---
name: "qemubuilder"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "qemubuilder"
version: "0.90"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/qemubuilder"
---

# qemubuilder(8)

a pbuilder wrapper for qemu.

## NAME

qemubuilder - a pbuilder wrapper for qemu.

## SYNOPSIS

**qemubuilder create \[***options***\]**

**qemubuilder update \[***options***\]**

**qemubuilder build \[***options***\]** *.dsc-file*

**qemubuilder login \[***options***\]**

**qemubuilder execute \[***options***\] --** *script \[***script options***\]*

**qemubuilder dumpconfig**

## DESCRIPTION

**qemubuilder** Executes the specified pbuilder operation with **qemu**

## COMMANDS

Most commands imitate pbuilder, see pbuilder manual for details.

- **--create**, **create**

  Create the base.qemu image.

- **--update**, **update**, **up**, **u**

  Update the base.qemu image.

- **--build**, **build**, **b**

  Build a package given a .dsc file

- **--login**, **login**, **l**

  Start a session within the base.qemu.

- **--execute**, **execute**, **e**

  Execute a command within the base.qemu.

- **--dumpconfig**, **dumpconfig**

  Dump configuration information, used for debugging.

## OPTIONS

Most options are the same as pbuilder, except for the following which are handled specially.

- **--arch-diskdevice** *sd/hd*

  Specify whether the disk device inside the virtual machine is called /dev/sda or /dev/hda. The possible values are 'sd' and 'hd'.

- **--smp** *2*

  The option passed to SMP.

I don't think I can support bind-mounts in qemu.

Documentation here should be updated according to what's defined in parameter.c, but it isn't.

## CONFIGURATION FILES

qemubuilder reads the following configuration files per default.

- **/usr/share/pbuilder/pbuilderrc**

  Application default, not to be changed.

- **/etc/pbuilderrc**

  System-wide default.

- **~/.pbuilderrc**

  User default

- *anything specified with --configfile option*

  Additional configuration at runtime.

## CONFIGURATION FILE OPTIONS

The possible configuration options are as follows.  Others are ignored.

- **DISTRIBUTION=***distribution*

  - **BUILDRESULT=***directory*

  - **BUILDPLACE=***directory*

  - **BASEPATH=***path*

  - **MIRRORSITE=***http://mirror*

  - **KERNEL\_IMAGE=***vmlinuz*

  Linux kernel to use.

- **INITRD=***initrd*

  Initrd to use.

- **ARCHITECTURE=***arch*

  The target architecture.

  You can also use **ARCH=***arch* for compatibility with 0.60 or older.

- **MEMORY\_MEGS=***256*

  Memory size to use in qemu session, in MB.

- **ARCH\_DISKDEVICE=***hd*

  The architecture-specific disk device specifier. Most arches use sd these days. The only exceptions were i386 and amd64, which used to use hd.

- **SMP=***2*

  The SMP option for qemu.

## EXAMPLES

- **qemubuilder create**

  Create a base.qemu image.

- **qemubuilder update**

  Update the base.qemu image.

- **qemubuilder build test\_0.1.dsc**

  Build the package specified in dsc file, with the base.qemu image.

- **pdebuild --pbuilder qemubuilder**

  Run **qemubuilder build** against the current directory. The current directory should be an extracted Debian source package directory.

  Edit **/etc/pbuilderrc** to have **PDEBUILD\_PBUILDER=qemubuilder** to make this the default behavior for **pdebuild.**

- **qemubuilder create --distribution sid --basepath /var/cache/pbuilder/base-test.qemu**

  Create a base.qemu image with the path **/var/cache/pbuilder/base-test.qemu** and distribution sid.

- **Example pbuilderrc for i386**

  ```
  KERNEL_IMAGE=vmlinuz-2.6.18-4-k7
  INITRD=initrd.img-2.6.18-4-k7
  ARCHITECTURE=i386
  BASEPATH=/home/dancer/tmp/base-i386.qemu
  MEMORY_MEGS=256
  ```

Note: INITRD may or may not be required for your system.  Debian Installer initrd may or may not work depending on which one you choose, use the one from an installed system.

## CAVEATS

Note that for mirror specification, http://localhost/debian/ usually doesn't work, it will be searching for files on the virtual machine itself, not the host OS.

## AUTHOR

Junichi Uekawa (dancer@debian.org)

## SEE ALSO

**/usr/share/doc/pbuilder/pbuilder-doc.html,**  [**pbuilder**(8)](/pbuilder/8.md),  [**pdebuild**(1)](/pdebuild/1.md)