System Grab Bag

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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 Print version 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

See Also

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

Reporting Bugs

For bug reports, use the issue tracker at \c

Availability

The switch_root command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from \c