#Kernel and initramfs compression

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vernal moat
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I'm trying to configure my kernel on gentoo. Does anybody here have knowlege on how kernel and initramfs compression works? Is the kernel compressed to save space on the disk or save space in memory? Does it compress during runtime or only once when compilation is finished? I'm assuming that if i want the best speed, Im looking at decompression speed or read speed?

forest herald
# vernal moat I'm trying to configure my kernel on gentoo. Does anybody here have knowlege on ...

Is the kernel compressed to save space on the disk or save space in memory?
Save space on the disk AFAIK

Does it compress during runtime or only once when compilation is finished?
On compilation

I'm assuming that if i want the best speed, Im looking at decompression speed or read speed?
Decompression, use zstd, it is very very fast https://linuxreviews.org/Comparison_of_Compression_Algorithms

LinuxReviews
Comparison of Compression Algorithms

GNU/Linux and *BSD have a wide range of compression algorithms available for file archiving purposes. There's gzip, bzip2, xz, lzip, lzma, lzop and less free tools like rar, zip, arc to choose from. Knowing which one to use can be so confusing. Here's an attempt to give you an idea how the various choices compare.

vernal moat