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On Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:55:16 -0500, Michael Mol wrote: |
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> > #2 already has a solution, it's called an init*. Other solutions exist |
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> > but none are as elegant as a throwaway temporary filesystem in RAM. |
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> |
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> I find virtually nothing elegant about a temporary filesystem in RAM. |
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> It duplicates code that already exists on the system, and it |
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> represents and additional maintenance step in system upgrades. It |
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> seems almost a given that if someone is keeping multiple kernel images |
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> on a system, they're not updating the initr* for each when binaries |
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> that would be found in each are upgraded or rebuilt. |
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I don't use separate initr* files, the initramfs is built into the |
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kernel, using the latest versions of the tools installed at the time the |
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kernel was compiled. That gives a single bootable file that, if it works |
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now, should always work. Most changes to the component packages do not |
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affect the simple job they have to do to get a system ready to run init. |
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> In Debian, Ubuntu and others, this is handled by a post-install hook |
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> where the initr* image is rebuilt. To me, this honestly feels like a |
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> hack. In something like Gentoo, I'd rather see package placement |
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> driven by whether or not it will be needed to get all mount points |
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> mounted. If that means i18n databases under something like /boot/data, |
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> that seems reasonable. To me, the only cases where initr* feels like |
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> the right solution are things like netboot or booting from read-only |
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Or / on LVM, or / on an encrypted filesystem. or any other requirement |
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for a filesystem that cannot be used without adding code to the kernel. |
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-- |
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Neil Bothwick |
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WinErr 002: No Error - Yet |
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