Bug#533903: initramfs-tools: support different compression tools in mkinitramfs

[maximilian attems <max@stro.at>]

On Sun, 21 Jun 2009, Michael Prokop wrote:

> Package: initramfs-tools
> Version: 0.93.3
> Severity: wishlist
> 
> 
> Current kernel versions support different decompression options for
> kernel and initrd:
> 
>   CONFIG_DECOMPRESS_GZIP
>   CONFIG_DECOMPRESS_BZIP2
>   CONFIG_DECOMPRESS_LZMA

i haven't played with those, but yes why not.


do you know what happens if initramfs is in lzma but kernel not?
 
> initramfs-tools currently supports gzip only. I'd like to see
> support for bzip2 and lzma as well, as both of them provide better
> compression (which is especially interesting for live systems).
> 
> IMHO the user should get gzip by default (if unset) but be able to
> choose between gzip, bzip2 and lzma. Something like
> COMPRESSION=[gzip|bzip2|lzma] in /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
> should provide that.
> 
> I plan to provide the according code for integration (though I'm
> running out of time right now, so it might need a few days/weeks).
> Please ACK my idea if that's in your interest. If have any special
> configuration variable / implementation wishes please let me know.

adding the dracut guys on cc, afais they haven't implement it
yet too, so maybe we can easily agree:
~/src/dracut$ egrep gzip dracut
( cd "$initdir"; find . |cpio -H newc -o |gzip -9 > "$outfile"; )