Scroll to navigation

ARCH-CHROOT(8)   ARCH-CHROOT(8)

NAME

arch-chroot - enhanced chroot command

SYNOPSIS

arch-chroot [options] chroot-dir [command] [arguments...]

DESCRIPTION

arch-chroot wraps the chroot(1) command while ensuring that important functionality is available, e.g. mounting /dev/, /proc and other API filesystems, or exposing resolv.conf(5) to the chroot.

If command is unspecified, arch-chroot will launch /bin/bash.


Note

The target chroot-dir should be a mountpoint. This ensures that tools such as pacman(8) or findmnt(8) have an accurate hierarchy of the mounted filesystems within the chroot. If your chroot target is not a mountpoint, you can bind mount the directory on itself to make it a mountpoint, i.e.:

mount --bind /your/chroot /your/chroot

OPTIONS

-S

Run in systemd mode. This will spawn a transient systemd service via systemd-run(1) and delegates namespace/chroot management to the service manager.

-N

Run in unshare mode. This will use unshare(1) to create a new mount and user namespace, allowing regular users to create new system installations.

-u <user>[:group]

Specify non-root user and optional group to use.

-r

Do not change the resolv.conf within the chroot. This means that the resolver might not work in the chroot, which could be the required state.

-h

Output syntax and command line options.

SEE ALSO

pacman(8)

03/09/2026