[PATCH] Add retain_initrd boot option

Add retain_initrd option to control freeing of initrd memory after
extraction.  By default, free memory as previously.

The first boot will need to hold a copy of the in memory fs for the second
boot.  This image can be large (much larger than the kernel), hence we can
save time when the memory loader is slow.  Also, it reduces the memory
footprint while extracting the first boot since you don't need another copy
of the fs.

Signed-off-by: Michael Neuling <[email protected]>
Cc: "Randy.Dunlap" <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <[email protected]>

Author: mikey

Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt

@@ -1396,6 +1396,8 @@ and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
 			in <PAGE_SIZE> units (needed only for swap files).
 			See  Documentation/power/swsusp-and-swap-files.txt
 
+	retain_initrd	[RAM] Keep initrd memory after extraction
+
 	rhash_entries=	[KNL,NET]
 			Set number of hash buckets for route cache
 

init/initramfs.c

@@ -491,6 +491,17 @@ static char * __init unpack_to_rootfs(char *buf, unsigned len, int check_only)
 	return message;
 }
 
+static int __initdata do_retain_initrd;
+
+static int __init retain_initrd_param(char *str)
+{
+	if (*str)
+		return 0;
+	do_retain_initrd = 1;
+	return 1;
+}
+__setup("retain_initrd", retain_initrd_param);
+
 extern char __initramfs_start[], __initramfs_end[];
 #ifdef CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD
 #include <linux/initrd.h>
@@ -501,7 +512,11 @@ static void __init free_initrd(void)
 #ifdef CONFIG_KEXEC
 	unsigned long crashk_start = (unsigned long)__va(crashk_res.start);
 	unsigned long crashk_end   = (unsigned long)__va(crashk_res.end);
+#endif
+	if (do_retain_initrd)
+		goto skip;
 
+#ifdef CONFIG_KEXEC
 	/*
 	 * If the initrd region is overlapped with crashkernel reserved region,
 	 * free only memory that is not part of crashkernel region.
@@ -519,7 +534,7 @@ static void __init free_initrd(void)
 	} else
 #endif
 		free_initrd_mem(initrd_start, initrd_end);
-
+skip:
 	initrd_start = 0;
 	initrd_end = 0;
 }