SWITCH_ROOT(8)                                                                                                    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 <pjonesATredhat.com>
       Jeremy Katz <katzjATredhat.com>
       Karel Zak <kzakATredhat.com>

AVAILABILITY
       The   switch_root   command   is   part   of   the   util-linux-ng   package   and   is   available  from  ftp://ftp.ker-
       nel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/.



Linux                                                       June 2009                                             SWITCH_ROOT(8)