man > debootsnap(1)

DEBOOTSNAP(1)                               User Commands                              DEBOOTSNAP(1)

NAME
       debootsnap - create debian chroot using snapshot.debian.org

DESCRIPTION
       usage: debootsnap [-h] [--architecture ARCHITECTURE] [--ignore-notfound]

              (--buildinfo BUILDINFO | --packages PACKAGES) [--sources-list-only] [output]

       Combines  debootstrap  and snapshot.debian.org to create a chroot 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  architec‐
              tures  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  exit‐
              ing

       --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 re‐
              spective  adjacent field.  Leading and trailing illegal characters are allowed.  Exam‐
              ple: 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

debootsnap 2.23.7ubuntu0.2                  February 2026                              DEBOOTSNAP(1)