RINSE(8)

📦
version 4.3.1 · 4 versions
, in ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 NAME 💖

rinse — RPM Installation Entity 🫶 (yes that's the whole name, it's giving minimal, it's giving mysterious). It's a section 8 page bestie, so we're in sysadmin territory, put your crown on 👑

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

         rinse [options]

         Help Options:
          --help     Show help information.
          --manual   Read the manual for this script.
          --version  Show the version information and exit.

         Mandatory Options:

          --arch         Specify the architecture to install.
          --directory    The directory to install the distribution within.
          --distribution The distribution to install.

         Customization Options:

          --add-pkg-list        Additional packages to download and install

          --after-post-install  Additionally run the specified script after
                                the post install script.
          --before-post-install Additionally run the specified script before
                                the post install script.
          --post-install        Run the given post-install script instead of the
                                default files in /usr/lib/rinse/$distro

         Misc Options:

          --cache               Should we use a local cache?  (Default is 1)
          --cache-dir           Specify the directory we should use for the cache.
          --clean-cache         Clean our cache of .rpm files, then exit.
          --config              Specify a different configuration file.
                                (Default is /etc/rinse/rinse.conf)
          --pkgs-dir            Specify a different directory containing
                                <distribution>.packages files.
          --mirror              Specify the URL of the mirror.
                                (Default is to read it from /etc/rinse/rinse.conf)
          --list-distributions  Show installable distributions.
          --print-uris          Only show the RPMs which should be downloaded.
                                default files in /usr/lib/rinse/$distro
          --verbose             Enable verbose output.
ok so real talk, the synopsis groups things into Mandatory, Customization and Misc and that's the whole vibe of the tool. Also note the --print-uris entry ends with a lil stray line about default files in /usr/lib/rinse/$distro — that's literally what the page says, we don't edit, we report 🫡

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • --arch — Specify the architecture to install. Valid choices are 'amd64', 'i386' or 'arm64' only. Like, that's the whole guest list, don't show up with anything else 🙈
  • --add-pkg-list — Add a list of additional packages.
  • --cache — Specify whether to cache packages (1) or not (0).
  • --cache-dir — Specify the directory we should use for the cache.
  • --clean-cache — Remove all cached .rpm files. 🧹✨
  • --directory — Specify the directory into which the distribution should be installed.
  • --distribution — Specify the distribution to be installed.
  • --help — Show help information.
  • --mirror — Specify the URL of the mirror. Normally this is read from /etc/rinse/rinse.conf.
  • --list-distributions — Show the distributions which are installable.
  • --manual — Read the manual for this script.
  • --print-uris — Only show the files we would download, don't actually do so. Dry run, no commitment, very demure 💅
  • --verbose — Enable verbose output.
  • --version — Show the version number and exit.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

rinse is a simple script which is designed to be able to install a minimal working installation of an RPM-based distribution into a directory. 🎀

The tool is analogous to the standard Debian GNU/Linux debootstrap utility. Same energy, different ecosystem, no cap.

🌈 USAGE 🌈

To use this script you will need to be root. This is required to mount /proc, run chroot, and more. So yes bestie, sudo up or go home 🔥

Basic usage is as simple as:

          rinse --distribution alma-9 --arch amd64 --directory /tmp/test

This will download the required RPM files and unpack them into a minimal installation of Fedora Core 6. (Yes, the page says Fedora Core 6 right there while the example above it says alma-9 — iconic behavior, we're not touching it 🫶)

To see which RPM files would be downloaded, without actually performing an installation or downloading anything, then you may run the following:

          rinse --distribution fedora-core-6 --print-uris

👑 TODO 👑

Short of supporting more distributions or architectures there aren't really any outstanding issues. Like… she's done, she's thriving, the to-do list is a vibe check that passed 💜

🧚 ADDING NEW DISTRIBUTIONS 🧚

To add a new distribution you need to

  1. Add a new package list to "etc/DISTRIBUTION.packages"
  2. Add a script to "scripts/DISTRIBUTION/post-install.sh" Many of these are identical across releases, so symlinks work here.
  3. Add download mirrors to "etc/rinse.conf"

Package lists tend to be very similar across different releases in a distro, but not identical. A way to make these lists is to obtain an existing install of a distro, and follow the dependency tree of the packaging utilities. A "DISTRIBUTION.packages" file can be the output of

          dnf repoquery --requires --resolve --recursive --installed dnf | \
            perl -pe 's/(.*)-.*?-.*?$/$1/g' | \
            sort -u | egrep -v 'glibc-all-langpacks|glibc-langpack-'

This is more a developers attempt to generate a package list. 😭 (real ones know)

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

🍓 LICENSE 🍓

Copyright (c) 2011-2025 by Thomas Lange. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2007-2010 by Steve Kemp. All rights reserved.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. The LICENSE file contains the full text of the license.

and that's the whole page bestie 💖 this was RINSE(8) from the Perl Programmers Reference Guide, version 4.3.1, dated 2025-10-17. go install a distro, you've got this, periodt ✨🎀🦋

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