Bug#402499: initramfs-tools: depmod wastes space and time, please replace it with a modules.dep file
Package: initramfs-tools
Version: 0.85b
Severity: normal
When compressed a full modules.dep file is larger than a compressed
depmod binary:
# gzip -9 < /lib/modules/2.6.17-2-686/modules.dep |wc -c
15962
# ls -l sbin/depmod
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 37736 2006-12-11 07:38 sbin/depmod
# gzip -9 < sbin/depmod | wc -c
16936
When using a modules.dep file with the modules=list option the
uncompressed file is 2601 bytes.
It seems that using depmod instead of a modules.dep file is not going to
save initramfs size for anyone, it just adds another program to be run
(more compute time and another thing which can potentially break) and
does no good.
-- Package-specific info:
-- /proc/cmdline
console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty0 audit=1 selinux=1 ro root=/dev/md0 enforcing=0
-- /proc/filesystems
cramfs
ext3
-- lsmod
Module Size Used by
nfsd 208132 13
exportfs 5440 1 nfsd
lockd 55752 2 nfsd
nfs_acl 3392 1 nfsd
sunrpc 134332 9 nfsd,lockd,nfs_acl
ipt_REJECT 5120 91
ipt_LOG 5760 2
ipv6 222976 40
quota_v2 8448 6
dm_mirror 18832 0
softdog 5716 2
iptable_filter 2816 1
ip_tables 17536 3 ipt_REJECT,ipt_LOG,iptable_filter
via_agp 9344 1
agpgart 31496 1 via_agp
psmouse 32516 0
serio_raw 6596 0
via686a 15368 0
rtc 11508 0
uhci_hcd 28304 0
shpchp 39872 0
i2c_isa 4672 1 via686a
usbcore 113924 2 uhci_hcd
pci_hotplug 24884 1 shpchp
i2c_core 19408 2 via686a,i2c_isa
parport_pc 32324 0
floppy 54916 0
tulip 45088 0
parport 31880 1 parport_pc
pcspkr 1732 0
joydev 8960 0
evdev 8896 0
mousedev 10592 1
thermal 13512 0
processor 22976 1 thermal
fan 4676 0
dm_snapshot 16348 0
dm_mod 51512 6 dm_mirror,dm_snapshot
raid1 18176 3
md_mod 61652 4 raid1
ext3 118664 5
jbd 48724 1 ext3
mbcache 8516 1 ext3
ide_disk 15936 10
ide_generic 1216 0 [permanent]
via82cxxx 8260 0 [permanent]
ide_core 112928 3 ide_disk,ide_generic,via82cxxx
-- kernel-img.conf
do_symlinks=yes
do_initrd=yes
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.15-1-k7
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Versions of packages initramfs-tools depends on:
ii busybox 1:1.1.3-3 Tiny utilities for small and embed
ii cpio 2.6-17 GNU cpio -- a program to manage ar
ii klibc-utils 1.4.29-1 small statically-linked utilities
ii module-init-tools 3.2.2-3 tools for managing Linux kernel mo
ii udev 0.100-2.2 /dev/ and hotplug management daemo
initramfs-tools recommends no packages.
-- no debconf information
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