Le 12/12/2022 à 23:09, Steve Litt a écrit :
> I agree. Not all of us want to use an initramfs. The traditional Unix
> way enables one to boot using only a few static programs.

    Hi Steve. You should specify what you mean by "static" because one
common understanding is "statically linked". Linux distros based on
statically linked programs are seldom. Actually I don't know any one.

    In /lib, you always find the dynamic libc and the dynamic linker
and this allows the whole distro, including init itself to be
dynamically linked. There are no static programs in /bin and /sbin in
Debian/Devuan. There might be a few ones in the whole distro, including
the dynamic linker itself because of a chicken-and-egg issue. With the
merge, all of this goes to /usr of course.

    It is possible to build a statically linked  installation compiled
from source. It may be convenient for a server with limited
functionality but is not easily maintainable.

    For what concerns initramfs, it is mandatory because the kernel
does not contain the drivers needed to mount the root filesystem (and
/usr in case of merge). I think initramfs and the merge are unrelated
questions. Initramfs just hides part of the init work under the hood.

--     Didier