Ubuntu Manpage: genromfs - create a romfs image

NAME

       genromfs - create a romfs image

SYNOPSIS

       genromfs  -f device [ -d source ] [ -V label ] [ -a alignment ] [ -A alignment,pattern ] [
       -x pattern ] [ -v ]

DESCRIPTION

       genromfs is used to create a romfs file system image, usually directly on a block  device,
       or for test purposes, in a plain file.  It is the mkfs equivalent of other filesystems.

       genromfs  will scan the current directory and its subdirectories, build a romfs image from
       the files found, and output it to the file or device you specified.

       During scanning, it recognizes a special notation.  If a file begins with the @ sign  (and
       is   empty   otherwise),   it   refers   to   a   device   special  node  in  the  format:
       @name,type,major,minor.  type can be b for block devices, c for character devices,  and  p
       for  fifos.   The  linux  virtual  console 1 can thus be included as a file with the name:
       @tty1,c,4,1

OPTIONS

-f output
Specifies the file to output the image to. This option is required.

-d source
Use the specified directory as the source, not the current directory.

-V label
Build the image with the specified volume label. Currently it is not used by the
kernel, but it will be recorded in the image.

-a alignment
Align regular files to a larger boundary. genromfs will align data of each regular
file in the resulting image to the specified alignment, while keeping the image
compatible with the original romfs definition (by adding pad bytes between last
node before the file and file's header). By default, genromfs will guarantee only
an alignment of 16 bytes.

-A alignment,pattern
Align objects matching shell wildcard pattern to alignment bytes. If one object
matches more patterns, then the highest alignment is chosen. Alignment has to be a
power of two. Patterns either don't contain any slashes, in which case files
matching those patterns are matched in all directories, or start with a leading
slash, in which case they are matched against absolute paths inside of the romfs
filesystem (that is, as if you chrooted into the rom filesystem).

-x pattern
Allow to exclude files that match a pattern. It's useful to exclude CVS
directories and backup files (ending in a '~').

-v Verbose operation, genromfs will print each file which is included in the image,
along with its offset.

EXAMPLES

          genromfs -d root -f /dev/fd0 -V 'Secret labs install disk'

       All files in the root directory will be written to /dev/fd0  as  a  new  romfs  filesystem
       image.

          genromfs -d root -f /dev/fd0 -A 2048,/.. -A '4096,*.boot' -a 512 -V 'Bootable floppy'

       Generate  the image and place file data of all regular files on 512 bytes boundaries or on
       4K boundaries, if they have the .boot extension.  Additionally, align the romfs header  of
       the  '..' entry in the root directory on a 2K boundary.  Effectively, this makes sure that
       the romfs image uses the least possible space in the first 2048 bytes.

       You can use the generated image (if you have the romfs module loaded, or compiled into the
       kernel) via:

          mount -t romfs /dev/fd0 /mnt

AUTHOR