switch_root

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.

Return Value

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

See Also

chroot(2), init(8), mkinitrd(8), mount(8)

Authors

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

Availability

The switch_root command is part of the util-linux package and is available from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.

Referenced By

chroot(2), namespaces(7), pid_namespaces(7), pivot_root(2), pivot_root(8).