debootstrap

Create a Debian stable release system inside the debian-root directory

$ sudo debootstrap stable [path/to/debian-root/] http://deb.debian.org/debian

Create a minimal system including only required packages

$ sudo debootstrap --variant=minbase stable [path/to/debian-root/]

Create an Ubuntu 20.04 system inside the focal-root directory with a local mirror

$ sudo debootstrap focal [path/to/focal-root/] [file:///path/to/mirror/]

Switch to a bootstrapped system

$ sudo chroot [path/to/root]

List available releases

$ ls /usr/share/debootstrap/scripts/

debootstrap [OPTION...] SUITE TARGET [MIRROR [SCRIPT]]

debootstrap [OPTION...] --second-stage

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) 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.

--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 behaviour is disabled.

--log-extra-deps

If you want to record additional dependencies when resolving package dependencies, set this option to track them through debootstrap.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 priority required and important, including apt.

--merged-usr

Create /{bin,sbin,lib}/ symlinks pointing to their counterparts in /usr/. (Default for most variants.)

--no-merged-usr

Do not create /{bin,sbin,lib}/ symlinks pointing to their counterparts in /usr/. (Default for the buildd variant on suites older than bookworm.)

--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.

--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 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.

--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 directory 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

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

debootstrap was written by Anthony Towns <ajt@debian.org>. This manpage was written by Matt Kraai <kraai@debian.org>.