On Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:36:30 +0200, Michael Prokop wrote:
- Does debootstrap download packages? If yes, where does it place
downloaded packages?
Yes, they are located in /var/cache/apt/archives of the target system.
- Since grml-debootstrap also install packages defined in
/etc/debootstrap/packages into the chroot system, is it a good idea to bind mount /var/cache/apt/archives into the chroot system as well, so as to save the downloading and cleaning up?
I'm not sure about that, I've to check this out in reallife usage. :) But if you have any patches or implementation details it would be great if you could share them with us.
The bind mounting /var/cache/apt/archives is a trick that I've been using for years. Never cause me any problem. Since the bind mounting apt configure files are dangerous, thus adding a bind-mount option is not necessary, I think it is pretty safe to add the following line at the end of function mount_target() in grml-debootstrap
mount --bind /var/cache/apt/archives $MNTPOINT/var/cache/apt/archives
then umount it somewhere during clean up.
Each Debian system would have such /var/cache/apt/archives directory, so I think it is pretty safe to do so. This will allows us to do grml-debootstrap over and over without downloading Debian packages more then once.
In fact, this is what I do before calling grml-debootstrap:
mount -o bind /path/to/my/customized/debootstrap /etc/debootstrap
So that I can keep my own customized /etc/debootstrap without worrying it interfering with grml-debootstrap default settings, and the troubles when upgrading grml-debootstrap.
- furthermore, I think over 99% people would have same apt/sources.list
and apt/preferences in host and chroot system. If so, would it be a good idea for the same bind-mount option bind mount /etc/apt/sources.list & /etc/apt/preferences into the chroot system as well?
No, that's a bit dangerous as a default IMO (because there might be just too many problematic situations when booting a grml based on unstable and installing a Debian/stable system).
But you can use /etc/debootstrap/etc/.... to copy files from the source to the target system, check out the grml-debootstrap manpage.
Ah, good idea. Then please add '--dereference' whenever 'cp' files from host into chroot system. I want to symlink them into /etc/debootstrap/etc/ instead of copying them over.
Further, not for this release, please log to bts to add an option to remove packages. There are packages that I don't need, e.g., nano, tasksel, tasksel-data, gcc-4.2-base, etc. An option that allows us to remove would be nice.
Thanks,