linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 09/16] initrd: remove the BLKFLSBUF call in handle

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Message-ID: <e60b1977-2e1d-75ee-e934-207658145098@youngman.org.uk>
Date:   Sat, 4 Jul 2020 01:18:48 +0100
From:   antlists <antlists@...ngman.org.uk>
To:     "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>, Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc:     Song Liu <song@...nel.org>, Al Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        linux-raid@...r.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 09/16] initrd: remove the BLKFLSBUF call in handle_initrd

On 03/07/2020 04:40, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On 2020-06-15 05:53, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
>> BLKFLSBUF used to be overloaded for the ramdisk driver to free the whole
>> ramdisk, which was completely different behavior compared to all other
>> drivers.  But this magic overload got removed in commit ff26956875c2
>> ("brd: remove support for BLKFLSBUF"), so this call is entirely
>> pointless now.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>
> 
> Does *anyone* use initrd as opposed to initramfs anymore? It would seem
> like a good candidate for deprecation/removal.
> 
Reading the gentoo mailing list, it seems there's a fair few people who 
don't use initramfs. I get the impression they don't use initrd either, 
though.

I don't know too much about booting without an initramfs - I switched 
ages ago - so what is possible and what they're actually doing, I don't 
know.

Cheers,
Wol