README.md

   1 dracut
   2 ====
   3
   4 dracut is an event driven initramfs infrastructure.
   5
   6 [![Contributor Covenant](https://img.shields.io/badge/Contributor%20Covenant-v2.0%20adopted-ff69b4.svg)](docs/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)
   7
   8 dracut (the tool) is used to create an initramfs image by copying tools
   9 and files from an installed system and combining it with the
  10 dracut framework, usually found in /usr/lib/dracut/modules.d.
  11
  12 Unlike other implementations, dracut hard-codes as little
  13 as possible into the initramfs. The initramfs has
  14 (basically) one purpose in life -- getting the rootfs mounted so that
  15 we can transition to the real rootfs.  This is all driven off of
  16 device availability.  Therefore, instead of scripts hard-coded to do
  17 various things, we depend on udev to create device nodes for us and
  18 then when we have the rootfs's device node, we mount and carry on.
  19 This helps to keep the time required in the initramfs as little as
  20 possible so that things like a 5 second boot aren't made impossible as
  21 a result of the very existence of an initramfs.
  22
  23 Most of the initramfs generation functionality in dracut is provided by a bunch
  24 of generator modules that are sourced by the main dracut script to install
  25 specific functionality into the initramfs.  They live in the modules.d
  26 subdirectory, and use functionality provided by dracut-functions to do their
  27 work.
  28
  29 Documentation:
  30  - [Introduction](man/dracut.asc)
  31  - [User Manual](man/dracut.usage.asc)
  32
  33 Currently dracut is developed on [github.com](https://github.com/dracutdevs/dracut).
  34
  35 The release tarballs are [here](https://github.com/dracutdevs/dracut/releases).
  36
  37 Gitter (chat):
  38  - https://gitter.im/dracutdevs/Lobby
  39
  40 See [News](NEWS.md) for information about changes in the releases and
  41 the [Wiki](https://github.com/dracutdevs/dracut/wiki) to share information.
  42
  43 See the github issue tracker for things which still need to be done and [Hacking](docs/HACKING.md)
  44 for some instructions on how to get started.  There is also a mailing list
  45 that is being used for the discussion -- initramfs@vger.kernel.org.
  46 It is a typical vger list, send mail to majordomo@vger.kernel.org with body
  47 of 'subscribe initramfs email@host.com'
  48
  49
  50 Licensed under the GPLv2