1DEBOOTSTRAP(8) Debian GNU/Linux manual DEBOOTSTRAP(8)
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6 debootstrap - Bootstrap a basic Debian system
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9 debootstrap [OPTION...] SUITE TARGET [MIRROR [SCRIPT]]
10 debootstrap [OPTION...] --second-stage
12
14 debootstrap bootstraps a basic Debian system of SUITE into TARGET from
15 MIRROR by running SCRIPT. MIRROR can be an http:// or https:// URL, a
16 file:/// URL, or an ssh:/// URL.
17 The SUITE may be a release code name (eg, sid, stretch, jessie) or a
19 symbolic name (eg, unstable, testing, stable, oldstable)
20 Notice that file:/ URLs are translated to file:/// (correct scheme as
22 described in RFC1738 for local filenames), and file:// will not work.
23 ssh://USER@HOST/PATH URLs are retrieved using scp; use of ssh-agent or
24 similar is strongly recommended.
25 Debootstrap can be used to install Debian in a system without using an
27 installation disk but can also be used to run a different Debian flavor
28 in a chroot environment. This way you can create a full (minimal)
29 Debian installation which can be used for testing purposes (see the
30 EXAMPLES section). If you are looking for a chroot system to build
31 packages please take a look at pbuilder.
32
34 --arch=ARCH
35 Set the target architecture (use if dpkg isn't installed). See
36 also --foreign.
37 --include=alpha,beta
39 Comma separated list of packages which will be added to download
40 and extract lists.
41 --exclude=alpha,beta
43 Comma separated list of packages which will be removed from
44 download and extract lists. WARNING: you can and probably will
45 exclude essential packages, be careful using this option.
46 --components=alpha,beta
48 Use packages from the listed components of the archive.
49 --no-resolve-deps
51 By default, debootstrap will attempt to automatically resolve
52 any missing dependencies, warning if any are found. Note that
53 this is not a complete dependency resolve in the sense of dpkg
54 or apt, and that it is far better to specify the entire base
55 system than rely on this option. With this option set, this be‐
56 haviour is disabled.
57 --log-extra-deps
59 If you want to record additional dependencies when resolving
60 package dependencies, set this option to track them through
61 debootstrap.log.
62 --variant=minbase|buildd|fakechroot
64 Name of the bootstrap script variant to use. Currently, the
65 variants supported are minbase, which only includes required
66 packages and apt; buildd, which installs the build-essential
67 packages and fakechroot, which installs the packages without
68 root privileges. The default, with no --variant=X argument, is
69 to create a base Debian installation with all packages of prior‐
70 ity required and important, including apt.
71 --merged-usr
73 Create /{bin,sbin,lib}/ symlinks pointing to their counterparts
74 in /usr/. (Default for most variants.)
75 --no-merged-usr
77 Do not create /{bin,sbin,lib}/ symlinks pointing to their coun‐
78 terparts in /usr/. (Default for the buildd variant.)
79 --keyring=KEYRING
81 Override the default keyring for the distribution being boot‐
82 strapped, and use KEYRING to check signatures of retrieved
83 Release files.
84 --no-check-gpg
86 Disables checking gpg signatures of retrieved Release files.
87 --force-check-gpg
89 Forces checking Release file signatures, disabling automatic
90 fallback to HTTPS in case of a missing keyring. Incompatible
91 with the previous option.
92 --verbose
94 Produce more info about downloading.
95 --print-debs
97 Print the packages to be installed, and exit. Note that an
98 empty or non-existing TARGET directory must be specified so that
99 debootstrap can download Packages files to determine which pack‐
100 ages should be installed, and to resolve dependencies. The TAR‐
101 GET directory will be deleted unless --keep-debootstrap-dir is
102 specified.
103 --download-only
105 Download packages, but don't perform installation.
106 --foreign
108 Do the initial unpack phase of bootstrapping only, for example
109 if the target architecture does not match the host architecture.
110 A copy of debootstrap sufficient for completing the bootstrap
111 process will be installed as /debootstrap/debootstrap in the
112 target filesystem. You can run it with the --second-stage
113 option to complete the bootstrapping process.
114 --second-stage
116 Complete the bootstrapping process. Other arguments are gener‐
117 ally not needed.
118 --second-stage-target=DIR
120 Run second stage in a subdirectory instead of root. (can be used
121 to create a foreign chroot) (requires --second-stage)
122 --keep-debootstrap-dir
124 Don't delete the /debootstrap directory in the target after com‐
125 pleting the installation.
126 --cache-dir=DIR
128 Cache .deb files under directory. It should be an absolute path.
129 --unpack-tarball=FILE
131 Acquire .debs from gzipped tarball FILE (specified with absolute
132 path) instead of downloading via HTTP(S).
133 --make-tarball=FILE
135 Instead of bootstrapping, make a gzipped tarball (written to
136 FILE) of the downloaded packages. The resulting tarball may be
137 passed to a later --unpack-tarball. Note that an empty or non-
138 existing TARGET directory must be specified so that debootstrap
139 can download packages to prepare the tarball. The TARGET direc‐
140 tory will be deleted unless --keep-debootstrap-dir is specified.
141 --debian-installer
143 Used for internal purposes by the debian-installer
144 --extractor=TYPE
146 Override automatic .deb extractor selection to TYPE. Supported
147 extractors are: dpkg-deb and ar.
148 --no-check-certificate
150 Do not check certificate against certificate authorities
151 --certificate=FILE
153 Use the client certificate stored in file (PEM)
154 --private-key=FILE
156 Read the private key from file
157
160 To setup a stretch system:
161 debootstrap stretch ./stretch-chroot http://deb.debian.org/debian
163 debootstrap stretch ./stretch-chroot file:///LOCAL_MIRROR/debian
165 Full process to create a complete Debian installation of sid (unstable)
167 in a chroot:
168 main # debootstrap sid sid-root http://deb.debian.org/debian/
170 [ ... watch it download the whole system ]
171 main # echo "proc sid-root/proc proc defaults 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
172 main # mount proc sid-root/proc -t proc
173 main # echo "sysfs sid-root/sys sysfs defaults 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
174 main # mount sysfs sid-root/sys -t sysfs
175 main # cp /etc/hosts sid-root/etc/hosts
176 main # chroot sid-root /bin/bash
177
179 debootstrap was written by Anthony Towns <ajt@debian.org>. This man‐
180 page was written by Matt Kraai <kraai@debian.org>.
181Debian Project 2001-04-27 DEBOOTSTRAP(8)