RE: [PATCH v4 0/3] initramfs: add support for xattrs in the initial ram disk

Roberto Sassu
2022-07-20T11:52:06Z

> From: Rob Landley [mailto:rob@landley.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2022 4:15 PM
> On 7/19/22 07:26, Roberto Sassu wrote:
> >> P.P.S. If you want to run a command other than /init out of initramfs or initrd,
> >> use the rdinit=/run/this option. Note the root= overmount mechanism is
> >> completely different code and uses the init=/run/this argument instead,
> which
> >> means nothing to initramfs. Again, specifying root= says we are NOT staying
> in
> >> initramfs.
> >
> > Sorry, it was some time ago. I have to go back and see why we needed
> > a separate option.
>
> Did I mention that init/do_mounts.c already has:
>
> __setup("rootfstype=", fs_names_setup);

It is consumed by dracut too, for the real root filesystem.

[...]

> Lots of systems running from initramfs already DON'T have a root=, so you're
> saying dracut being broken when there is no root= is something to work around
> rather than fix in dracut, even though it's been easy to create a system without
> a root= for a decade and a half already...

If there is a possibility that root= or rootfstype= are used by
someone else, I would not count on those to make a selection
of the filesystem for rootfs.

On the other hand, what can go wrong in having a dedicated,
not used by anyone option to do this job?

Thanks

Roberto