Re: Broken initrd compression settings in 3.13

[Linus Torvalds]

On Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 6:33 PM, Jeff Layton <jlayton@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Perhaps a better solution for this would be to instead export an
> env var with a list of the compression algorithms that the kernel
> supports. Then installkernel or dracut could use that info to make a
> semi-intelligent decision based on that and what tools are installed.
>
> ...or maybe a separate env var for each one that it supports:
>
>     $INITRD_COMPRESS_LZ4
>     $INITRD_COMPRESS_BZIP2
>     $INITRD_COMPRESS_GZIP
>
> ...etc.

Agreed, either of those would work.

Of course, so does just "distro selects whatever compression method it
thinks is best, and when you compile a kernel for that distro, you
need to make sure that that kernel knows how to uncompress the
initrd".

Which quite frankly is the sanest approach of all. *Especially*
considering that right now we default to supporting all the initrd
compression methods.

And it has the advantage of not needing anything like this at all.

When you compile a kernel, you already need to compile in support for
the stuff the distro needs. This is no different, really.

So I think the whole "kernel tells the distro what compression method
to use" approach is broken and silly, and the wrong way around.

              Linus
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