linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH] initramfs: correctly handle space in path on cpio list generation

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Message-ID: <20260211134025.57a4d249.ddiss@suse.de>
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2026 13:40:25 +1100
From: David Disseldorp <ddiss@...e.de>
To: Christian Marangi <ansuelsmth@...il.com>
Cc: Nathan Chancellor <nathan@...nel.org>, Nicolas Schier <nsc@...nel.org>,
 Dmitry Safonov <0x7f454c46@...il.com>, linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org,
 linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, "linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org"
 <linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] initramfs: correctly handle space in path on cpio
 list generation

On Wed, 11 Feb 2026 01:58:27 +0100, Christian Marangi wrote:

> > What happens when someone wants support for filenames containing spaces
> > and quotes?
> >   
> 
> I mean... it's a less common case where filename start to have almost invalid
> char but yes it's a valid point.
> 
> > > I'm open to both solution. Lets just agree on one of the 2.  
> > 
> > I don't think any of the options will be particularly simple, but
> > nul-byte delimited field support might be the most straightforward.
> >   
> 
> Yes that was the initial idea but was quickly scrapped as major work is needed
> in the .c tool to handle NULL separated entry.
> 
> Can you by chance point to me how the GNU tool work with --null ?
> 
> 
> They also create a cpio_list file with entry NULL separated?

E.g. dracut uses the GNU cpio --null alongside find -print0:

  cd "$initdir"
  find . -print0 | sort -z \
      | cpio ${CPIO_REPRODUCIBLE:+--reproducible} --null ${cpio_owner:+-R "$cpio_owner"} -H newc -o --quiet \
      | $compress >> "${DRACUT_TMPDIR}/initramfs.img"