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) De‐
29 bian installation which can be used for testing purposes (see the EXAM‐
30 PLES section). If you are looking for a chroot system to build pack‐
31 ages 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 --extra-suites=alpha,beta
48 Also use packages from the listed suites of the archive.
49 --components=alpha,beta
51 Use packages from the listed components of the archive.
52 --no-resolve-deps
54 By default, debootstrap will attempt to automatically resolve
55 any missing dependencies, warning if any are found. Note that
56 this is not a complete dependency resolve in the sense of dpkg
57 or apt, and that it is far better to specify the entire base
58 system than rely on this option. With this option set, this be‐
59 haviour is disabled.
60 --log-extra-deps
62 If you want to record additional dependencies when resolving
63 package dependencies, set this option to track them through de‐
64 bootstrap.log.
65 --variant=minbase|buildd|fakechroot
67 Name of the bootstrap script variant to use. Currently, the
68 variants supported are minbase, which only includes required
69 packages and apt; buildd, which installs the build-essential
70 packages and fakechroot, which installs the packages without
71 root privileges. The default, with no --variant=X argument, is
72 to create a base Debian installation with all packages of prior‐
73 ity required and important, including apt.
74 --merged-usr
76 Create /{bin,sbin,lib}/ symlinks pointing to their counterparts
77 in /usr/. (Default for most variants and suites.)
78 --no-merged-usr
80 Do not create /{bin,sbin,lib}/ symlinks pointing to their coun‐
81 terparts in /usr/. (Default for the buildd variant of Debian 12
82 'bookworm' or older, and all variants of Debian 9 'stretch' or
83 older.)
84 --keyring=KEYRING
86 Override the default keyring for the distribution being boot‐
87 strapped, and use KEYRING to check signatures of retrieved Re‐
88 lease files.
89 --no-check-gpg
91 Disables checking gpg signatures of retrieved Release files.
92 --force-check-gpg
94 Forces checking Release file signatures, disabling automatic
95 fallback to HTTPS in case of a missing keyring. Incompatible
96 with the previous option.
97 --verbose
99 Produce more info about downloading.
100 --print-debs
102 Print the packages to be installed, and exit. Note that an
103 empty or non-existing TARGET directory must be specified so that
104 debootstrap can download Packages files to determine which pack‐
105 ages should be installed, and to resolve dependencies. The TAR‐
106 GET directory will be deleted unless --keep-debootstrap-dir is
107 specified.
108 --download-only
110 Download packages, but don't perform installation.
111 --foreign
113 Do the initial unpack phase of bootstrapping only, for example
114 if the target architecture does not match the host architecture.
115 A copy of debootstrap sufficient for completing the bootstrap
116 process will be installed as /debootstrap/debootstrap in the
117 target filesystem. You can run it with the --second-stage op‐
118 tion to complete the bootstrapping process.
119 --second-stage
121 Complete the bootstrapping process. Other arguments are gener‐
122 ally not needed.
123 --second-stage-target=DIR
125 Run second stage in a subdirectory instead of root. (can be used
126 to create a foreign chroot) (requires --second-stage)
127 --keep-debootstrap-dir
129 Don't delete the /debootstrap directory in the target after com‐
130 pleting the installation.
131 --cache-dir=DIR
133 Cache .deb files under directory. It should be an absolute path.
134 --unpack-tarball=FILE
136 Acquire .debs from gzipped tarball FILE (specified with absolute
137 path) instead of downloading via HTTP(S).
138 --make-tarball=FILE
140 Instead of bootstrapping, make a gzipped tarball (written to
141 FILE) of the downloaded packages. The resulting tarball may be
142 passed to a later --unpack-tarball. Note that an empty or non-
143 existing TARGET directory must be specified so that debootstrap
144 can download packages to prepare the tarball. The TARGET direc‐
145 tory will be deleted unless --keep-debootstrap-dir is specified.
146 --debian-installer
148 Used for internal purposes by the debian-installer
149 --extractor=TYPE
151 Override automatic .deb extractor selection to TYPE. Supported
152 extractors are: dpkg-deb and ar.
153 --no-check-certificate
155 Do not check certificate against certificate authorities
156 --certificate=FILE
158 Use the client certificate stored in file (PEM)
159 --private-key=FILE
161 Read the private key from file
162 --inrelease-path
164 Determine the path to the InRelease file of the suite relative
165 to the normal position of an InRelease file
166
168 To setup a stretch system:
169 debootstrap stretch ./stretch-chroot http://deb.debian.org/debian
171 debootstrap stretch ./stretch-chroot file:///LOCAL_MIRROR/debian
173 Full process to create a complete Debian installation of sid (unstable)
175 in a chroot:
176 main # debootstrap sid sid-root http://deb.debian.org/debian/
178 [ ... watch it download the whole system ]
179 main # echo "proc sid-root/proc proc defaults 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
180 main # mount proc sid-root/proc -t proc
181 main # echo "sysfs sid-root/sys sysfs defaults 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
182 main # mount sysfs sid-root/sys -t sysfs
183 main # cp /etc/hosts sid-root/etc/hosts
184 main # chroot sid-root /bin/bash
185
187 debootstrap was written by Anthony Towns <ajt@debian.org>. This man‐
188 page was written by Matt Kraai <kraai@debian.org>.
189Debian Project 2001-04-27 DEBOOTSTRAP(8)