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 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 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`.