archbootstrap

Let's bootstrap Arch Linux from BASH:

$ curl -\# https://mirrors.kernel.org/archlinux/iso/latest/archlinux-bootstrap-$(date +%Y.%m.01)-$(uname -m).tar.gz | tar xz --strip-components 1 -C '/path/to/install/directory'

Wait, hold on. Hold on a second.

Yep, you can actually bootstrap one of the world's largest distros with a oneliner.

---

Alternatively, you can use archbootstrap:

$ archbootstrap ./arch
# archbootstrap /var/lib/machines/arch

archbootstrap will cache downloaded files in $XDG_CACHE_HOME or $HOME/.cache if run as a user, and in /var/cache if run as root.

archbootstrap supports some options:

$ archbootstrap -h
usage:	archbootstrap [options] root

	-a <arch>
	-c <cachedir>
	-h help
	-i show post-install ideas
	-m <mirror>
	-n no-cache