MKINITCPIO.CONF(5)

NAME
mkinitcpio.conf - mkinitcpio configuration file

SYNOPSIS

@SYSCONFDIR@/mkinitcpio.conf

DESCRIPTION

mkinitcpio will attempt to read from a configuration file each time it is invoked, @SYSCONFDIR@/mkinitcpio.conf by default. This file defines several variables which describe the contents of the image to be generated. In addition to the "main" configuration file, drop-in configuration snippets are read from @SYSCONFDIR@/mkinitcpio.conf.d/*.conf. These drop-ins have higher precedence and override the main configuration file.

VARIABLES

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(1), gzip(1), bzip2(1), lz4(1), lzop(1), lzma(1), and xz(1) compressors. If unspecified, this setting defaults to zstd compression for Linux ≥ 5.9 and gzip compression for Linux < 5.9. In order to create an uncompressed image, define this variable as cat.
    It is 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.

MODULES_DECOMPRESS
    Switch (yes/no) to decide whether loadable kernel modules and their firmware should remain compressed or be uncompressed during initramfs creation. Disabled by default to avoid recompressing the files using a lower compression and to reduce RAM usage during early boot. Enable to allow further decreasing image size when using high compression (e.g. xz -9e or zstd --long --ultra -22) at the expense of increased RAM usage at early boot.
    Note that any compressed files will be placed in the uncompressed early CPIO to avoid double compression.

SEE ALSO

mkinitcpio(8)

AUTHORS

mkinitcpio is maintained by the Arch Linux community. Refer to the AUTHORS file for a full list of contributors.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 🄯 mkinitcpio contributors. GPL-2.0-only.