MKINITCPIO.CONF(5)             mkinitcpio manual            MKINITCPIO.CONF(5)

NAME
       mkinitcpio.conf - mkinitcpio configuration file

SYNOPSIS
       /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

DESCRIPTION
       mkinitcpio will attempt to read from a configuration 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. In
       addition to the "main" configuration file, drop-in configuration
       snippets are read from /etc/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.

                                  2024-04-27                MKINITCPIO.CONF(5)