On Sat, Dec 30, 2023 at 8:01 PM Rob Landley <rob@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I've been following the initramfs xattr support threads forever: Here is my proposal: add to the kernel support for catar ( https://0pointer.net/blog/casync-a-tool-for-distributing-file-system-images.html ) in addition to cpio. catar has the following advantages: - catar is simple and reproducible. For the same directory tree the same bit-precise catar file is generated, which is good for cryptographic signatures. As opposed to tar's monstrosity ( https://www.cyphar.com/blog/post/20190121-ociv2-images-i-tar ) - catar has support for xattr. It has support for nearly all types of metainformation Linux offers (32 bit UIDs, nanosecond timestamps, "disable CoW" flag and various other flags, selinux file labels, file capabilities, etc). All this metainformation can be disabled if needed. So, next time we will want to add some new type of metainformation, there will be no need for lengthy discussions about how it should be stored. All needed metainformation is already supported -- Askar Safin
