Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/dm-init.rst
Source file repositories/reference/linux-study-clean/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/dm-init.rst
File Facts
- System
- Linux kernel
- Corpus path
Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/dm-init.rst- Extension
.rst- Size
- 4724 bytes
- Lines
- 134
- Domain
- Support Tooling And Documentation
- Bucket
- Documentation
- Inferred role
- Support Tooling And Documentation: documentation
- Status
- atlas-only
Why This File Exists
Repository support layer: documentation, build tooling, samples, user-space helper tools, generated initramfs support, licenses, and validation utilities.
- Repository support layer: documentation, build tooling, samples, user-space helper tools, generated initramfs support, licenses, and validation utilities.
Dependency Surface
- No C-style include directives detected by the generator.
Detected Declarations
- No top-level syscall, struct, function, initcall, or export declaration detected by the generator.
Annotated Snippet
================================
Early creation of mapped devices
================================
It is possible to configure a device-mapper device to act as the root device for
your system in two ways.
The first is to build an initial ramdisk which boots to a minimal userspace
which configures the device, then pivot_root(8) in to it.
The second is to create one or more device-mappers using the module parameter
"dm-mod.create=" through the kernel boot command line argument.
The format is specified as a string of data separated by commas and optionally
semi-colons, where:
- a comma is used to separate fields like name, uuid, flags and table
(specifies one device)
- a semi-colon is used to separate devices.
So the format will look like this::
dm-mod.create=<name>,<uuid>,<minor>,<flags>,<table>[,<table>+][;<name>,<uuid>,<minor>,<flags>,<table>[,<table>+]+]
Where::
<name> ::= The device name.
<uuid> ::= xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx | ""
<minor> ::= The device minor number | ""
<flags> ::= "ro" | "rw"
<table> ::= <start_sector> <num_sectors> <target_type> <target_args>
<target_type> ::= "verity" | "linear" | ... (see list below)
The dm line should be equivalent to the one used by the dmsetup tool with the
`--concise` argument.
Target types
============
Not all target types are available as there are serious risks in allowing
activation of certain DM targets without first using userspace tools to check
the validity of associated metadata.
======================= =======================================================
`cache` constrained, userspace should verify cache device
`crypt` allowed
`delay` allowed
`era` constrained, userspace should verify metadata device
`flakey` constrained, meant for test
`linear` allowed
`log-writes` constrained, userspace should verify metadata device
`mirror` constrained, userspace should verify main/mirror device
`raid` constrained, userspace should verify metadata device
`snapshot` constrained, userspace should verify src/dst device
`snapshot-origin` allowed
`snapshot-merge` constrained, userspace should verify src/dst device
`striped` allowed
`switch` constrained, userspace should verify dev path
`thin` constrained, requires dm target message from userspace
`thin-pool` constrained, requires dm target message from userspace
`verity` allowed
`writecache` constrained, userspace should verify cache device
`zero` constrained, not meant for rootfs
======================= =======================================================
If the target is not listed above, it is constrained by default (not tested).
Examples
========
An example of booting to a linear array made up of user-mode linux block
Annotation
- Atlas domain: Support Tooling And Documentation / Documentation.
- Implementation status: atlas-only.
Implementation Notes
- This generated page is the file-by-file coverage layer; curated subsystem chapters should link here when they synthesize a multi-file control flow.
- Core OS pages should be promoted from atlas-only to deep-reviewed when they explain data structures, invariants, locking, lifecycle, and C implementation snippets.
- Driver-family pages are intentionally pattern-oriented unless they are part of the selected PCIe/NVMe representative device path.