vmlinuz

[fyodor120]

what does this stand for?

[saikee]

The kernel

[fyodor120]

saikee answered my ? -- vmlinuz stands for the kernel;

ok, but more specifically,

v -- ? , m -- ?,

obviously linu -- linux

finally, z -- ? !!!

like, rc.d,

I've read rc means 'run command', but I'm not sure what the 'd' stands for -- my quess is 'daemon' (2nd choice is 'directory')

thanx fyodor120

[Pafnoutios]

d is for directory.
linux is the kernel. When it's stored on the hardrive compressed (zipped) it's linuz. The vm has something to do with a virtual machine in the kernel.
This is all just naming convention. You could rename your kernel file to 'windows.com' and if you update you boot loader to find the new name of the kernel it will still work just the same.

I could rename 'bash' as 'command.com'.

[saikee]

Not all distros use vmlinuz. Ututu uses "kernel", Damn Small Linux's kernel is called "Linux24" and Gentoo also deviates with its own name.

[wheelnut]

I always thought, probably incorrectly, that it was
v (virtual) m (machine) linu (linux) z (compressed)

[je_fro]

wheelnut is correct, I believe...

[bwkaz]

And I call mine bzImage (which stands for "big zImage", where zImage is "compressed image"; the z is like gzip / libz).

The name does not matter one bit.

[fyodor120]

it helps me understand the philosophies and everything else better if I know what all the acronyms stand for.

there will be more.

just to let you all know that I'm working on my own --
I'm reading these books ::

Linux Complete ; Linux Made Easy ; From Bash to Z Shell ;

How Linux Works ; Wicked Cool Shell Scripts ; and

Linux Cookbook - 2nd Ed.

just not enough time between fixing hot tubs, and analyzing and timing the bond market.

again thanx

[je_fro]

And I call mine bzImage (which stands for "big zImage", where zImage is "compressed image"; the z is like gzip / libz).

I thought the "b" in bzImage came from "bzip2"....

[wheelnut]

je_fro is correct, bzImage is the kernel image compressed using bzip2.

[bwkaz]

No, it isn't bzip2-compressed:

$ bzcat /boot/bzImage-2.6.16.1 >file
bzcat: /boot/bzImage-2.6.16.1 is not a bzip2 file.

Even removing the first bunch of non-compressed data did not result in a bzip2 file:

$ cp /boot/bzImage-2.6.16.1 bzImage
$ hexedit bzImage     # (Here I found out that the uncompressed data appeared to start at offset 0x4E90 -- before this, it was mostly binary zeros and readable string tables)
$ tail -c $((0x12F8E5-0x4E90)) bzImage >bzImage2
$ bzcat bzImage2 >file
bzcat: bzImage2 is not a bzip2 file.

And a couple of threads from LKML from way back in 1999:

http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/lin...03.3/1185.html
http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/lin...04.0/0779.html

[fyodor120]

like 'napalm in the morning' (Apocolypse Now)

i love the smell of this --

it DOES smell like victory !!

good links to those '99 e-mails !!

thanxx