[arch-projects] [mkinitcpio PATCH 1/3] /run/initramfs: copy the whole ramfs

[Tom Gundersen]

On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 5:23 AM, Thomas Bächler <thomas at archlinux.org> wrote:
> Am 17.11.2011 18:07, schrieb Tom Gundersen:
>> I see two potential issues: boot speed and memory use. Moving stuff
>> around in memory should be pretty much instantaneous, and the memory
>> (a couple of MB) will be swapped out quick enough so it shouldn't make
>> a difference.
>>
>> I'd be happy to write a new patch where this is optional, but I don't
>> think we should optimize for stuff unless we know it is a measurable
>> problem.
>
> Depending on what's in there, it could be big. For example, I once wrote
> a hook that extracted a tarfile that was stored inside initramfs (that
> tarfile was the whole root filesystem IIRC).

That's something to take into consideration. I think it would be best
if we were able to optimize the cases that need it by adding some
exceptions to the copying, but still keep the bits needed for
shutdown++, rather than disabling it altogether. Having huge
initramfs' being a corner case, any workaround should of course be
unintrusive (if that is not possible then I agree on just allowing
this stuff to be switched off).

[untested: would bindmounting a directory (like say /lib/modules) to
itself exclude it from "cp -ax"?]

> Other than that, people WILL complain.

Undoubtedly. They always do.

-t