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What are the proper steps to prepare a chroot environment for a recovery procedure?

In many situations, repairing a broken Linux installation is best done from within the installation. But if the system won't boot, how do you fix it from within?

Let's assume you manage to boot into an alternate system. Once there, you need to access your broken installation in order to fix it. Many recovery How-Tos recommend using chroot in order to run programs as if you are actually booted into the broken installation.

• What is the basic procedure?
• Are there accepted best-practices to follow?
• What variables need to be considered in order to adapt the basic preparation steps to a particular recovery task?

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