SBUILD-UPDATE(1)

📦
version 0.89.3 · 10 versions
, in debian trixie

💅 SBUILD-UPDATE(1) — the Debian sbuild glow-up guide

okay bestie, this is a page from the Debian sbuild manual set, and it's literally about giving your chroot a whole makeover with apt-get. let's go 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

sbuild-update — update, upgrade, and clean an sbuild chroot with apt-get. it's giving spa day for your chroot, no cap 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

sbuild-update [-h|--help] [-V|--version] [--arch=architecture]
[-u|--update] [-g|--upgrade] [-d|--dist-upgrade] [-c|--clean]
[-a|--autoclean] [-r|--autoremove] [--chroot-mode=schroot|sudo] CHROOT1
[CHROOT2 [CHROOTn...]]
(DEPRECATED) sbuild-upgrade [-h|--help] [-V|--version] CHROOT1 [CHROOT2
[CHROOTn...]]
(DEPRECATED) sbuild-distupgrade [-h|--help] [-V|--version] CHROOT1
[CHROOT2 [CHROOTn...]]
(DEPRECATED) sbuild-clean [-h|--help] [-V|--version] [-c|--clean]
[-a|--autoclean] [-r|--autoremove] CHROOT1 [CHROOT2 [CHROOTn...]]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so sbuild-update runs apt-get inside the chroot you point it at, and it does update, upgrade, dist-upgrade, clean, autoclean, and/or autoremove — all depending on which options you pass on the command line. pick your combo, it handles the rest 🫶

and now the sad part 😭 sbuild-upgrade, sbuild-distupgrade, and sbuild-clean are deprecated. they're basically legacy lore at this point — they just run sbuild-update with the appropriate options (--upgrade or --dist-upgrade for sbuild-upgrade or sbuild-distupgrade respectively) along with whatever arguments were passed in the scripts. same energy, new wrapper ✨

👑 OPTIONS 👑

🎀 Actions

  • -h, --help — display this manual. the "what does anything do" button 💅
  • -V, --version — print version information. icon behaviour fr
  • --arch=architecture — update the chroot for the architecture specified. very "I know my target" of you 🦋
  • -u, --update — perform an apt-get update.
  • -g, --upgrade — perform an apt-get upgrade.
  • -d, --dist-upgrade — perform an apt-get dist-upgrade.
  • -c, --clean — perform an apt-get clean.
  • -a, --autoclean — perform an apt-get autoclean.
  • -r, --autoremove — perform an apt-get autoremove.

🧚 Chroot selection

  • --chroot-mode=schroot|sudo — this is the sbuild chroot backend of the chroot you're updating. defaults to 'schroot'.
⚠️ okay important: the autopkgtest backend is not supported by this method, because autopkgtest backends are always ephemeral and changes never persist. so don't even try it, bestie 💀
🔥 also: to update a chroot for schroot and sudo, sbuild-update must be executed with superuser privileges (for example by using sudo). no privilege, no slay.
🙈 and if you're using unshare mode, sbuild-update is without function — instead, recreate the tarball from scratch or let sbuild manage them for you. not me being useless in unshare mode 😭
  • CHROOT — the chroot to use. cute shortcut era: note that ‘o’, ‘s’, ‘t’, ‘u’ and ‘e’ may be used as abbreviations for ‘oldstable’, ‘stable’, ‘testing’, ‘unstable’ and ‘experimental’, respectively. iykyk ⭐

💜 EXAMPLES 💜

to update the unstable chroot:

% sbuild-update --update unstable

to upgrade the unstable chroot:

% sbuild-update --upgrade unstable

to clean the unstable chroot:

% sbuild-update --clean unstable

to perform an update, dist-upgrade, autoclean, and autoremove for the unstable chroot:

% sbuild-update -udar unstable

see that -udar? four flags, one vibe. main character energy 👑

🌈 AUTHORS 🌈

  • Roger Leigh.
  • Andres Mejia.
  • Copyright © 2006–2009 Roger Leigh <rleigh@debian.org>.
  • Copyright © 2010 Andres Mejia <mcitadel@gmail.com>.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

sbuild(1), sbuild-apt(1)

and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 you're now officially qualified to update, upgrade, and clean chroots like it's nothing. ✨ Version 0.89.3+deb13u4 — 28 December 2025 ✨ go be iconic with your chroots 💅🎀

📦 where this page comes from