[PATCH v3 5/8] usr: add support for zstd compressed initramfs

Nick Terrell
2020-03-25T19:59:06Z

From: Nick Terrell <terrelln@fb.com>

* Add support for a zstd compressed initramfs.
* Add compression for compressing built-in initramfs with zstd.

I have tested this patch by boot testing with buildroot and QEMU.
Specifically, I booted the kernel with both a zstd and gzip compressed
initramfs, both built into the kernel and separate. I ensured that the
correct compression algorithm was used. I tested on arm, aarch64, i386,
and x86_64.

This patch has been tested in production on aarch64 and x86_64 devices.

Additionally, I have performance measurements from internal use in
production. On an aarch64 device we saw 19 second boot time improvement
from switching from lzma to zstd (27 seconds to 8 seconds). On an x86_64
device we saw a 9 second boot time reduction from switching from xz to
zstd.

Signed-off-by: Nick Terrell <terrelln@fb.com>
---
usr/Kconfig | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
usr/Makefile | 1 +
2 files changed, 21 insertions(+)

diff --git a/usr/Kconfig b/usr/Kconfig
index bdf5bbd40727..43aca37d09b5 100644
--- a/usr/Kconfig
+++ b/usr/Kconfig
@@ -100,6 +100,15 @@ config RD_LZ4
Support loading of a LZ4 encoded initial ramdisk or cpio buffer
If unsure, say N.

+config RD_ZSTD
+ bool "Support initial ramdisk/ramfs compressed using ZSTD"
+ default y
+ depends on BLK_DEV_INITRD
+ select DECOMPRESS_ZSTD
+ help
+ Support loading of a ZSTD encoded initial ramdisk or cpio buffer.
+ If unsure, say N.
+
choice
prompt "Built-in initramfs compression mode"
depends on INITRAMFS_SOURCE != ""
@@ -207,4 +216,15 @@ config INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_LZ4
If you choose this, keep in mind that most distros don't provide lz4
by default which could cause a build failure.

+config INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_ZSTD
+ bool "ZSTD"
+ depends on RD_ZSTD
+ help
+ ZSTD is a compression algorithm targeting intermediate compression
+ with fast decompression speed. It will compress better than GZIP and
+ decompress around the same speed as LZO, but slower than LZ4.
+
+ If you choose this, keep in mind that you may need to install the zstd
+ tool to be able to compress the initram.
+
endchoice
diff --git a/usr/Makefile b/usr/Makefile
index c12e6b15ce72..b1a81a40eab1 100644
--- a/usr/Makefile
+++ b/usr/Makefile
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ compress-$(CONFIG_INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_LZMA) := lzma
compress-$(CONFIG_INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_XZ) := xzmisc
compress-$(CONFIG_INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_LZO) := lzo
compress-$(CONFIG_INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_LZ4) := lz4
+compress-$(CONFIG_INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_ZSTD) := zstd

obj-$(CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD) := initramfs_data.o

--
2.25.1