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:// or https:// URL, a
file:/// URL, or an ssh:/// URL.
The SUITE may be a release code name (eg, sid, stretch, jessie) 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) De-
bian installation which can be used for testing purposes (see the EXAM-
PLES section). If you are looking for a chroot system to build pack-
ages 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.
--extra-suites=alpha,beta
Also use packages from the listed suites of the archive.
--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.
--log-extra-deps
If you want to record additional dependencies when resolving
package dependencies, set this option to track them through de-
bootstrap.log.
--variant=minbase|buildd|fakechroot
Name of the bootstrap script variant to use. Currently, the
variants supported are minbase, which only includes required
packages and apt; buildd, which installs the build-essential
packages and fakechroot, which installs the packages without
root privileges. The default, with no --variant=X argument, is
to create a base Debian installation with all packages of prior-
ity required and important, including apt.
--merged-usr
Create /{bin,sbin,lib}/ symlinks pointing to their counterparts
in /usr/. (Default for most variants and suites.)
--no-merged-usr
Do not create /{bin,sbin,lib}/ symlinks pointing to their coun-
terparts in /usr/. (Default for the buildd variant of Debian 12
'bookworm' or older, and all variants of Debian 9 'stretch' or
older.)
--keyring=KEYRING
Override the default keyring for the distribution being boot-
strapped, and use KEYRING to check signatures of retrieved Re-
lease files.
--no-check-gpg
Disables checking gpg signatures of retrieved Release files.
--force-check-gpg
Forces checking Release file signatures, disabling automatic
fallback to HTTPS in case of a missing keyring. Incompatible
with the previous option.
--verbose
Produce more info about downloading.
--print-debs
Print the packages to be installed, and exit. Note that an
empty or non-existing TARGET directory must be specified so that
debootstrap can download Packages files to determine which pack-
ages should be installed, and to resolve dependencies. The TAR-
GET 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 op-
tion 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.
--cache-dir=DIR
Cache .deb files under directory. It should be an absolute path.
--unpack-tarball=FILE
Acquire .debs from gzipped tarball FILE (specified with absolute
path) instead of downloading via HTTP(S).
--make-tarball=FILE
Instead of bootstrapping, make a gzipped tarball (written to
FILE) of the downloaded packages. The resulting tarball may be
passed to a later --unpack-tarball. Note that an empty or non-
existing TARGET directory must be specified so that debootstrap
can download packages to prepare the tarball. The TARGET direc-
tory will be deleted unless --keep-debootstrap-dir is specified.
--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
--inrelease-path
Determine the path to the InRelease file of the suite relative
to the normal position of an InRelease file
EXAMPLES
To setup a stretch system:
debootstrap stretch ./stretch-chroot http://deb.debian.org/debian
debootstrap stretch ./stretch-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://deb.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)
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