bsdinstall(8)

NAME
bsdinstall - system installer

SYNOPSIS
bsdinstall [target] [...]

DESCRIPTION
bsdinstall is used for installation of new systems, both for system setup from installation media (e.g. CD-ROMs) and for use on live systems to prepare VM images and jails.

Much like make(1), bsdinstall takes a target and possible parameters of the target as arguments. If invoked with no arguments, it will invoke the auto target, which provides a standard interactive installation, invoking the others in sequence. To perform a scripted installation, these subtargets can be invoked separately by an installation script.

TARGETS
Most of the following targets are only useful for scripting the installer. For interactive use, most users will be interested only in the auto and jail targets.

auto
    Run the standard interactive installation, including disk partitioning.

jail destination
    Sets up a new chroot system at destination, suitable for use with jail(8). Behavior is generally similar to auto, except that disk partitioning and network setup are skipped and a kernel is not installed into the new system.

keymap
    If the current controlling TTY is a syscons(4) console, asks the user to set the current keymap, and saves the result to the new system's rc.conf.

hostname
    Prompts the user for a host name for the new system and saves the result to the new system's rc.conf. If BSDINSTALL_CONFIGCURRENT is set, also sets the host name of the current system.

netconfig
    Interactively configures network interfaces (first invoking wlanconfig on wireless interfaces), saving the result to the new system's rc.conf and resolv.conf. If BSDINSTALL_CONFIGCURRENT is set, also configures the network interfaces of the current system to match.

autopart
    Provides the installer's interactive guided disk partitioner for single-disk installations. Partitions disks, runs newfs(8), and writes the new system's fstab.

partedit
    Provides the installer's interactive manual disk partitioner, with support for multi disk setups, non-UFS file systems, and manual selection of partition schemes. Partitions disks, runs newfs(8), and writes the new system's fstab.

mount
    Mounts the file systems previously configured by autopart or partedit under BSDINSTALL_CHROOT.

distfetch
    Fetches the distributions in DISTRIBUTIONS to BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR from BSDINSTALL_DISTSITE.

checksum
    Verifies the checksums of the distributions listed in DISTRIBUTIONS against the distribution manifest.

distextract
    Extracts the distributions listed in DISTRIBUTIONS into BSDINSTALL_CHROOT.

rootpass
    Interactively invokes passwd(1) in the new system to set the root user's password.

adduser
    Interactively invokes adduser(8) in the new system.

time
    Interactively sets the time, date, and time zone of the new system.

services
    Queries the user for the system daemons to begin at system startup, writing the result into the new system's rc.conf.

config
    Installs the configuration files destined for the new system (e.g. rc.conf fragments generated by netconfig, etc.) onto the new system.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables control various aspects of the installation process. Many are used internally during installation and have reasonable default values for most installation scenarios. Others are set by various interactive user prompts, and can be usefully overridden when making scripted or customized installers.

DISTRIBUTIONS
    The set of distributions to install (e.g. "base kernel ports"). Default: none

BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR
    The directory in which the distribution files can be found (or to which they should be downloaded). Default: /usr/freebsd-dist

BSDINSTALL_CHROOT
    The directory into which the distribution files should be unpacked and the directory at which the root file system of the new system should be mounted. Default: /mnt

BSDINSTALL_LOG
    Path to a log file for the installation. Default: /tmp/bsdinstall_log

BSDINSTALL_TMPETC
    Directory where files destined for the new system's /etc will be stored until the config target is executed. If this directory does not already exist, it will be created. Default: /tmp/bsdinstall_etc

HISTORY
This version of bsdinstall first appeared in FreeBSD 9.0.

AUTHORS
-nosplit Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn@FreeBSD.org>