# proot-distro **Repository Path**: no2bear/proot-distro ## Basic Information - **Project Name**: proot-distro - **Description**: No description available - **Primary Language**: Unknown - **License**: GPL-3.0 - **Default Branch**: master - **Homepage**: None - **GVP Project**: No ## Statistics - **Stars**: 0 - **Forks**: 0 - **Created**: 2025-02-24 - **Last Updated**: 2025-02-24 ## Categories & Tags **Categories**: Uncategorized **Tags**: None ## README # PRoot Distro A Bash script wrapper for utility [proot] for easy management of chroot-based Linux distribution installations. It does not require root or any special ROM, kernel, etc. Everything you need to get started is the latest version of [Termux] application. See [Installing](#installing) for details. *** ## Bundled distributions PRoot Distro provides a set of bare-minimum root file system tarballs for commonly used distributions. Each distribution guaranteed to support at least AArch64 (ARM64) CPUs. To reduce maintenance effort, we package only single version of distribution (stable, lts or rolling-release) with rare exceptions. Available distributions in format `proot-distro alias : description`: * `adelie`: Adelie Linux * `alpine`: Alpine Linux (edge) \-\-\- **Recommended for low disk space!** * `archlinux`: Arch Linux / Arch Linux 32 / Arch Linux ARM * `artix`: Artix Linux (AArch64 only) * `chimera`: Chimera Linux * `debian`: Debian (bookworm) * `deepin`: deepin (beige) * `fedora`: Fedora 41 (64bit only) * `manjaro`: Manjaro (AArch64 only) * `openkylin`: openKylin (nile) * `opensuse`: openSUSE (Tumbleweed) * `pardus`: Pardus (yirmiuc) * `rockylinux`: Rocky Linux (9.5) * `ubuntu`: Ubuntu (24.04) * `void`: Void Linux Everything is provided as-is. Root file system tarballs are generated from content provided by repositories of selected distributions with no modification from our side. Build is automated by [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/termux/proot-distro/actions): * Configuration: https://github.com/termux/proot-distro/blob/master/.github/workflows/build.yml * Rootfs packaging scripts: https://github.com/termux/proot-distro/tree/master/distro-build We don't develop packages for any of mentioned distributions, so bug reports about them will be ignored. Although in most cases of "bugs" you'll have to blame either Android OS or [proot] utility. PRoot Distro is only a wrapper (launcher) for [proot]. If you need a custom version, you will need to add it on your own. See [Adding distribution](#adding-distribution). ### Security **Users must upgrade packages after installing the distribution to ensure presence of all latest bug fixes and security patches.** Root file system archives for distributions from our catalog are updated on demand. Effectively that means newly installed distribution may be few months as outdated. Remember that `proot` (core of `proot-distro`) does not provide high grade isolation like `docker`, `firejail` and similar well-known utilities. ## Installing With package manager: ``` pkg install proot-distro ``` With git: ``` pkg install git git clone https://github.com/termux/proot-distro cd proot-distro ./install.sh ``` Dependencies: bash, bzip2, coreutils, curl, file, findutils, gawk, gzip, ncurses-utils, proot, sed, tar, util-linux, xz-utils If you want command line auto complete, install the `bash-completion` package. ## Functionality overview PRoot Distro aims to provide all-in-one functionality for managing the installed distributions: installation, de-installation, backup, restore, login. Each action is defined through command. Each command accepts its unique set of options, specific to the task that it performs. Usage basics: ``` proot-distro ``` Alternative variant (v4.0.0+): ``` pd ``` Where `` is a proot-distro action command (see below to learn what is available) and `` is a list of options specific to given command. Example of installing the distribution: ``` proot-distro install debian ``` Some commands support aliases. For example, instead of ``` proot-distro list proot-distro install debian proot-distro login debian proot-distro remove debian ``` you can type this: ``` proot-distro ls proot-distro i debian proot-distro sh debian proot-distro rm debian ``` Information about supported aliases can be viewed in help for each command. Known distributions are defined through plug-in scripts, which define URLs from where root file system archive will be downloaded and set of checksums for integrity check. Plug-ins