Installation

From source (the only supported method today)

BoxKernel is a single-crate Rust workspace with one dependency (libc). There is nothing to configure and no system libraries to install beyond Rust itself.

$ git clone https://github.com/BoxOSLab/BoxKernel.git
$ cd BoxKernel
$ cargo build --release
$ ./target/release/proot --version
BoxKernel 5.1.0

Requirements:

• Linux. BoxKernel instruments ptrace(2), seccomp, process_vm_readv/writev, and /proc/<pid>/fd. It does not run on macOS or Windows; Android works the same way it does for the C implementation (through Termux).
• Rust 1.85 or newer. rust-toolchain.toml pins stable and pulls in rustfmt + clippy automatically. Edition 2024 is in use.
• Kernel: any reasonably modern Linux. process_vm_* (≥ 3.2) is preferred for tracee memory access; the PTRACE_PEEK/POKE fallback covers older kernels. Seccomp acceleration needs seccomp filtering support (≥ 3.5 realistically, with SECCOMP_MODE_FILTER).

Installing the binary

$ cargo install --path .          # installs `proot` into ~/.cargo/bin
# or
$ install -Dm755 target/release/proot ~/.local/bin/proot

The binary is deliberately named proot — it is a drop-in replacement for the C implementation. If you already have C proot installed, pick a different destination or rename (e.g. proot-rs).

Installing the manual page

$ install -Dm644 doc/proot.1 ~/.local/share/man/man1/proot.1
$ man proot

Verifying the install

$ proot -0 /usr/bin/id -u
0
$ proot -b /etc/hostname /bin/cat /etc/hostname
<your hostname>
$ proot -v 1 /bin/true          # verbose banner, one line

Cross-compiling / Android

For Android/Termux use the same build inside the Termux Rust package; all Termux-specific options (-0, -l, --sysvipc, -p, -L, -H, --kill-on-exit) are implemented except --ashmem-memfd, which is Android-Bionic-specific and not yet ported — see Compatibility.