Dracut is a set of tools that provide enhanced functionality for automating the Linux boot process. The tool named is used to create a Linux boot image (initramfs) by copying tools and files from an installed system and combining it with the Dracut framework.
The initramfs has essentially one purpose: locating and mounting the real root file system so that the boot process can transition to it. This functionality is dependent on device availability. Therefore, instead of having hard-coded scripts to determine device availability and suitability, Dracut's initramfs depends on the Linux device manager (udev) to create symbolic links to device nodes. When the root file system's device node appears, Dracut mounts it as the new root file system. This helps to minimize the time required in initramfs such that, for example, 5-second boots are possible.
Most of the initramfs generation functionality in Dracut is provided by generator modules that are sourced by the main tool to install specific functionality into the initramfs. They live in the modules subdirectory, and use functionality provided by dracut-functions to do their work.
Features
Dracut supports booting from direct attached storage ext2, ext3, ext4 XFS, F2FS, jfs btrfs ZFS MD RAID Device mapper, dmraid, dm-integrity, dm-verity lvm device mapper multipath I/O LUKS, dm-crypt, eCryptfs Virtiofs, Virtfs SquashFS, EROFS, iso OverlayFS
Dracut supports booting from network storage CIFS FCoE iSCSI NBD NFS
Dracut supports the following architectures i386, i686, X86-64 AArch64, ARM architecture family MIPS architecture ppc64 S390x
Dracut can use the following shells bash dash ash
Dracut supports the following init systems systemd OpenRC (Gentoo) busybox (Alpine Linux) runit (Void Linux) sysVinit (CRUX, Slackware, Devuan, MX Linux)
Dracut can be used for live media generation. It has flags for squashfs, and other things like overlay file system.
History
Dracut originated from Fedora Linux, sponsored initially by Red Hat in Dec 2008. Dracut is named after the town of Dracut, similar to Wayland and Weston. This follows the tradition of Red Hat naming projects after places near what was then the company's engineering headquarters in Westford, Massachusetts.
In 2013, the development moved to GitHub from Kernel.org, while a mirror was maintained till 2022 (v56).
As of October 2021, after the long time lead developer Harald Hoyer left Red Hat it is a community-managed open source project.
In Mar 29 2024, the project was moved to a new code repository by the core team after the project leader had not been heard from for several months.
In Feb 2025, Ubuntu announced a plan to switch the default initramfs infrastructure from initramfs-tools to dracut.
Adoption
Distributions that depend on the dracut project for initramfs generation. The list is sorted by the date when dracut (partially or fully) became the dependency for generating initramfs by default for a given distribution.
Fedora Linux (2009, version 12 Constantine) Red Hat Enterprise Linux (2010, version 6) Gentoo (2010 for custom kernels, 2020 for distribution kernels) openmamba (2010) OpenMandriva Lx (2011, Mandriva Linux), Mageia (2012, version 2) Void Linux (2012) Solus (2013) Endless OS (first Debian based) (2014), gardenlinux (2020) openSUSE (2014, version 13.2) SUSE Linux Enterprise (2014, version 12) Adelie Linux (2017) ALT Linux (2020) PhotosOS (2015), Azure Linux (2024) AOSC OS (2021) KaOS (2021) CRUX (2021) EndeavourOS (first Arch based) (2022), Garuda Linux (2023, Raptor) Alpaquita Linux (first Alpine based) (2023) Ubuntu (2011, version 11.04 universe repository), (2024-Feb dracut-install in main repository, Lubuntu moved to dracut by default), Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Debian (2010, version 6 Squeeze), (2024-March, dracut-install) Chimera Linux (2024-Jun, dracut-install) Side Linux (2024-Sept)
Most distributions have made the dracut package available to allow replacing the distribution's default initramfs generator. Significant (but incomplete) list of these distributions:
Arch Linux (2019, extra repository) Alpine Linux (2022, community repository) NixOS (2023) T2 SDE OpenEmbedded Slackware (2024-Sept)
Applications
Notable projects using dracut exclusively for initramfs generation OSTree fai kiwi afterburn ignition combustion stratis warewulf Freedeskop SDK (GNOME OS, org.freedesktop.Platform runtime for flatpak application) bootengine immucore clevis Cray-HPE FIDO Device Onboard (FDO) brltty Uyuni Saltboot zfsbootmenu
See also
References
External links Dracut source files Dracut manual page