Bug#260068: initrd-tools: shoul mkinitrd use library reduction to reduce the size of the initrd ?

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Sun, Jul 18, 2004 at 11:12:49AM +0200, Eduard Bloch wrote:
> #include <hallo.h>
> * Sven Luther [Sun, Jul 18 2004, 10:32:40AM]:
> > Package: initrd-tools
> > Version: 0.1.71
> > Severity: normal
> > 
> > 
> > In order to make the size of the initrd, library reduction could be used
> > to save space, as this is currently done for the debian-installer
> > initrd. I am not 100 % familiar with the process though, and there may
> > be some caeats i am not thinking about.
> 
> Well, you would need to install additional development packages:
> libc-pic, python, binutils, gcc (see mklibs package). It is surely

Well, having it optional and suggest on mklibs should be enoguh no ?

> feasible but I just tried and the gain does not really convince me:
> 
> reduced:
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        90152 2004-07-18 11:06 ld-linux.so.2
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root       612520 2004-07-18 11:06 libc.so.6
> 
> vs. original:
> -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        90048 1970-01-01 01:00 ld-linux.so.2
> -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      1244004 1970-01-01 01:00 libc.so.6

Come on, that is 600KB, which is quite nice. Remember in my case, i have
a size limit of 1.5MB for the initrd, and i also believe other machines,
like some older older PReP have a 4MB limit for kernel + initrd. Same
thing can happen with netbooting on some older hardware.

Did you do the mklibs thingy by hand ? Or do you have an mkinitrd patch ?

Friendly,

Sven Luther