced only by
109 doing:
110 echo updated-content > old-file
112 (since that preserves the original inode).
114 Deleting files and then creating new ones (even with a different name)
116 is usually unsafe, because the new files might reuse inodes claimed by
117 the old files, and so appear with peculiar permissions (eg. unreadable,
118 or as a symbolic link).
119 Deleting files is also usually unsafe, although the reasons are more
121 subtle. If you just use "rm" then the inode number is not deleted from
122 "fakeroot.log" which means it can be reused by another file later on.
123 In most cases it's usually safest to use "febootstrap-run".
125 You can use the fakeroot logfile in a number of ways:
127 · Use febootstrap-run(8) to run a command with the faked file
129 permissions.
130 · Use febootstrap-install(8) to install a file with permissions in
132 the root filesystem.
133 · Generate an initramfs (compressed cpio) file containing the correct
135 permissions using the tool "febootstrap-to-initramfs".
136 · Generate a supermin appliance using the tool
138 "febootstrap-to-supermin".
139 · Apply the permissions to the target directory using the forthcoming
141 tool "febootstrap-fix-root" (requires root).
142
144 There is some rudimentary support for running "febootstrap" as root.
145 However it is not well-tested and generally not recommended.
146
148 febootstrap cannot do cross-architecture installs ("debootstrap
149 --foreign"). The reason is that %pre and %post scripts cannot run. It
150 may be possible to defer running of scriptlets (which is basically how
151 debootstrap works), and patches to do this are welcomed.
152 febootstrap cannot do 32-on-64 bit installs. The reason is that
154 fakeroot and fakechroot do not load the correct preload library. This
155 is really a bug in fakeroot/fakechroot, which we think would be easy to
156 fix. (debootstrap deals with this case the same as for "--foreign"
157 installs - see previous point).
158
160 The following programs are not run during %post scriptlets (because
161 they are all statically linked, and fakechroot cannot run statically
162 linked programs).
163 "/sbin/ldconfig" (from many packages)
165 "/usr/sbin/glibc_post_upgrade" (from "glibc")
166 "/usr/sbin/build-locale-archive" (from "glibc-common")
167 "/usr/sbin/libgcc_post_upgrade" (from "libgcc")
168 If you wish, you can run them the first time you boot into the new
170 machine.
171 febootstrap recreates the repository anew each time, and this causes
173 yum to download all the RPMs every time. This is very wasteful, and we
174 should provide a way to cache the repository.
175
177 <http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/febootstrap>
178
180 febootstrap-to-initramfs(8), febootstrap-minimize(8),
181 febootstrap-run(8), febootstrap-install(8), febootstrap-to-supermin(8),
182 fakeroot(1), fakechroot(1), yum(8), rpm(8).
183
185 mock(1), <http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/LiveCDHowTo>,
186 <http://thincrust.net/>, debootstrap(8), "ubuntu-vm-builder".
187
189 Richard W.M. Jones <rjones @ redhat . com>
190
192 (C) Copyright 2009 Red Hat Inc.,
193 <http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/febootstrap>.
194 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
196 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
197 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
198 option) any later version.
199 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
201 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
202 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
203 General Public License for more details.
204 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
206 with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
207 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
208febootstrap-2.9 2010-09-17 FEBOOTSTRAP(8)