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Bug#1084232: initramfs-tools: fails with "No space left on device" due to 2 temporary initrd copies in /boot

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On Mon, 2024-10-07 at 00:39 +0200, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> Package: initramfs-tools
> Version: 0.145
> Severity: normal
> 
> When updating an initrd file, update-initramfs keeps 2 temporary
> copies in /boot,

I don't believe this is the case.  A successful run of
"update-initramfs -u" will do:

1. Hard-link initrd.img-<version> to initrd.img-<version>.dpkg-bak
2. Create new initramfs as initrd.img-<version>.new
3. Move initrd.img-<version>.new to initrd.img-<version>
4. Remove initrd.img-<version>.dpkg-bak (unless backup_initramfs is
   enabled)

There is 1 temporary copy created in step 2, and after step 4 there are
0 temporary copies.

Step 1 does have a fallback to copying if hard-linking fails.  That
could happen if your /boot uses VFAT or some other un-Unix-like
filesystem, but that's not supported by Debian.  But maybe there's some
other reason it can fail?

> though its space is typically *very* limited
> (456 MB by default). This means that one can keep a limited number
> of kernels. With the 456 MB default size and maximum compression
> (COMPRESS=lzma and COMPRESSLEVEL=9), only 3 kernels are possible.
> 
> The temporary copies should be stored on the main file system,
> which is not space limited.
[...]

The initramfs must be replaced atomically, otherwise we can end up with
a previously working image being deleted or replaced with a truncated
image.  So there has to be 1 temporary copy.

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings
I'm not a reverse psychological virus.
Please don't copy me into your signature.

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Bug#1084232: initramfs-tools: fails with "No space left on device" due to 2 temporary initrd copies in /boot Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net> - 2024-10-07 00:50 +0200
  Bug#1084232: initramfs-tools: fails with "No space left on device" due to 2 temporary initrd copies in /boot Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net> - 2024-10-07 01:00 +0200
  Processed: Re: initramfs-tools: fails with "No space left on  device" due to 2 temporary initrd copies in /boot "Debian Bug Tracking System" <owner@bugs.debian.org> - 2024-10-07 01:00 +0200
  Processed: Re: Bug#1084232: initramfs-tools: fails with "No space  left on device" due to 2 temporary initrd copies in /boot "Debian Bug Tracking System" <owner@bugs.debian.org> - 2024-10-07 21:30 +0200
  Bug#1084232: initramfs-tools: fails with "No space left on device" due to 2 temporary initrd copies in /boot Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk> - 2024-10-07 21:30 +0200
    Bug#1084232: initramfs-tools: fails with "No space left on device" due to 2 temporary initrd copies in /boot Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net> - 2024-10-08 03:50 +0200
      Bug#1084232: initramfs-tools: fails with "No space left on device" due to 2 temporary initrd copies in /boot Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk> - 2024-10-08 20:20 +0200
        Bug#1084232: initramfs-tools: fails with "No space left on device" due to 2 temporary initrd copies in /boot Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net> - 2024-10-09 03:00 +0200

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