From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932161AbVHYPeH (ORCPT ); Thu, 25 Aug 2005 11:34:07 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932168AbVHYPeG (ORCPT ); Thu, 25 Aug 2005 11:34:06 -0400 Received: from ms-smtp-01-smtplb.rdc-nyc.rr.com ([24.29.109.5]:28879 "EHLO ms-smtp-01.rdc-nyc.rr.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932161AbVHYPeD (ORCPT ); Thu, 25 Aug 2005 11:34:03 -0400 Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 11:34:01 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <200508251534.j7PFY11g024729@ms-smtp-01.rdc-nyc.rr.com> To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT X-URL: mailto:linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org X-Mailer: Lynx, Version 2.8.6dev.13c From: robotti@godmail.com Subject: Initramfs and TMPFS! Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org >On Thu, Aug 25, 2005 at 12:35:22AM -0400, robotti@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote: >I don't know, because tar is probably more widely used and >consequently people are more familiar with how to use it. >>As I said before, the cpio format is cleaner/easier to parse in the >>kernel. Everyone has cpio probably so using tar isn't necessary. Cpio is perhaps as available as tar, but it's not as used as tar. Unless tar would be inordinately larger than a cpio implementation (I can't imagine, but I'm not a coder!) I would prefer it. >But, that is not as important as having the option of using tmpfs >as the initramfs. >>Well, it's not clean that we really want this either. I have some >>niche needs for it but I suspect most people will never use such an >>option. If initramfs replaces the old initrd method it should have something as a filesystem that's robust and inspires confidence like ext2. I know generally an initrd is used to load modules and prepare the installation of a Linux system, so it doesn't require much in a filesystem. But, it can also be used to hold and run a complete Linux system, so a more robust filesystem (tmpfs) is useful.