From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932561AbWG0P0p (ORCPT ); Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:26:45 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932560AbWG0P0p (ORCPT ); Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:26:45 -0400 Received: from mail.ccur.com ([66.10.65.12]:63911 "EHLO mail.ccur.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932561AbWG0P0o (ORCPT ); Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:26:44 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] documentation: Documentation/initrd.txt From: Tom Horsley To: Linux Kernel Mailing List Cc: akpm@osdl.org Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="=-Jeu4XbmCaw/9IIhEI5fE" Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:26:43 -0400 Message-Id: <1154014003.5166.30.camel@tweety> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.6.2 (2.6.2-1.fc5.5) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org --=-Jeu4XbmCaw/9IIhEI5fE Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Thomas Horsley I spent a long time the other day trying to examine an initrd image on a fedora core 5 system because the initrd.txt file is apparently obsolete. Here is a patch which I hope will reduce future confusion for others. Signed-off-by: Thomas Horsley --- I'm resubmitting this according to the SubmittingPatches guidelines. This was made from the 2.6.17.7 tree, but I don't think initrd.txt has changed much in any of the trees. I know I'm not supposed to send an attachment, but I see evolution has already screwed up my cut and paste attempt and who knows what will happen by the time it goes through exchange, so I'm adding the patch as an attachment as well. --- Documentation/initrd.txt 2006-07-27 08:49:30.000000000 -0400 +++ Documentation/initrd.txt 2006-07-27 09:02:04.000000000 -0400 @@ -73,6 +73,22 @@ initrd is mounted as root, and the normal boot procedure is followed, with the RAM disk still mounted as root. +Compressed cpio images +---------------------- + +Recent kernels have support for populating a ramdisk from a compressed cpio +archive, on such systems, the creation of a ramdisk image doesn't need to +involve special block devices or loopbacks, you merely create a directory on +disk with the desired initrd content, cd to that directory, and run (as an +example): + +find . | cpio --quiet -c -o | gzip -9 -n > /boot/imagefile.img + +Examining the contents of an existing image file is just as simple: + +mkdir /tmp/imagefile +cd /tmp/imagefile +gzip -cd /boot/imagefile.img | cpio -imd --quiet Installation ------------ --=-Jeu4XbmCaw/9IIhEI5fE Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=initrd-doc-patch Content-Type: text/plain; name=initrd-doc-patch; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 LS0tIERvY3VtZW50YXRpb24vaW5pdHJkLnR4dAkyMDA2LTA3LTI3IDA4OjQ5OjMwLjAwMDAwMDAw MCAtMDQwMA0KKysrIERvY3VtZW50YXRpb24vaW5pdHJkLnR4dAkyMDA2LTA3LTI3IDA5OjAyOjA0 LjAwMDAwMDAwMCAtMDQwMA0KQEAgLTczLDYgKzczLDIyIEBADQogICAgIGluaXRyZCBpcyBtb3Vu dGVkIGFzIHJvb3QsIGFuZCB0aGUgbm9ybWFsIGJvb3QgcHJvY2VkdXJlIGlzIGZvbGxvd2VkLA0K ICAgICB3aXRoIHRoZSBSQU0gZGlzayBzdGlsbCBtb3VudGVkIGFzIHJvb3QuDQogDQorQ29tcHJl c3NlZCBjcGlvIGltYWdlcw0KKy0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0NCisNCitSZWNlbnQga2Vy bmVscyBoYXZlIHN1cHBvcnQgZm9yIHBvcHVsYXRpbmcgYSByYW1kaXNrIGZyb20gYSBjb21wcmVz c2VkIGNwaW8NCithcmNoaXZlLCBvbiBzdWNoIHN5c3RlbXMsIHRoZSBjcmVhdGlvbiBvZiBhIHJh bWRpc2sgaW1hZ2UgZG9lc24ndCBuZWVkIHRvDQoraW52b2x2ZSBzcGVjaWFsIGJsb2NrIGRldmlj ZXMgb3IgbG9vcGJhY2tzLCB5b3UgbWVyZWx5IGNyZWF0ZSBhIGRpcmVjdG9yeSBvbg0KK2Rpc2sg d2l0aCB0aGUgZGVzaXJlZCBpbml0cmQgY29udGVudCwgY2QgdG8gdGhhdCBkaXJlY3RvcnksIGFu ZCBydW4gKGFzIGFuDQorZXhhbXBsZSk6DQorDQorZmluZCAuIHwgY3BpbyAtLXF1aWV0IC1jIC1v IHwgZ3ppcCAtOSAtbiA+IC9ib290L2ltYWdlZmlsZS5pbWcNCisNCitFeGFtaW5pbmcgdGhlIGNv bnRlbnRzIG9mIGFuIGV4aXN0aW5nIGltYWdlIGZpbGUgaXMganVzdCBhcyBzaW1wbGU6DQorDQor bWtkaXIgL3RtcC9pbWFnZWZpbGUNCitjZCAvdG1wL2ltYWdlZmlsZQ0KK2d6aXAgLWNkIC9ib290 L2ltYWdlZmlsZS5pbWcgfCBjcGlvIC1pbWQgLS1xdWlldA0KIA0KIEluc3RhbGxhdGlvbg0KIC0t LS0tLS0tLS0tLQ0K --=-Jeu4XbmCaw/9IIhEI5fE--