also can define a set of commands which would be executed during distribution installation. See [Adding distribution](#adding-distribution) to learn more how to add own distribution to PRoot Distro. ### Accessing built-in help Command: `help` This command will show the help information about `proot-distro` usage. * `proot-distro help` - main page. * `proot-distro --help` - view help for specific command. ### Backing up distribution Command: `backup` Aliases: `bak`, `bkp` Backup specified distribution and its plug-in into tar archive. The contents of backup can be either printed to stdout for further processing or written to a file. Compression is determined according to file extension, e.g.`.tar.gz` will lead to GZip compression and `.tar.xz` will lead to XZ. Piped backup data is always not compressed giving user freedom for further processing. Usage example: ``` proot-distro backup debian | xz | ssh example.com 'cat > /backups/pd-debian-backup.tar.xz' proot-distro backup --output backup.tar.gz debian ``` *This command is generic. All additional processing like encryption should be done by user through external commands.* ### Installing a distribution Command: `install` Aliases: `add`, `i`, `in`, `ins` Install a distribution specified by alias - a short name referring to the plug-in of chosen distribution. Usage example: ``` proot-distro install alpine ``` By default the installed distribution will have same alias as specified on command line. This means you will be unable to install multiple copies at same time. You can rename distribution during installation time by using option `--override-alias` which will create a copy of distribution plug-in. Usage example: ``` proot-distro install --override-alias alpine-test alpine proot-distro login alpine-test ``` Copied plug-in has following name format `.override.sh` and is stored in directory with others (`$PREFIX/etc/proot-distro`). It is possible to force specify a custom CPU architecture of distribution to install. To do this you need to set `DISTRO_ARCH` environment variable to one of these values: `aarch64`, `arm`, `i686`, `riscv64`, `x86_64`. Example: ``` DISTRO_ARCH=arm proot-distro install alpine ``` Typically if your host is 64bit, the 32bit version of distribution for same architecture should work seamlessly, but that's not guaranteed. Thus if you encounter an issue while using ARM version of the system on AArch64 host, this would be rather a bug of [proot](https://github.com/termux/proot) utility or incompatibility with CPU instructions supported by host. Usage of foreign architectures, like x86_64 target on AArch64 host, always would require QEMU user mode packages. Install all supported QEMU user mode packages with one command: ``` pkg install qemu-user-aarch64 qemu-user-arm qemu-user-i386 qemu-user-x86-64 ``` `x86_64` target also supports a Blink user mode CPU emulator (experimental). See [below](#experimental-blink-emulator-support) for usage details. ### Listing distributions Command: `list` Aliases: `li`, `ls` Shows a list of available distributions, their aliases, installation status and comments. ### Start shell session Command: `login` Aliases: `sh` Execute a shell within the given distribution. Example: ``` proot-distro login debian ``` Execute a shell as specified user in the given distribution: ``` proot-distro login --user admin debian ``` You can run a custom command as well: ``` proot-distro login debian -- /usr/local/bin/mycommand --sample-option1 ``` Argument `--` acts as terminator of `proot-distro login` options processing. All arguments behind it would not be treated as options of PRoot Distro. Login command supports these behavior modifying options: * `--user ` Use a custom login user instead of default `root`. You need to create the user via `useradd -U -m username` before using this option. * `--fix-low-ports` Force redirect low networking ports to a high number (2000 + port). Use this with software requiring low ports which are not possible without real root permissions. For example this option will redirect port 80 to something like 2080. * `--isolated` Do not mount host volumes inside proot environment. If this option was given, following mount points will not be accessible: * /apex (only Android 10+) * /data/dalvik-cache * /data/data/com.termux * /sdcard * /storage * /system * /vendor You will not be able to use Termux utilities inside proot environment. * `--termux-home` Mount Termux home directory as user home inside proot environment. This