CDEBOOTSTRAP(1)

💖 CDEBOOTSTRAP(1) 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because this is the manual page for cdebootstrap — it lives in the User Commands corner of the man-page universe (section 1, iykyk), and it's literally the blueprint for birthing a whole entire baby Debian system. no cap, she's iconic. 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

cdebootstrap — bootstrap a Debian system ✨

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

cdebootstrap [OPTION]... [ORIGIN/]CODENAME TARGET [MIRROR]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so here's the whole vibe, bestie: cdebootstrap builds a basic Debian system of CODENAME (like jessie, stretch, sid — the girlies) from ORIGIN (like Debian, Ubuntu) into TARGET, using the source you specify in MIRROR. that's the whole glow-up pipeline. 💫

it supports http://, ftp://, file:// and ssh:// URLs, and if you don't say anything it defaults to http://ftp.debian.org/debian. and the ssh:// scheme?? it uses cat on the remote host to access the files. 😭 so you have to set up a master connection and configure ssh to use it, or use a key for authentication. No user interaction is possible. like, none. she does not do small talk. 🙈

the complete log gets saved as /var/log/bootstrap.log in the new system, so you can always go back and read the receipts. 📜

also, real talk: mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. that's not a suggestion, that's the law. 👑

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• --allow-unauthenticated — ignore if packages can't be authenticated. this one is a big yolo: it ignores the unavailability of Release.gpg, missing keyrings, broken signatures, and even a missing gpgv executable. 💀
• -a, --arch=ARCH — set the target architecture. pick your fighter. 🥊
• -c, --configdir=CONFIGDIR — set the config directory.
• --debug — enable debug output. for when you need to see everything. 👀
• -d, --download-only — download the packages, but don't perform installation. window shopping only, bestie. 🛍️
• --exclude=A,B,C — drop packages from the installation list. heads up though: this only works if the package is pulled in explicitely, either via priority or explicit definition in the config. it won't exclude packages which are pulled in via dependencies. so it's giving "not that powerful, but she tries". 🫶
• --foreign — enable support for non-native arch (needs qemu-user-static). bring a translator, it's a whole international moment. 🌍
• -f, --flavour=FLAVOUR — select the flavour to use (see FLAVOURS below, it's the menu).
• -k, --keyring=KEYRING — use the given keyring. relative filenames are looked up in /usr/local/share/keyrings, /usr/share/keyrings and CONFIGDIR. she'll go hunting. 🔑
• -H, --helperdir=DIR — set the helper directory.
• --include=A,B,C — install extra packages. treat yourself. 🍓
• -q, --quiet — be quiet. only warnings and errors are shown. library mode activated. 🤫
• --suite-config — (okay so the page literally gives no description for this one. mysterious queen behavior. we do not invent facts in this house, so that's all the tea we have. 🙈)
• -v, --verbose — be verbose. all command output is shown. main character energy, nothing is hidden. 📢
• -h, --help — display this help and exit.
• --version — output version information and exit.

🌈 FLAVOURS 🌈

these are the flavours available with the default configuration — pick your aesthetic:

• build — installs essential, apt and build-essential. suitable for sbuild and pbuilder usage. all rc.d operations are disabled by a policy-rc.d script (the cdebootstrap-helper-rc.d package). the full-send, do-everything flavour. 🔥
• minimal — installs essential and apt. all rc.d operations are disabled by a policy-rc.d script (the cdebootstrap-helper-rc.d package). small, cute, gets the job done. 🌸
• standard — installs required and important priority packages. this is the default flavour. so if you didn't pick, you already picked this one, bestie. 💅

one last thing: this page is filed under CDEBOOTSTRAP(1), and the footer down at the bottom just says cdebootstrap — that's the source, that's who to thank. no version number, no date, just vibes. 🧚

anyway bestie that's the whole page, go bootstrap something gorgeous, ily, mwah 💖✨👑