6.4. Entering the Chroot Environment

It is time to enter the chroot environment to begin building and installing the final LFS system. As user root, run the following command to enter the realm that is, at the moment, populated with only the temporary tools:

chroot "$LFS" /tools/bin/env -i \
    HOME=/root TERM="$TERM" PS1='\u:\w\$ ' \
    PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/tools/bin \
    /tools/bin/bash --login +h

The -i option given to the env command will clear all variables of the chroot environment. After that, only the HOME, TERM, PS1, and PATH variables are set again. The TERM=$TERM construct will set the TERM variable inside chroot to the same value as outside chroot. This variable is needed for programs like vim and less to operate properly. If other variables are needed, such as CFLAGS or CXXFLAGS, this is a good place to set them again.

From this point on, there is no need to use the LFS variable anymore, because all work will be restricted to the LFS file system. This is because the Bash shell is told that $LFS is now the root (/) directory.

Notice that /tools/bin comes last in the PATH. This means that a temporary tool will no longer be used once its final version is installed. This occurs when the shell does not “remember” the locations of executed binaries—for this reason, hashing is switched off by passing the +h option to bash.

Note that the bash prompt will say I have no name! This is normal because the /etc/passwd file has not been created yet.