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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/early-userspace/buffer-format.txt')
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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 000000000..e1fd7f9da --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/early-userspace/buffer-format.txt @@ -0,0 +1,112 @@ + initramfs buffer format + ----------------------- + + Al Viro, H. Peter Anvin + Last revision: 2002-01-13 + +Starting with kernel 2.5.x, the old "initial ramdisk" protocol is +getting {replaced/complemented} with the new "initial ramfs" +(initramfs) protocol. The initramfs contents is passed using the same +memory buffer protocol used by the initrd protocol, but the contents +is different. The initramfs buffer contains an archive which is +expanded into a ramfs filesystem; this document details the format of +the initramfs buffer format. + +The initramfs buffer format is based around the "newc" or "crc" CPIO +formats, and can be created with the cpio(1) utility. The cpio +archive can be compressed using gzip(1). One valid version of an +initramfs buffer is thus a single .cpio.gz file. + +The full format of the initramfs buffer is defined by the following +grammar, where: + * is used to indicate "0 or more occurrences of" + (|) indicates alternatives + + indicates concatenation + GZIP() indicates the gzip(1) of the operand + ALGN(n) means padding with null bytes to an n-byte boundary + + initramfs := ("\0" | cpio_archive | cpio_gzip_archive)* + + cpio_gzip_archive := GZIP(cpio_archive) + + cpio_archive := cpio_file* + (<nothing> | cpio_trailer) + + cpio_file := ALGN(4) + cpio_header + filename + "\0" + ALGN(4) + data + + cpio_trailer := ALGN(4) + cpio_header + "TRAILER!!!\0" + ALGN(4) + + +In human terms, the initramfs buffer contains a collection of +compressed and/or uncompressed cpio archives (in the "newc" or "crc" +formats); arbitrary amounts zero bytes (for padding) can be added +between members. + +The cpio "TRAILER!!!" entry (cpio end-of-archive) is optional, but is +not ignored; see "handling of hard links" below. + +The structure of the cpio_header is as follows (all fields contain +hexadecimal ASCII numbers fully padded with '0' on the left to the +full width of the field, for example, the integer 4780 is represented +by the ASCII string "000012ac"): + +Field name Field size Meaning +c_magic 6 bytes The string "070701" or "070702" +c_ino 8 bytes File inode number +c_mode 8 bytes File mode and permissions +c_uid 8 bytes File uid +c_gid 8 bytes File gid +c_nlink 8 bytes Number of links +c_mtime 8 bytes Modification time +c_filesize 8 bytes Size of data field +c_maj 8 bytes Major part of file device number +c_min 8 bytes Minor part of file device number +c_rmaj 8 bytes Major part of device node reference +c_rmin 8 bytes Minor part of device node reference +c_namesize 8 bytes Length of filename, including final \0 +c_chksum 8 bytes Checksum of data field if c_magic is 070702; + otherwise zero + +The c_mode field matches the contents of st_mode returned by stat(2) +on Linux, and encodes the file type and file permissions. + +The c_filesize should be zero for any file which is not a regular file +or symlink. + +The c_chksum field contains a simple 32-bit unsigned sum of all the +bytes in the data field. cpio(1) refers to this as "crc", which is +clearly incorrect (a cyclic redundancy check is a different and +significantly stronger integrity check), however, this is the +algorithm used. + +If the filename is "TRAILER!!!" this is actually an end-of-archive +marker; the c_filesize for an end-of-archive marker must be zero. + + +*** Handling of hard links + +When a nondirectory with c_nlink > 1 is seen, the (c_maj,c_min,c_ino) +tuple is looked up in a tuple buffer. If not found, it is entered in +the tuple buffer and the entry is created as usual; if found, a hard +link rather than a second copy of the file is created. It is not +necessary (but permitted) to include a second copy of the file +contents; if the file contents is not included, the c_filesize field +should be set to zero to indicate no data section follows. If data is +present, the previous instance of the file is overwritten; this allows +the data-carrying instance of a file to occur anywhere in the sequence +(GNU cpio is reported to attach the data to the last instance of a +file only.) + +c_filesize must not be zero for a symlink. + +When a "TRAILER!!!" end-of-archive marker is seen, the tuple buffer is +reset. This permits archives which are generated independently to be +concatenated. + +To combine file data from different sources (without having to +regenerate the (c_maj,c_min,c_ino) fields), therefore, either one of +the following techniques can be used: + +a) Separate the different file data sources with a "TRAILER!!!" + end-of-archive marker, or + +b) Make sure c_nlink == 1 for all nondirectory entries. |