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Debootstrap options

Note that debootstrap(1) is the canonical reference for the meaning of the options; they are passed directly to debootstrap.

--arch=arch

Set the target architecture. This may be used if dpkg is not already installed. See also --foreign, below.

--chroot-suffix=suffix

Add a custom suffix to the chroot name. Defaults to '-sbuild'.

--chroot-prefix=prefix

Add a custom prefix to the chroot name. Defaults to SUITE. This is useful to create variants of a base suite like stretch-backports to which the backports archive can be manually added after the base chroot was created using sbuild-shell. This way, a normal stretch chroot and a stretch-backports chroot can exist side-by-side. Besides this common use case, this functionality can also be used to create chroots with any other type of customization. It is a shortcut for creating a base chroot and then having to manually copy it and edit the configuration files.

--chroot-mode=schroot|sudo|unshare

The sbuild chroot backend to generate the chroot for. The autopkgtest backend is not supported by this method because of the diversity of container types it supports. To generate a chroot for schroot and sudo, sbuild-createchroot must be executed with superuser privileges (for example by using sudo). Because of backwards compatibility, choosing schroot implies sudo (but not the other way round). Choosing unshare requires the --make-sbuild-tarball option. Creating a chroot for the unshare backend can be done by a normal user (without sudo) but it requires Linux user namespaces to be enabled (via "sysctl -w kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone=1"). Chroot tarballs created for the unshare backend are also compatible with the schroot backend if a respective schroot config file is manually created by the user or by running sbuild-createchroot with the --setup-only option. Defaults to 'schroot'.

--foreign

Only perform the initial unpack phase of bootstrapping. This is required if the target and host architectures do not match. Note that debootstrap requires running by hand to complete installation; run the debootstrap /debootstrap/debootstrap installed in TARGET-DIRECTORY to complete the installation.

--resolve-deps

Automatically resolve missing dependencies. This is the default.

--no-resolve-deps

Do not automatically resolve missing dependencies.

--keep-debootstrap-dir

Don't delete the /debootstrap directory in TARGET-DIRECTORY after completing the installation.

--debootstrap=debootstrap

Define a custom debootstrap variant. Defaults to 'debootstrap'.

--include=package1[,package2,[packagen]]

Comma separated list of packages which will be added to the list of packages to download and extract.

--exclude=package1[,package2,[packagen]]

Comma separated list of packages which will be removed from the list of packages to download and extract. Note that this can remove essential packages, so use with extreme care.

--components=component1[,component2,[componentn]]

Comma separated list of archive components to use (e.g. ‘main’, ‘contrib’, ‘non-free’). Defaults to ‘main’.

--keyring=keyring-file

Download signatures for retrieved Release files and check them against keyring-file. By default /etc/apt/trusted.gpg is used. Set to an empty string to disable signature checking.

--merged-usr

Create a chroot in which /bin, /sbin and /lib* are symbolic links to their counterparts in /usr.

--no-merged-usr

Create a chroot in which /bin, /sbin and /lib* are ordinary directories distinct from their counterparts in /usr. This is the default.

--auto-merged-usr

Do not specify whether /bin, /sbin and /lib* are symbolic links to their counterparts in /usr. In this case debootstrap will use its default behaviour (which is suite-specific). This might become the default in a future version of sbuild-createchroot.

SUITE

The distribution to bootstrap (e.g. ‘stretch[cq], ‘buster’, ‘bullseye’, ‘sid’). A complete list may be found in /usr/share/debootstrap/scripts.

TARGET-DIRECTORY

The directory to create the chroot in. The directory will be created if it does not already exist.

DEBIAN-MIRROR-URI

An http://, file:///, or ssh:/// URI pointing to a suitable archive mirror. Defaults to http://deb.debian.org/debian.

SCRIPT

debootstrap script to run. Not typically required.

sbuild-createchroot behaviour

--setup-only

Don't run debootstrap. Only perform the setup tasks on an already existing chroot. This is useful for converting an existing chroot for use with sbuild which has already been created using a tool such as debootstrap. Some configuration steps can only be carried out on a directory chroot and thus, this option is not useful with the unshare backend.

--make-sbuild-tarball=file

Create a bootstrapped file type chroot ready for use with sbuild and save it as file. The compression format used for the tarball is dependent on the file extension used in file. See the TARBALL FILE section for more details.

--keep-sbuild-chroot-dir

Don't delete the directory used for creating a file type chroot. This option does nothing if not creating a file type chroot.

--no-deb-src

Don't add a deb-src line to the /etc/apt/sources.list file in the TARGET-DIRECTORY after the debootstrap process. This is useful in situation when it is known that sbuild will never have to download the source package itself but is always given an already downloaded dsc. In that case, this option will help to save bandwidth and disk space because the source indices don't have to be downloaded and later continually updated.

--alias=alias

Add an alternative name that the chroot will be known by. This option can be given multiple times to add more than one alias. Using an alias is useful for chroots of distributions that are known by more than one name. For example Debian unstable is also known as sid. Additionally, sbuild chooses the distribution by the latest changelog entry which could list UNRELEASED for packages that the maintainer is currently working on. For Debian it thus makes sense to add UNRELEASED as an alias for a Debian unstable chroot. This option is only allowed when choosing --chroot-mode=schroot. For similar functionality with --chroot-mode=unshare you can work with symlinks. See the EXAMPLES section for how to use this option in practice.

--extra-repository=spec

Add a repository to the list of apt sources. The repository specification is a line suitable for an apt sources.list(5) file. For instance, you might use --extra-repository="deb http://deb.debian.org/debian experimental main" to allow packages in the experimental distribution to fulfill build-dependencies. Note that the build chroot must already trust the key of this repository. See the EXAMPLES section for how to combine this option with --chroot-prefix and --alias.

--command-prefix=prefix

Set the chroot command-prefix option as specified. A common use-case is to specify eatmydata, thereby preventing all commands executed in the chroot from syncing data to disk. This option is only allowed when choosing --chroot-mode=schroot. See schroot.conf(5) for more details.