Manpages - mkinitcpio.conf.5

mkinitcpio.conf - mkinitcpio configuration file

/etc/mkinitcpio.conf

mkinitcpio will attempt to read from a config file each time it is invoked, ‘/etc/mkinitcpio.conf’ by default. This file defines several variables which describe the contents of the image to be generated.

MODULES

Defines an array of additional modules which should be added to the image. Dependencies (including other modules and necessary firmware), will also be added to the image. At runtime, the modules in this array which were successfully added to the image will be explicitly loaded.

FILES

Defines an array of additional files which should be added to the image. Files are added as is, and parent directories will be added if needed. Files specified in this variable will override previously added files of the same path.

BINARIES

Defines an array of additional binaries which should be added to the image. These are assumed to be dynamic ELF binaries, and necessary shared library dependencies will automatically be added. However, it is not considered an error to specify a non-ELF binary in this variable. Parent directories will be added if needed. Files specified in this variable will override previously added files of the same path.

HOOKS

Defines an array of hooks which will be run during the build process. Order is important, as it defines the order in which hooks will be run during bootup. Use mkinitcpio’s -L flag to list all available hooks, and the -H flag to display the help text for a specific hook.

COMPRESSION

Defines a program to filter the generated image through. The kernel understands the compression formats yielded by the zstd, gzip, bzip2, lz4, lzop, lzma, and xz compressors. If unspecified, this setting defaults to zstd compression. In order to create an uncompressed image, define this variable as cat.

It’s not hard to realize that a filter such as a tac or rev will cause mkinitcpio to report success but generate a useless image. Similarly, using a compression program not listed above may generate an equally useless image, despite being “valid”.

COMPRESSION_OPTIONS

Defines an array of additional options to be passed to the compression program. This option is generally not used. It can be potentially dangerous and may cause invalid images to be generated without any sign of an error.

*mkinitcpio*(8)

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