option takes priority over option `--isolated`. * `--shared-tmp` Share Termux temporary directory with proot environment. Takes priority over option `--isolated`. * `--bind path:path` Create a custom file system path binding. Option expects argument in the given format: ``` : ``` Takes priority over option `--isolated`. * `--no-link2symlink` Disable PRoot link2symlink extension. This will disable hard link emulation. You can use this option only if SELinux is disabled or is in permissive mode. * `--no-sysvipc` Disable PRoot System V IPC emulation. Try this option if you experience crashes. * `--no-kill-on-exit` Do not kill processes when shell session terminates. Typically will cause session to hang if you have any background processes running. * `--kernel` Set the kernel release and compatibility level to given value. * `--work-dir` Set the working directory to given value. By default the working directory is same as user home. ### Uninstall distribution Command: `remove` Aliases: `rm` This command completely deletes the installation of given system. Be careful as it does not ask for confirmation. Deleted data is irrecoverably lost. Usage example: ``` proot-distro remove debian ``` ### Rename distribution Command: `rename` Aliases: `mv` Rename the distribution by changing the alias name, renaming its plug-in and root file system directory. In case when default distribution is being renamed, a copy of plug-in will be created. Usage example: ``` proot-distro rename ubuntu ubuntu-test01 ``` Only installed distribution can be renamed. ### Reinstall distribution Command: `reset` Aliases: \- Delete the specified distribution and install it again. This is a shortcut for ``` proot-distro remove && proot-distro install ``` Usage example: ``` proot-distro reset debian ``` Same as with command `remove`, deleted data is lost irrecoverably. Be careful. ### Restore from backup Command: `restore` Aliases: \- Restore the distribution from the given proot-distro backup (tar archive). Restore operation performs a complete rollback to the backup state as was in archive. Be careful as this command deletes previous data irrecoverably. Compression is determined automatically from file extension. Piped data must be always uncompressed before being supplied to `proot-distro`. Usage example: ``` ssh example.com 'cat /backups/pd-debian-backup.tar.xz' | xz -d | proot-distro restore proot-distro restore ./pd-debian-backup.tar.xz ``` ### Copy file to distribution or vice versa Command: `copy` Aliases: `cp` Copy a given file or directory from/to distribution. Usage example: ``` proot-distro copy ./localfile.txt ubuntu:/home/user/targetfile.txt ``` It is possible to move file rather than copying if option `--move` was passed. Globs are not supported. Source and destination paths may be specified only once. ### Clear downloads cache Command: `clear-cache` Aliases: `clear`, `cl` This will remove all cached root file system archives. ## Adding distribution Distribution is defined through the plug-in script that contains variables with metadata. A minimal one would look like this: ```.bash DISTRO_NAME="Debian" TARBALL_URL['aarch64']="https://github.com/termux/proot-distro/releases/download/v1.10.1/debian-aarch64-pd-v1.10.1.tar.xz" TARBALL_SHA256['aarch64']="f34802fbb300b4d088a638c638683fd2bfc1c03f4b40fa4cb7d2113231401a21" ``` Script is stored in directory `$PREFIX/etc/proot-distro` and should be named like `.sh`, where `` is a desired name for referencing the distribution. For example, Debian plug-in will typically be named `debian.sh`. ### Plug-in variables reference `DISTRO_ARCH`: specifies which CPU architecture variant of distribution to install. Normally this variable is determined automatically, and you should not set it. Typical use case is to set a custom architecture to run the distribution under QEMU emulator (user mode). Supported architectures are: `aarch64`, `arm`, `i686`, `riscv64`, `x86_64`. `DISTRO_NAME`: a name of distribution, something like "Alpine Linux (3.14.1)". `DISTRO_COMMENT`: comments for current distribution. Normally this variable is not needed. Use it to notify user that something is not working or additional steps required to get started with this distribution. `TARBALL_STRIP_OPT`: how many leading path components should be stripped when extracting rootfs archive. The default value is 1 because all default rootfs tarballs store contents in a subdirectory. `TARBALL_URL`: a Bash associative array of root file system tarballs