# marcan/takeover.sh

Wipe and reinstall a running Linux system via SSH, without rebooting. You know you want to.

Repository: https://github.com/marcan/takeover.sh
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/takeoversh
Language: Shell
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2021-07-27T10:25:35+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3491, "days_push": 1863, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7328, forks 362 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:58.248148+00:00)

## What it is
A shell script that takes over a running Linux system over SSH, letting you boot into an in-memory rescue environment and unmount the original root filesystem without rebooting. It enables replacing one Linux distribution with another entirely remotely, with no physical console access.

## Use cases
- wipe and reinstall a remote linux server without rebooting
- replace a distro over ssh with no console access
- boot into a rescue environment on a running system remotely
- unmount the root filesystem of a live server over ssh
- reinstall a vps operating system remotely

## When to choose
- you need to reinstall or repartition a remote Linux box and have no physical or out-of-band console access
- you are an experienced admin comfortable with chroot, init systems, and recovery from a panic
- you can test the procedure in a VM first and have an out-of-band way to reboot if things fail

## When to avoid
- you are a beginner or want copy-paste instructions - the script deliberately provides no handholding
- the system or its data matters and you cannot afford downtime or physical recovery
- your init system does not support telinit u (e.g. not sysvinit or systemd)
- you need a supported, maintained tool - this is experimental and last released in 2021

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: developer-tools, deployment, file-system
- domain: operating-systems
- platform: cli
- tags: system-rescue, remote-administration, live-reinstall, shell-script, busybox, tmpfs, devops, command-line, linux

## Member repositories
- marcan/takeover.sh (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:58.248148+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:38:30.285945+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/marcan/takeover.sh (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:58.248148+00:00, sha d5d2a2ca393e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.