SWITCH_ROOT(8) System Administration SWITCH_ROOT(8)
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 and /sys 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
show help and exit
-V, --version
show version number 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
mount(8), chroot(2), init(8), mkinitrd(8)
AUTHORS
Peter Jones <pjones AT redhat.com>
Jeremy Katz <katzj AT redhat.com>
Karel Zak <kzak AT redhat.com>
AVAILABILITY
The switch_root command is part of the util-linux package and is avail-
able from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.
util-linux June 2009 SWITCH_ROOT(8)