is it possible to use tmpfs for / rather than aufs

[Stuart Pook <slp462978@pook.it>]

hello

I'd like the fetch option of debian-live to untar the contents of the fetched file into a tmpfs and use this tmpfs as the root filesystem.  Is this possible?

I'd imagine being able to run:

lb config -b netboot \
        --distribution stable \
        --parent-mirror-bootstrap http://localhost:3142/debian \
        --parent-mirror-binary http://localhost:3142/debian \
        --parent-mirror-binary-security http://localhost:3142/security \
        --parent-mirror-chroot-security http://localhost:3142/security \
        --bootappend-live "debug=1 fetch=tftp://10.0.2.2/filesystem.tgz boot=live" \
        --exposed-root true
sudo lb build
kvm -m 3G -boot n -net nic -net  user,tftp=$PWD/tftpboot,bootfile=/pxelinux.0

and have live-boot untar filesystem.tgz into a tmpfs and to use this tmpfs as the rootfs.

At the moment I use fetch=tftp://10.0.2.2/filesystem.squashfs and I don't see what aufs gives me in this situation.  With aufs if I delete a file it still uses memory (because it is in a the squash file which is loopback mounted).  If / was just a tmpfs, deleting a file would reduce the memory use.

Has anyone done this before?  Does it seem reasonable?  What files would I have to change to make this happen?

I'd also need to be able to control the size of the tmpfs for the root filesystem.

thanks for any help
Stuart