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On Wednesday 21 February 2007, pat <pat@××××××××.org> wrote |
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about '[gentoo-user] ramfs - is it necessary ???': |
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> And if it is necessary where I can find good documentation |
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> (samples, explanation, etc.). |
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|
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Pretty much all of the documenation on "early userspace" is in the kernel |
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tree. You might even want to emerge the kernel with the 'doc' use flag, |
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to get full (HTML?) documentation, although some of it is in simple plain |
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text (rather than docbook) and available w/o that flag. |
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|
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> And next question is: hat is difference between ramfs and initrd ??? Is |
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> it the same thing or not ... ??? |
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|
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initrd is the old way. A compressed (usually ext2) filesystem used to load |
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kernel modules, or otherwise initialize things before mounting the root |
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filesystem. |
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|
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initramfs is the new way. A compressed series of cpio archives (with some |
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special treatment) for the same purpose. |
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Both use ram-backed block devices. initrd doesn't need ramfs or tmpfs. I |
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think an initramfs can use either, but it might require ramfs. An |
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initramfs can be compiled into the kernel, either can be a separate file |
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loaded by grub/lilo/xen. |
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|
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ramfs is a fixed-size ram-backed file system. tmpfs is a newer, better way |
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to do this. It has a maximum size (which can be changed by a remount) but |
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will only allocate enough ram to hold what is currently placed on the |
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filesystem. |
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|
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-- |
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Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. |
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bss03@××××××××××.net ((_/)o o(\_)) |
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ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' |
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http://iguanasuicide.org/ \_/ |
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