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DEBOOTSNAP(1) User Commands DEBOOTSNAP(1)

NAME

debootsnap - create debian chroot using snapshot.debian.org

DESCRIPTION

usage: debootsnap [-h] [--architecture ARCHITECTURE] [--ignore-notfound]

[--cache CACHE] [--port PORT] [--nocache] (--buildinfo BUILDINFO | --packages PACKAGES) [--sources-list-only] [output]

Combines debootstrap and snapshot.debian.org to create a chroot tarball with exact package versions from the past either to reproduce bugs or to test source package reproducibility.

To obtain a list of packages run the following command on one machine:

$ dpkg-query --showformat '${binary:Package}=${Version}\n' --show

And pass the output to debootsnap with the --packages argument. The result will be a chroot tarball with precisely the package versions as they were found on the system that ran dpkg-query.

positional arguments:

path to output chroot tarball

options:

show this help message and exit
native architecture of the chroot. Ignored if --buildinfo is used. Foreign architectures are inferred from the package list. Not required if packages are architecture qualified.
only warn about packages that cannot be found on snapshot.debian.org instead of exiting
cache directory -- by default $TMPDIR is used
manually choose port number for the apt cache instead of automatically choosing a free port
disable cache
use packages from a buildinfo file. Read buildinfo file from standard input if value is "-".
list of packages, optional architecture and version, separated by comma or linebreak. Read list from standard input if value is "-". Read list from a file if value starts with "./" or "/". The option can be specified multiple times. Package name, version and architecture are separated by one or more characters that are not legal in the respective adjacent field. Leading and trailing illegal characters are allowed. Example: pkg1:arch=ver1,pkg2:arch=ver2
only query metasnap.debian.net and print the sources.list needed to create chroot and exit

EXAMPLES

On one system run:

$ dpkg-query --showformat '${binary:Package}=${Version}\n' --show > pkglist

Then copy over "pkglist" and on another system run:

$ debootsnap --pkgs=./pkglist > ./chroot.tar

Or use a buildinfo file as input:

$ debootsnap --buildinfo=./package.buildinfo > ./chroot.tar

A tarball of a chroot with precisely the requested package versions then be found in the file `./chroot.tar`.

February 2025 debootsnap 2.25.2