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:
       output path to output chroot tarball

   options:
       -h, --help
              show this help message and exit

       --architecture, --nativearch ARCHITECTURE
              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.

       --ignore-notfound
              only warn about packages that cannot be found on snapshot.debian.org instead of exiting

       --cache CACHE
              cache directory -- by default $TMPDIR is used

       --port PORT
              manually choose port number for the apt cache instead of automatically choosing a free port

       --nocache
              disable cache

       --buildinfo BUILDINFO
              use packages from a buildinfo file. Read buildinfo file from standard input if value is "-".

       --packages, --pkgs PACKAGES
              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

       --sources-list-only
              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`.

debootsnap 2.25.15                                  June 2025                                      DEBOOTSNAP(1)