man2/pivot_root.2

   1 .\" Copyright (C) 2000 by Werner Almesberger
   2 .\" and Copyright (C) 2019 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
   3 .\"
   4 .\" %%%LICENSE_START(GPL_NOVERSION_ONELINE)
   5 .\" May be distributed under GPL
   6 .\" %%%LICENSE_END
   7 .\"
   8 .\" Written 2000-02-23 by Werner Almesberger
   9 .\" Modified 2004-06-17 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
  10 .\"
  11 .TH PIVOT_ROOT 2 2019-08-02 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
  12 .SH NAME
  13 pivot_root \- change the root filesystem
  14 .SH SYNOPSIS
  15 .BI "int pivot_root(const char *" new_root ", const char *" put_old );
  16 .PP
  17 .IR Note :
  18 There is no glibc wrapper for this system call; see NOTES.
  19 .SH DESCRIPTION
  20 .BR pivot_root ()
  21 changes the root filesystem in the mount namespace of the calling process.
  22 More precisely, it moves the root filesystem to the
  23 directory \fIput_old\fP and makes \fInew_root\fP the new root filesystem.
  24 The calling process must have the
  25 .B CAP_SYS_ADMIN
  26 capability in the user namespace that owns the caller's mount namespace.
  27 .PP
  28 .BR pivot_root ()
  29 may or may not change the current root and the current
  30 working directory of any processes or threads that
  31 use the old root directory and which are in
  32 the same mount namespace as the caller of
  33 .BR pivot_root ().
  34 The caller of
  35 .BR pivot_root ()
  36 must ensure that processes with root or current working directory
  37 at the old root operate correctly in either case.
  38 An easy way to ensure this is to change their
  39 root and current working directory to \fInew_root\fP before invoking
  40 .BR pivot_root ().
  41 .PP
  42 The paragraph above is intentionally vague because the implementation of
  43 .BR pivot_root ()
  44 may change in the future
  45 (or so it was thought when this system call was first added).
  46 However,
  47 the behavior on this point has remained consistent since
  48 .BR pivot_root ()
  49 was first implemented:
  50 .BR pivot_root ()
  51 changes the root directory and the current working directory
  52 of each process or thread in the same mount namespace to
  53 .I new_root
  54 if they point to the old root directory.
  55 This is necessary in order to prevent kernel threads from keeping the old
  56 root directory busy with their root and current working directory,
  57 even if they never access
  58 the filesystem in any way.
  59 Perhaps one day there may be a mechanism for
  60 kernel threads to explicitly relinquish any access to the filesystem,
  61 such that this fairly intrusive mechanism can be removed from
  62 .BR pivot_root ().
  63 .PP
  64 Note that this also applies to the calling process:
  65 .BR pivot_root ()
  66 may or may not affect its current working directory.
  67 It is therefore recommended to call
  68 \fBchdir("/")\fP immediately after
  69 .BR pivot_root ().
  70 .PP
  71 The following restrictions apply to \fInew_root\fP and \fIput_old\fP:
  72 .IP \- 3
  73 They must be directories.
  74 .IP \-
  75 \fInew_root\fP and \fIput_old\fP must not be on the same filesystem as
  76 the current root.
  77 .IP \-
  78 \fIput_old\fP must be underneath \fInew_root\fP, that is, adding a nonzero
  79 number of \fI/..\fP to the string pointed to by \fIput_old\fP must yield
  80 the same directory as \fInew_root\fP.
  81 .IP \-
  82 .I new_root
  83 must be a mount point.
  84 (If it is not otherwise a mount point, it suffices to bind mount
  85 .I new_root
  86 on top of itself.)
  87 .IP \-
  88 The propagation type of
  89 .I new_root
  90 and its parent mount must not be
  91 .BR MS_SHARED ;
  92 similarly, if
  93 .I put_old
  94 is an existing mount point, its propagation type must not be
  95 .BR MS_SHARED .
  96 .PP
  97 See also
  98 .BR pivot_root (8)
  99 for additional usage examples.
