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From: "Boyd Stephen Smith Jr." <bss03@volumehost.net>
To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] ramfs - is it necessary ???
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:16:35 -0600	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <200702211716.46842.bss03@volumehost.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <45DCCAED.40709@xvalheru.org>

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On Wednesday 21 February 2007, pat <pat@xvalheru.org> wrote 
about '[gentoo-user] ramfs - is it necessary ???':
> And if it is necessary where I can find good documentation
> (samples, explanation, etc.).

Pretty much all of the documenation on "early userspace" is in the kernel 
tree.  You might even want to emerge the kernel with the 'doc' use flag, 
to get full (HTML?) documentation, although some of it is in simple plain 
text (rather than docbook) and available w/o that flag.

> And next question is: hat is difference between ramfs and initrd ??? Is
> it the same thing or not ... ???

initrd is the old way.  A compressed (usually ext2) filesystem used to load 
kernel modules, or otherwise initialize things before mounting the root 
filesystem.

initramfs is the new way.  A compressed series of cpio archives (with some 
special treatment) for the same purpose.

Both use ram-backed block devices.  initrd doesn't need ramfs or tmpfs.  I 
think an initramfs can use either, but it might require ramfs.  An 
initramfs can be compiled into the kernel, either can be a separate file 
loaded by grub/lilo/xen.

ramfs is a fixed-size ram-backed file system.  tmpfs is a newer, better way 
to do this.  It has a maximum size (which can be changed by a remount) but 
will only allocate enough ram to hold what is currently placed on the 
filesystem.

-- 
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.                     ,= ,-_-. =. 
bss03@volumehost.net                      ((_/)o o(\_))
ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy           `-'(. .)`-' 
http://iguanasuicide.org/                      \_/     
New GPG Key!  Old key expires 2007-03-25.  Upgrade NOW!

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  reply	other threads:[~2007-02-21 23:23 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 23+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2007-02-21 22:42 [gentoo-user] ramfs - is it necessary ??? pat
2007-02-21 23:16 ` Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. [this message]
2007-02-22  0:08   ` pat
2007-02-22  0:25     ` Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
2007-02-22  0:41       ` pat
2007-02-22 10:07         ` Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
2007-02-22  7:45       ` Alan McKinnon
2007-02-22 10:08         ` Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
2007-02-22 10:56           ` Dirk Heinrichs
2007-02-22 11:05           ` Alan McKinnon
2007-02-22 18:12           ` Neil Bothwick
2007-02-23  7:11             ` Dirk Heinrichs
2007-02-23  9:36               ` Neil Bothwick
2007-02-22  0:13 ` Hemmann, Volker Armin
2007-02-22  0:29   ` Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
2007-02-22  0:39   ` pat
2007-02-22  1:50     ` Hemmann, Volker Armin
2007-02-22 10:08     ` Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
     [not found]     ` <200702220958.49233.alan@linuxholdings.co.za>
2007-02-22 10:08       ` Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
2007-02-22  7:50   ` Alan McKinnon
2007-02-22  8:14     ` Neil Bothwick
     [not found]       ` <200702221108.31090.alan@linuxholdings.co.za>
2007-02-22  9:18         ` pat
     [not found]           ` <200702220411.04512.bss03@volumehost.net>
2007-02-22 12:02             ` pat

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