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Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2023 11:08:00 -0600
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Subject: Re: [PATCH v3] rootfs: Fix support for rootfstype= when root= is
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To: Stefan Berger <stefanb@linux.ibm.com>, Askar Safin <safinaskar@gmail.com>
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From: Rob Landley <rob@landley.net>
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On 12/29/23 13:14, Stefan Berger wrote:>> That said, the code I wrote is doing a
strstr to see if the argument's there,
>> but doesn't care what ELSE is there, so it could easily be
>> "rootfstype=tmpfs,ext4" and have the userspace script also filter the argument
>> for just what it's interested in, since at that point it's NOT THE KERNEL DOING IT.
> 
> It's a bit tricky that this particular option, that can support a 
> comma-separated list, is shared between kernel and user space and user 
> space does not already filter-out what is not relevant for it.

Debian's code sometimes has bugs, especially their initramfs stuff doesn't get a
lot of scrutiny:

https://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1705.2/05611.html
https://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1705.3/01182.html
https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/9/13/651#:~:text=Debian's

But they're pretty good about fixing bugs pointed out to them:

https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/initramfs-tools/-/commit/49e4a0555f51

The kernel having more capabilities here than Debian's userspace does isn't new,
it's what gives debian's userspace the opportunity to gain new capabilities.

Although in this case, the patch in question still isn't in lkml 5 years later
because Debian development is much more responsive than linux-kernel:

https://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/2302.2/05597.html

>>> Setting the kernel boot command line option rootfstype= to tmpfs or
>>> ramfs was possible so far and that's what the documentation and code
>>> supported so far as well. The bug surfaced when root= was provided, in
>>> which case it was ignored.
>> 
>> No, as I explained when I wrote the initmpfs code in 2013 when you say root= you
>> are explicitly requesting the kernel mount a second file system over rootfs
> 
> From the perspective of needing xattr support in initramfs it's 
> unfortunately not so obvious what the filesystem type of the kernel's 
> rootfs (presumably the 1st file system) has to do with the option given 
> for the 2nd filesystem. Though the Debian scripts are the bigger problem 
> it seems.

Ping Ben if initramfs-tools needs updating?

I've been following the initramfs xattr support threads forever:

https://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/2207.3/06939.html

I'm happy to add new format support to toybox cpio if anybody comes to an
agreement on what that should be, but last time there was "as long as we're here
32 bit timestamps" and "sparse file support could be" and various bikeshedding...

Was there a new thread I didn't get cc'd on? The last I have is... July 2022 I
think?

> However, for those one could argue that the Debian scripts 
> could be updated and for as long as they are not able to filter-out the 
> tmpfs or ramfs options we are interested in one cannot pass these 
> options or a comma-separated list on systems that run the current Debian 
> scripts.

You can argue that current userspace does not take full advantage of the
existing kernel API, sure.

>> (that's what root= MEANS), and thus don't bother making it a (more expensive)
>> tmpfs because it's not sticking around.
> 
> That's true unless you want to use IMA signature enforcement in the 
> initramfs already and tmpfs is now required.

I agree that if you want to add a new requirement, you may need to modify userspace.

Let me see if I understand your problem: it sounds like debian's initramfs-tools
overloads the root= and rootfstype= arguments parsed by the kernel to have a
second meaning (the kernel uses them for one thing, you want to use them for
something else, and there's currently a semantic gap between the two.)

You want to add a new capability requiring a new build dependency in the
initramfs-tools package because it's doing new stuff, but there cannot be any
OTHER changes made to initramfs-tools, so the kernel should change its existing
semantics instead.

You can't NOT provide root=, and you can't provide initramfstype=tmpfs...
either, and those are the two existing ways to tell rootfs to be tmpfs instead
of ramfs. You'd like to add a third way to specify the same thing.

Do I have that right?

>     Stefan

Rob