SWITCH_ROOT(8) System Manager's Manual SWITCH_ROOT(8)
NAME
switch_root - switch to another filesystem as the root of the mount tree.
SYNOPSIS
switch_root [-hV]
switch_root newroot init [arg...]
DESCRIPTION
switch_root moves already mounted /proc, /dev and /sys to newroot and makes newroot the new root filesystem and starts init process.
WARNING: switch_root removes recursively all files and directories on the current root filesystem.
OPTIONS
-h, --help
show help and exit
-V, --version
show version number and exit
RETURN VALUE
switch_root returns 0 on success and 1 on failure.
NOTES
switch_root will fail to function if newroot is not the root of a mount. If you want to switch root into a directory that does not meet
this requirement then you can first use a bind-mounting trick to turn any directory into a mount point:
mount --bind $DIR $DIR
SEE ALSO
mount(8) chroot(2) init(8) mkinitrd(8)
AUTHORS
Peter Jones <pjones@redhat.com>
Jeremy Katz <katzj@redhat.com>
Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
AVAILABILITY
The switch_root command is part of the util-linux-ng package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/.
Linux June 2009 SWITCH_ROOT(8)
