Quickstart

Install

Static binaries for x86_64 and aarch64 are attached to every release. This installs the latest one for your architecture into ~/.local/bin, with the bwrap name next to it:

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin && cd ~/.local/bin \
  && curl -fsSL -o proot "https://github.com/selkies-project/proot-next/releases/latest/download/proot-$(uname -m)" \
  && chmod +x proot && ln -sf proot bwrap && ./proot --version

Nothing else is needed. The binary is statically linked and has no runtime dependencies.

Run a root filesystem

Any extracted container image is a root filesystem. The proot-apps base images are single-layer and extract with one tar:

./proot -R ./rootfs /bin/sh

-R is PRoot's alias for "use this root and bind the usual host paths into it": /dev, /proc, /sys, /tmp, /run, the resolver and account files, and your home directory. -r is the bare root with no bindings; add your own with -b host:guest.

./proot -r ./rootfs -b /tmp -b /home/me:/home/me -w / /bin/sh

Use it with proot-apps

proot-apps calls ~/.local/bin/proot with exactly that shape, so dropping the binary in place of the one it shipped is the whole migration:

cp proot ~/.local/bin/proot
proot-apps run ghcr.io/linuxserver/proot-apps:firefox

The command line it uses, -R <image> /entrypoint, is unchanged.

Verify

scripts/smoke.sh in the repository runs a short functional pass. With a rootfs it also starts a shell and a #! script inside it:

scripts/smoke.sh ./proot ./rootfs