URLs. Should be defined at least for your CPU architecture. Valid architecture names are same as for `DISTRO_ARCH`. Should start with proper protocol scheme. For example, `https://`, `file://`, `ftp://` etc. to access local or remote file. `TARBALL_SHA256`: a Bash associative array of SHA-256 checksums for each rootfs variant. Must be defined for each tarball set in `TARBALL_URL`. ### Running additional installation steps Plug-in can be configured to execute specified commands after installing the distribution. This is done through function `distro_setup`. Example: ```.bash distro_setup() { run_proot_cmd apt update run_proot_cmd apt upgrade -yq } ``` `run_proot_cmd` is used when command should be executed inside the rootfs. ## Experimental Blink emulator support If user specified `DISTRO_ARCH` different from the current device architecture, a CPU emulation mode will be used. The default CPU emulation backend is QEMU user mode. However for `x86_64` target architecture user can enable use of Blink emulator. To use Blink as emulation backend user need to set an environment variable: ``` export PROOT_DISTRO_X64_EMULATOR=BLINK ``` `PROOT_DISTRO_X64_EMULATOR` accepts values only `QEMU` or `BLINK`. Install Blink emulator package with this command: ``` pkg install blink ``` Emulation mode doesn't guarantee stability. User can observe a weird behavior of programs and crashes. Some distributions may work while others may not. The performance also would be reduced due to emulator overhead. ## PRoot issues and differences from Chroot While PRoot is often referred as user space chroot implementation, it is much different from it both by implementation and features of work. Here is a list of most significant differences you should be aware of. 1. PRoot is slow and potentially unstable due to non-native execution Every process is hooked through `ptrace()`. This is done to be able translate file paths (emulate `chroot`), fake root user identity and workaround unsupported system calls. Such intrusion into execution flow usually works properly. However under certain cases user may observe "impossible" bugs such as crashes or strange program behavior, that are not reproducible on native Linux distribution setups (PC, Raspberry Pi). Using debugger tools such as gdb or strace could be problematic. **Important**: `proot-distro` may show higher performance degradation comparing to other proot environment setup scripts. Reason behind this is more extensive use of directory and file bindings. This is not a bug and is not planned to be "fixed". 2. PRoot cannot detach from the running process. Since PRoot controls the running processes via `ptrace()` it cannot detach from them. This means you can't start a daemon process (e.g. sshd) and close PRoot session. You will have to either kill process, wait until it finish or let proot kill it immediately on session close. 3. PRoot does not elevate privileges. Chroot also does not elevate privileges on its own. Just PRoot is configured to hijack user id as well, i.e. make it appear as `root`. So in reality your user name, id and privileges remain to be same as without PRoot but programs that do sanity check for current user will assume you are running as root user. Particularly, the fake root user makes it possible to use package manager in proot environment. 4. PRoot does not emulate privilege separation. Your root and non-root effectively are same. Files would appear as owned by your current user, which means both root and non-root user will be able to edit files of your `proot` distribution setup. Depending on your PRoot Distro use cases, this might be a security issue. 5. PRoot does not enable access to hardware and file system mounting. You won't be able read/write to devices such as partitions of internal and external drives, USB devices, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth dongles. Mounting file systems using FUSE also not possible: Android OS doesn't set world-writeable permissions on `/dev/fuse`, unlike standard Linux distributions. 6. Appimage, Flatpak and Snap do not work under PRoot. Self-sufficient application containers such as Appimage, Flatpak or Snap rely on file system mounting capabilities, FUSE and other features that not available without real root permissions. ## Forking If you wish to use PRoot Distro or its part as a base for your own project, please make sure you comply with GNU GPL v3.0 license. Forks must be distributed under different name. [Termux]: [proot]: