Re: [PATCH 0/5] initmpfs v2: use tmpfs instead of ramfs for rootfs

From: Andrew Morton
Date: Wed Jul 17 2013 - 19:06:51 EST


On Tue, 16 Jul 2013 08:31:13 -0700 (PDT) Rob Landley <rob@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Use tmpfs for rootfs when CONFIG_TMPFS=y and there's no root=.
> Specify rootfstype=ramfs to get the old initramfs behavior.
>
> The previous initramfs code provided a fairly crappy root filesystem:
> didn't let you --bind mount directories out of it, reported zero
> size/usage so it didn't show up in "df" and couldn't run things like
> rpm that query available space before proceeding, would fill up all
> available memory and panic the system if you wrote too much to it...

The df problem and the mount --bind thing are ramfs issues, are they
not? Can we fix them? If so, that's a less intrusive change, and we
also get a fixed ramfs.

> Using tmpfs instead provides a much better root filesystem.
>
> Changes from last time: use test_and_set_bit() for "once" logic.
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/