[arch-general] [arch-dev-public] Mkinitcpio replacement with Dracut

[Eli Schwartz]

On 5/21/19 11:21 AM, Lone_Wolf wrote:
> 
> On 21-05-2019 16:26, Genes Lists via arch-general wrote:
>> On 5/20/19 10:41 PM, Giancarlo Razzolini via arch-dev-public wrote:
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>> ...
>>> In this initial phase I want to ask as many of you to test this as a
>>> replacement to mkinitcpio in your setups,
>>> as many as possible, and in as many scenarios as possible. We will
>> ...
>>
>> I'm an arch tester and I'd be happy to test dracut.
>>
>> It would be helpful if you could create a little write-up on 'how to
>> switch' from mkinitcpio to dracut.
>>
>> Its straightforward for me to add a boot stanza to refind to use the
>> dracut img.
>>
>> And I assume modules now in HOOKS would move to
>> /etc/dracut.conf.d/hooks.conf
>> or similar.
>>
>> All being well, the kernel package will need to be modified to update
>>
>> /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/60-linux.hook
>>
>> to now call dracut.
>>
>> Thanks for working on this.
>>
>> gene
> 
> 
> from https://dracut.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page :
> 
> 
>  * Scripts that end up on the initrd should be POSIX compliant. dracut
>    will try to use /bin/dash as /bin/sh for the initrd if it is
>    available, so you should install it on your system -- dash aims for
>    strict POSIX compliance to the extent possible.
>  * Hooks MUST be POSIX compliant -- they are sourced by the init
>    script, and having a bashism break your user's ability to boot
>    really sucks.
> 
> 
> Seems like having dracut depending on bash may not be a good idea.
> 
> Or is there a way to make sure dracut scripts & hooks will use bash in
> POSIX-compliant mode ?

POSIX compliant means that scripts must run with either bash or POSIX
sh, not "only in bash".

So, on the contrary, dracut is broken stuff when trying to use POSIX,
because their own current official hooks bundled by the upstream dracut
project are not POSIX compliant and therefore only work with bash, but
they intend to fix that and at least some are fixed in git master
(although I haven't tested), see for example
https://github.com/dracutdevs/dracut/pull/516

POSIX-compliant mode is exactly the opposite of what we want.

-- 
Eli Schwartz
Bug Wrangler and Trusted User

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 1601 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-general/attachments/20190521/62ab6c4d/attachment.sig>