 100 .PP
 101 If the current root is not a mount point (e.g., after an earlier
 102 .BR chroot (2)
 103 or
 104 .BR pivot_root ()),
 105 then the mount point of the filesystem containing the current root directory
 106 (i.e., not the directory itself) is mounted on \fIput_old\fP.
 107 .SH RETURN VALUE
 108 On success, zero is returned.
 109 On error, \-1 is returned, and
 110 \fIerrno\fP is set appropriately.
 111 .SH ERRORS
 112 .BR pivot_root ()
 113 may fail with any of the same errors as
 114 .BR stat (2).
 115 Additionally, it may fail with the following errors:
 116 .TP
 117 .B EBUSY
 118 \fInew_root\fP or \fIput_old\fP are on the current root filesystem,
 119 or a filesystem is already mounted on \fIput_old\fP.
 120 .TP
 121 .B EINVAL
 122 .I new_root
 123 is not a mount point.
 124 .TP
 125 .B EINVAL
 126 \fIput_old\fP is not underneath \fInew_root\fP.
 127 .TP
 128 .B EINVAL
 129 The current root is on the rootfs (initial ramfs) filesystem.
 130 .TP
 131 .B EINVAL
 132 Either the mount point at
 133 .IR new_root ,
 134 or the parent mount of that mount point,
 135 has propagation type
 136 .BR MS_SHARED .
 137 .TP
 138 .B EINVAL
 139 .I put_old
 140 is a mount point and has the propagation type
 141 .BR MS_SHARED .
 142 .TP
 143 .B ENOTDIR
 144 \fInew_root\fP or \fIput_old\fP is not a directory.
 145 .TP
 146 .B EPERM
 147 The calling process does not have the
 148 .B CAP_SYS_ADMIN
 149 capability.
 150 .SH VERSIONS
 151 .BR pivot_root ()
 152 was introduced in Linux 2.3.41.
 153 .SH CONFORMING TO
 154 .BR pivot_root ()
 155 is Linux-specific and hence is not portable.
 156 .SH NOTES
 157 Glibc does not provide a wrapper for this system call; call it using
 158 .BR syscall (2).
 159 .PP
 160 .BR pivot_root ()
 161 allows the caller to switch to a new root filesystem while at the same time
 162 placing the old root mount at a location under
 163 .I new_root
 164 from where it can subsequently be unmounted.
 165 (The fact that it moves all processes that have a root directory
 166 or current working directory on the old root filesystem to the
 167 new root filesystem frees the old root filesystem of users,
 168 allowing it to be unmounted more easily.)
 169 A typical use of
 170 .BR pivot_root ()
 171 is during system startup, when the
 172 system mounts a temporary root filesystem (e.g., an \fBinitrd\fP), then
 173 mounts the real root filesystem, and eventually turns the latter into
 174 the current root of all relevant processes or threads.
 175 A modern use is to set up a root filesystem during
 176 the creation of a container.
 177 .PP
 178 The rootfs (initial ramfs) cannot be
 179 .BR pivot_root ()ed.
 180 The recommended method of changing the root filesystem in this case is
 181 to delete everything in rootfs, overmount rootfs with the new root, attach
 182 .IR stdin / stdout / stderr
 183 to the new
 184 .IR /dev/console ,
 185 and exec the new
 186 .BR init (1).
 187 Helper programs for this process exist; see
 188 .BR switch_root (8).
 189 .SH BUGS
 190 .BR pivot_root ()
 191 should not have to change root and current working directory of other
 192 processes in the system.
 193 .PP
 194 Some of the more obscure uses of
 195 .BR pivot_root ()
 196 may quickly lead to
 197 insanity.
 198 .SH SEE ALSO
 199 .BR chdir (2),
 200 .BR chroot (2),
 201 .BR mount (2),
 202 .BR stat (2),
 203 .BR initrd (4),
 204 .BR mount_namespaces (7),
 205 .BR pivot_root (8),
 206 .BR switch_root (8)