<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Introduction</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.76b+ "><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="Development for Multiple Linux Distributions mini-HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Development for Multiple Linux Distributions mini-HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Setup" HREF="setup.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >Development for Multiple Linux Distributions mini-HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="setup.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="INTRODUCTION">1. Introduction</H1 ><P >As a developer, there is occasionally a need to code and/or test programs on multiple Linux distributions. This mini-howto outlines a neat <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >chroot</SPAN > trick that can, in many cases, obviate the need to reboot into different Linux distributions to do testing or development. </P ><P >In a nutshell, the "trick" is to place all the files from a particular linux distribution into a single directory and then <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >chroot</SPAN > into that directory to develop/test/debug your program. This approach will work provided that: </P ><P ></P ><OL TYPE="1" ><LI ><P >The kernel version of the "main" or "primary" distribution that you are running is (at least somewhat) compatible with the "secondary" or <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >chroot</SPAN >'ed distributions, and </P ></LI ><LI ><P >Your application is primarily user-space (ie. no kernel modules) and does not depend intimately on any particular kernel features (ie. <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/proc</TT > behavior). </P ></LI ></OL ><DIV CLASS="SECT2" ><H2 CLASS="SECT2" ><A NAME="COPYRIGHT">1.1. Copyright and License</H2 ><P >This document is copyright 2001 by Ed Hill III. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is available at <A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html" TARGET="_top" >http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html</A >. </P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="setup.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Development for Multiple Linux Distributions mini-HOWTO</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Setup</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >