debootstrap

Create a Debian stable system

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

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

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

$ sudo chroot [path/to/root]

$ ls /usr/share/debootstrap/scripts/

debootstrap [options] suite target [mirror]

debootstrap installs a basic Debian system into a subdirectory. It downloads packages from a mirror and installs them to create a minimal working system that can be used for chroot environments, containers, or new installations.
The resulting system is minimal but functional, suitable for further customization.

--variant variant

minbase (minimal), buildd (build dependencies), fakechroot

Target architecture (amd64, i386, arm64, etc.)

Additional packages to install

Packages to exclude

First stage only (for cross-architecture)

Requires root privileges. The target directory must exist. For cross-architecture bootstrapping, qemu-user-static may be needed. After debootstrap, additional configuration (networking, fstab, etc.) is usually needed.

chroot(8), schroot(1), systemd-nspawn(1)