linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v5] init: Disable defaults if init= fails

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Message-ID: <20140930071204.551f0fef@as>
Date:	Tue, 30 Sep 2014 07:12:04 -0500
From:	Chuck Ebbert <cebbert.lkml@...il.com>
To:	Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net>
Cc:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Rob Landley <rob@...dley.net>,
	Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@...radead.org>,
	Shuah Khan <shuah.kh@...sung.com>,
	Rusty Russell <rusty@...tcorp.com.au>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v5] init: Disable defaults if init= fails

On Sun, 28 Sep 2014 19:40:31 -0700
Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net> wrote:

> If a user puts init=/whatever on the command line and /whatever
> can't be run, then the kernel will try a few default options before
> giving up.  If init=/whatever came from a bootloader prompt, then
> this is unexpected but probably harmless.  On the other hand, if it
> comes from a script (e.g. a tool like virtme or perhaps a future
> kselftest script), then the fallbacks are likely to exist, but
> they'll do the wrong thing.  For example, they might unexpectedly
> invoke systemd.
> 
> This makes a failure to run the specified init= process be fatal.
> 
> As a temporary measure, users can set CONFIG_INIT_FALLBACK=y to
> preserve the old behavior.  If no one speaks up, we can remove that
> option entirely after a release or two.
> 

I like it. Now users could even use:

 rdinit=foo init=bar

If foo fails, bar will be tried as a fallback, and nothing else after
that.
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