cowbuilder8

Usage

Overview

cowbuilder Executes the specified pbuilder operation with cowdancer

Commands

Most commands invoke pbuilder with the specified commands, see pbuilder manual for details.

create

Create the base.cow image. The directory for base.cow should be empty, or this command will fail.

update, up, u

Update the base.cow image.

build, b

Build a package given a .dsc file

login, l

Start a session within the base.cow.

execute, e

Execute a command within the base.cow.

dumpconfig

Dump configuration information, used for debugging.

Options

Most options are the same as pbuilder, except for the following which are handled specially

--buildplace

The place where COW operation takes place.

--basepath

This has a very different meaning to the --basetgz option of pbuilder, since there is no tgz. This option specifies the directory in which the COW master data is stored, the default being /var/cache/pbuilder/base.cow

--configfile [configuration file to load]

Additional configuration file to read after all other configuration files have been read.

--no-cowdancer-update

Do not use cowdancer on cowbuilder update. Please use this option when cowdancer is interfering with upgrade process, or cowdancer itself is being upgraded within chroot.

--debian-etch-workaround

Workaround for Debian Etch. cow-shell will search for all files in the chroot, but will work.

Configuration files

cowbuilder reads the following configuration files per default.

Options

The possible configuration options are as follows. Others are ignored.

DISTRIBUTION=distribution

BUILDRESULT=directory

BUILDPLACE=directory

BASEPATH=path

MIRRORSITE=http://mirror

NO_COWDANCER_UPDATE=1

See --no-cowdancer-update

DEBIAN_ETCH_WORKAROUND=1

See --debian-etch-workaround

Examples

cowbuilder create

Create a base.cow image.

# cowbuilder create --hookdir /usr/share/doc/pbuilder/examples/workaround/ --distribution etch --debootstrap debootstrap --basepath /var/cache/pbuilder/base-test.cow
bash: /root/.pbuilderrc: No such file or directory
W: /home/dancer/.pbuilderrc does not exist
I: Running in no-targz mode
Distribution is etch.
Building the build environment
I: running debootstrap
/usr/sbin/debootstrap
I: Retrieving Release
	.
	.

cowbuilder update

Update the base.cow image.

# cowbuilder update
bash: /root/.pbuilderrc: No such file or directory
I: Copying COW directory
I: Invoking pbuilder
W: /home/dancer/.pbuilderrc does not exist
I: Running in no-targz mode
I: copying local configuration
I: mounting /proc filesystem
I: mounting /dev/pts filesystem
I: policy-rc.d already exists
Refreshing the base.tgz
I: upgrading packages
	.
	.

cowbuilder build test_0.1.dsc

Build the package specified in dsc file, with the base.cow image.

pdebuild --pbuilder cowbuilder

Run cowbuilder build against the current directory. The current directory should be an extracted Debian source package directory.

Edit /etc/pbuilderrc to have PDEBUILD_PBUILDER=cowbuilder to make this the default behavior for pdebuild.

cowbuilder login --bindmounts /home/dancer

Start a cow-shell session inside base.cow, with /home/dancer being bind-mounted to within chroot.

Note that cowbuilder will not cow-protect what is inside /home/

# cowbuilder login --bindmount ${HOME}
bash: /root/.pbuilderrc: No such file or directory
I: Copying COW directory
I: Invoking pbuilder
W: /home/dancer/.pbuilderrc does not exist
I: Running in no-targz mode
I: copying local configuration
I: mounting /proc filesystem
I: mounting /dev/pts filesystem
I: Mounting /home/dancer
I: policy-rc.d already exists
I: entering the shell
#

cowbuilder create --distribution sid --basepath /var/cache/pbuilder/base-test.cow

Create a base.cow image with the path /var/cache/pbuilder/base-test.cow and distribution sid.