SWITCH_ROOT

Section: System Administration (8)
Updated: 2021-06-02
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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

: Display version information 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

REPORTING BUGS

For bug reports, use the issue tracker at <https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues>.

AVAILABILITY

The switch_root command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.

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8. System administration commands (usually only for root)