Why use nash instead of busybox in initrd and initramfs

busyboxinitramfs

Why use nash instead of busybox in initrd and initramfs?

I'm just looking for pros and cons of both really (and any other applications with similar functionality). I'm currently leaning towards busybox being the better option, but I can't help but wonder why redhat and fedora use nash in their initrd.

Is it strictly for business reasons, or is it technical?

Thanks,
Chenz

Best Answer

Busybox seems to be more versatile. I have used it before for the initrd. You can choose to compile in only a few apps or a tonne of them depending on how much functionality you needed during the initial boot stage. This allows you to customise a lot of things during the boot stage.

Related Solutions

Linux – Configure initramfs-tools to add curl to the initramfs, and run curl in a script at boot while in intitrd in Ubuntu 10.04 Server

You need to edit your initramfs hooks. Create your own file like so:

$ cat /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/curl
#!/bin/sh -e
PREREQS=""
case $1 in
        prereqs) echo "${PREREQS}"; exit 0;;
esac
. /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hook-functions
copy_exec /usr/bin/curl /bin

Rebuild your initramfs:

$ sudo update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-4-generic

Check that it actually landed in there:

$ lsinitramfs -l /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-4-generic | grep curl
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root       385704 Nov 28 18:32 usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcurl.so.4
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       150344 Nov 28 18:32 bin/curl

Linux – Busybox-like binaries which ext3 and ext4 support

Compile e2fsprogs with static linking and choose the binaries you need from it. You probably only need mke2fs (which makes all kinda of EXT series file systems - mkfs.ext4 is just a symlink to it.

If you can't get static compiling to work, "ldd mke2fs" will at least show which libearies you need to install.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux – Configure initramfs-tools to add curl to the initramfs, and run curl in a script at boot while in intitrd in Ubuntu 10.04 Server

Linux – Busybox-like binaries which ext3 and ext4 support

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