# phpman > info > switch_root

[SWITCH_ROOT(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SWITCHROOT/8/markdown)               System Administration              [SWITCH_ROOT(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SWITCHROOT/8/markdown)

NAME
       switch_root - switch to another filesystem as the root of the mount
       tree

SYNOPSIS
       switch_root [-hV]

       switch_root newroot init [arg...]

DESCRIPTION
       switch_root moves already mounted /proc, /dev, /sys and /run to newroot
       and makes newroot the new root filesystem and starts init process.

       WARNING: switch_root removes recursively all files and directories on
       the current root filesystem.

OPTIONS
       -h, --help
           Display help text and exit.

       -V, --version
           Display version information and exit.

EXIT STATUS
       switch_root returns 0 on success and 1 on failure.

NOTES
       switch_root will fail to function if newroot is not the root of a
       mount. If you want to switch root into a directory that does not meet
       this requirement then you can first use a bind-mounting trick to turn
       any directory into a mount point:

           mount --bind $DIR $DIR

AUTHORS
       Peter Jones <<pjones@redhat.com>>, Jeremy Katz <<katzj@redhat.com>>, Karel
       Zak <<kzak@redhat.com>>

SEE ALSO
       [chroot(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/chroot/2/markdown), [init(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/init/8/markdown), [mkinitrd(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mkinitrd/8/markdown), [mount(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mount/8/markdown)

REPORTING BUGS
       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at
       <https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues>.

AVAILABILITY
       The switch_root command is part of the util-linux package which can be
       downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
       <<https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>>.

util-linux 2.37.2                 2021-06-02                    [SWITCH_ROOT(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/SWITCHROOT/8/markdown)