[systemd-devel] [PATCH 2/2] fsck: Add support for EFI variable based fsck indication

[Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek]

On Sun, Mar 15, 2015 at 03:23:19PM +0100, Kay Sievers wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 15, 2015 at 11:56 AM, Jan Janssen <medhefgo at web.de> wrote:
> > ---
> >  man/systemctl.xml                  | 26 ++++++++++++++++
> >  shell-completion/bash/systemctl.in |  8 ++++-
> >  shell-completion/zsh/_systemctl.in |  2 ++
> >  src/fsck/fsck.c                    | 63 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >  src/shared/efivars.h               | 21 +++++++++++--
> >  src/systemctl/systemctl.c          | 64 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
> 
> Fsck is really something from the past, it should not be extended
> beyond its current support.
Filesystems which require fsck are in wide use and will be in wide use
for the forseeable future.

> the kernel command line should be sufficient enough.
The kernel command line is not a good fit for a few reasons. One is that
it can be relatively hard to change, another is that changes are usually non-volatile,
and yet another is that changing the commandline is a problem in the
scheme in which kernel+initrd+cmdline are signed together.

EFI variables are the right solution for EFI systems.

> Using non-volatile EFI variables for normal system operations does not
> sound right, we should not start using that fragile subsystem for
> things like this
Volatile indeed sounds better. Are there volatile variables which are survive
a reboot but are then erased automatically?

Zbyszek