i'm still following the logic (and i use the word "logic" in the loosest possible sense :-) of how boot-time kernel parameters are processed and i want to start simple and just clarify a couple things that should be spectacularly trivial but, really, i just don't trust the documentation anymore so i'll ask. from init/main.c, we have a couple declarations of variables to hold the entire boot command line: ... /* Untouched command line saved by arch-specific code. */ char __initdata boot_command_line[COMMAND_LINE_SIZE]; /* Untouched saved command line (eg. for /proc) */ char *saved_command_line; ... so, to clarify: 1) boot_command_line is to hold *exactly* -- byte for byte -- the command line as it is presented initially, correct? no pre-parsing, no quiet cleanup, but absolutely verbatim, is that right? 2) since that same variable is tagged with "__initdata", it is de-allocated after booting is complete, yes? which means that, by the time booting is complete, everything of value that was passed in must have been extracted and either processed or stored elsewhere. 3) the pointer "saved_command_line" is also advertised as referring to the untouched command line, which made me wonder why that data wasn't just left where it was in the first place, but as i read it, the sole benefit to this is that boot_command_line allocates a fixed array of length COMMAND_LINE_SIZE, whereas the exact copy of that information will be copied (via strcpy) into just enough space to hold it and pointed to by saved_command line. in short, the only reason is to save some space and, except for that, the contents will still be byte-for-byte identical. is all that fairly accurate? rday -- ======================================================================== Robert P. J. Day Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA http://crashcourse.ca ======================================================================== -- To unsubscribe from this list: send an email with "unsubscribe kernelnewbies" to ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxx Please read the FAQ at http://kernelnewbies.org/FAQ
