mmdebstrap Plugin¶

The mmdebstrap plugin sets up a Debian root file system using the mmdebstrap command-line tool.

The plugin creates a minimal root file system with a customizable set of additional packages.

Keys¶

This plugin provides the following unique keys.

mmdebstrap-suite¶

Type string

The distribution suite to bootstrap (for example, noble). If unset, the suite in the build environment’s /etc/os-release file is used.

mmdebstrap-variant¶

Type string

Default “apt”

The package set to install. Valid values are extract, custom, essential, apt, required, minbase, buildd, important, debootstrap and standard.

The variants section of the mmdebstrap documentation contains more details.

mmdebstrap-packages¶

Type list of strings

Individual packages to install in the file system. These are installed in addition to those set by mmdebstrap-variant.

How it works¶

During the build step, the plugin performs the following actions:

Runs mmdebstrap with the specified suite, variant and packages.
Removes files from /dev/* to avoid stalling final build.
Removes default sources configuration files (/etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*) to allow for custom repository configuration.

The plugin selects the appropriate mirror for the target architecture:

amd64 and i386: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
Other architectures: http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports

Examples¶

The following snippet declares a part that creates an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS root file system with curl installed:

parts:
  rootfs:
    plugin: mmdebstrap
    mmdebstrap-suite: noble
    mmdebstrap-packages: ["curl"]
    organize:
      '*': (overlay)/

A minimal example that uses the build environment’s suite:

parts:
  rootfs:
    plugin: mmdebstrap
    organize:
      '*': (overlay)/