Is there a way to list the packages that debootstrap is going to download? Also, is there a way to tell debootstrap to download a user-specified list of packages?
Listing and specifying packages in debootstrap
debootstrap
For the first, you use --print-debs, which shows you a list of packages that are going to be downloaded for a specific target. The second, you can use --include/--exclude switches for this task:   --include=alpha,beta          Comma separated list of packages which will be added to download          and extract lists.   --exclude=alpha,beta          Comma separated list of packages  which  will  be  removed  from          download  and extract lists.  WARNING: you can and probably will          exclude essential packages, be careful using this option.Notice that this is akin to install base plus packages or install base minus packages. The base packages are always installed.