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 behaviour 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 packages without root
              privileges.  Finally there is variant scratchbox, which is for creating targets for scratchbox usage.  The default, with no  --vari-
              ant=X argument, is to create a base Debian installation in TARGET.

       --keyring=KEYRING
              Override  the  default  keyring  for  the  distribution being bootstrapped, 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 TARGET 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 generally 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 completing 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 manpage was written by Matt Kraai <kraai@debian.org>.

Debian Project                                                      2001-04-27                                                      DEBOOTSTRAP(8)