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author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org> | 2005-04-16 18:20:36 -0400 |
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committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org> | 2005-04-16 18:20:36 -0400 |
commit | 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 (patch) | |
tree | 0bba044c4ce775e45a88a51686b5d9f90697ea9d /Documentation/early-userspace/buffer-format.txt |
Linux-2.6.12-rc2v2.6.12-rc2
Initial git repository build. I'm not bothering with the full history,
even though we have it. We can create a separate "historical" git
archive of that later if we want to, and in the meantime it's about
3.2GB when imported into git - space that would just make the early
git days unnecessarily complicated, when we don't have a lot of good
infrastructure for it.
Let it rip!
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-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/early-userspace/buffer-format.txt | 112 |
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diff --git a/Documentation/early-userspace/buffer-format.txt b/Documentation/early-userspace/buffer-format.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..e1fd7f9dad16 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/early-userspace/buffer-format.txt | |||
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1 | initramfs buffer format | ||
2 | ----------------------- | ||
3 | |||
4 | Al Viro, H. Peter Anvin | ||
5 | Last revision: 2002-01-13 | ||
6 | |||
7 | Starting with kernel 2.5.x, the old "initial ramdisk" protocol is | ||
8 | getting {replaced/complemented} with the new "initial ramfs" | ||
9 | (initramfs) protocol. The initramfs contents is passed using the same | ||
10 | memory buffer protocol used by the initrd protocol, but the contents | ||
11 | is different. The initramfs buffer contains an archive which is | ||
12 | expanded into a ramfs filesystem; this document details the format of | ||
13 | the initramfs buffer format. | ||
14 | |||
15 | The initramfs buffer format is based around the "newc" or "crc" CPIO | ||
16 | formats, and can be created with the cpio(1) utility. The cpio | ||
17 | archive can be compressed using gzip(1). One valid version of an | ||
18 | initramfs buffer is thus a single .cpio.gz file. | ||
19 | |||
20 | The full format of the initramfs buffer is defined by the following | ||
21 | grammar, where: | ||
22 | * is used to indicate "0 or more occurrences of" | ||
23 | (|) indicates alternatives | ||
24 | + indicates concatenation | ||
25 | GZIP() indicates the gzip(1) of the operand | ||
26 | ALGN(n) means padding with null bytes to an n-byte boundary | ||
27 | |||
28 | initramfs := ("\0" | cpio_archive | cpio_gzip_archive)* | ||
29 | |||
30 | cpio_gzip_archive := GZIP(cpio_archive) | ||
31 | |||
32 | cpio_archive := cpio_file* + (<nothing> | cpio_trailer) | ||
33 | |||
34 | cpio_file := ALGN(4) + cpio_header + filename + "\0" + ALGN(4) + data | ||
35 | |||
36 | cpio_trailer := ALGN(4) + cpio_header + "TRAILER!!!\0" + ALGN(4) | ||
37 | |||
38 | |||
39 | In human terms, the initramfs buffer contains a collection of | ||
40 | compressed and/or uncompressed cpio archives (in the "newc" or "crc" | ||
41 | formats); arbitrary amounts zero bytes (for padding) can be added | ||
42 | between members. | ||
43 | |||
44 | The cpio "TRAILER!!!" entry (cpio end-of-archive) is optional, but is | ||
45 | not ignored; see "handling of hard links" below. | ||
46 | |||
47 | The structure of the cpio_header is as follows (all fields contain | ||
48 | hexadecimal ASCII numbers fully padded with '0' on the left to the | ||
49 | full width of the field, for example, the integer 4780 is represented | ||
50 | by the ASCII string "000012ac"): | ||
51 | |||
52 | Field name Field size Meaning | ||
53 | c_magic 6 bytes The string "070701" or "070702" | ||
54 | c_ino 8 bytes File inode number | ||
55 | c_mode 8 bytes File mode and permissions | ||
56 | c_uid 8 bytes File uid | ||
57 | c_gid 8 bytes File gid | ||
58 | c_nlink 8 bytes Number of links | ||
59 | c_mtime 8 bytes Modification time | ||
60 | c_filesize 8 bytes Size of data field | ||
61 | c_maj 8 bytes Major part of file device number | ||
62 | c_min 8 bytes Minor part of file device number | ||
63 | c_rmaj 8 bytes Major part of device node reference | ||
64 | c_rmin 8 bytes Minor part of device node reference | ||
65 | c_namesize 8 bytes Length of filename, including final \0 | ||
66 | c_chksum 8 bytes Checksum of data field if c_magic is 070702; | ||
67 | otherwise zero | ||
68 | |||
69 | The c_mode field matches the contents of st_mode returned by stat(2) | ||
70 | on Linux, and encodes the file type and file permissions. | ||
71 | |||
72 | The c_filesize should be zero for any file which is not a regular file | ||
73 | or symlink. | ||
74 | |||
75 | The c_chksum field contains a simple 32-bit unsigned sum of all the | ||
76 | bytes in the data field. cpio(1) refers to this as "crc", which is | ||
77 | clearly incorrect (a cyclic redundancy check is a different and | ||
78 | significantly stronger integrity check), however, this is the | ||
79 | algorithm used. | ||
80 | |||
81 | If the filename is "TRAILER!!!" this is actually an end-of-archive | ||
82 | marker; the c_filesize for an end-of-archive marker must be zero. | ||
83 | |||
84 | |||
85 | *** Handling of hard links | ||
86 | |||
87 | When a nondirectory with c_nlink > 1 is seen, the (c_maj,c_min,c_ino) | ||
88 | tuple is looked up in a tuple buffer. If not found, it is entered in | ||
89 | the tuple buffer and the entry is created as usual; if found, a hard | ||
90 | link rather than a second copy of the file is created. It is not | ||
91 | necessary (but permitted) to include a second copy of the file | ||
92 | contents; if the file contents is not included, the c_filesize field | ||
93 | should be set to zero to indicate no data section follows. If data is | ||
94 | present, the previous instance of the file is overwritten; this allows | ||
95 | the data-carrying instance of a file to occur anywhere in the sequence | ||
96 | (GNU cpio is reported to attach the data to the last instance of a | ||
97 | file only.) | ||
98 | |||
99 | c_filesize must not be zero for a symlink. | ||
100 | |||
101 | When a "TRAILER!!!" end-of-archive marker is seen, the tuple buffer is | ||
102 | reset. This permits archives which are generated independently to be | ||
103 | concatenated. | ||
104 | |||
105 | To combine file data from different sources (without having to | ||
106 | regenerate the (c_maj,c_min,c_ino) fields), therefore, either one of | ||
107 | the following techniques can be used: | ||
108 | |||
109 | a) Separate the different file data sources with a "TRAILER!!!" | ||
110 | end-of-archive marker, or | ||
111 | |||
112 | b) Make sure c_nlink == 1 for all nondirectory entries. | ||