LSINITCPIO(1)

📦 version 42.2, in arch rolling

✨ LSINITCPIO(1) ✨

okay bestie, so this is lsinitcpio — it lives in the mkinitcpio manual, and it's literally your little x-ray machine for initramfs images 🔍💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

lsinitcpio [action] [options] image

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So basically, lsinitcpio peeks inside an initcpio image and shows you what's in there. That's the whole vibe.

And if you don't pass any options at all? It just lists the contents of an image. Simple. Iconic. No notes. 💅

🎀 ACTIONS 🎀

  • -a, --analyze — it analyzes the contents of the image you point it at and prints the output in human readable form. very demure, very readable 🫶
  • -c, --config — shows you the configuration file that the given image was built with. like a little receipt for your build ✨
  • -l, --list — lists the contents of the archive. this one is the default action, so if you do nothing else, you're doing this. pass the -v flag if you want the more detailed results 👀
  • -x, --extract — extracts the given image into your current working directory. everything, out, right here, on the floor 🫣

💜 OPTIONS 💜

  • -h, --help — outputs a short overview of all the command-line switches available. your lil cheat sheet 🎀
  • -n, --nocolor — disables color output. for when the rainbow is too much (never, but ok) 🌈
  • -V, --version — displays version information. the classic 💅
  • -v, --verbose — be more verbose. specifically: it shows long style output when you're listing the contents of an image, and it shows files as they're extracted when you use the -x option. so yes, it's the "tell me EVERYTHING" flag 🗣️✨
  • --cpio — list or extract only the main CPIO image. just the main character, no entourage 👑
  • --early — list or extract only the early CPIO image, if it exists. and hey, if you wanna know more about early CPIO images, go check mkinitcpio(8) — it explains it 🧚

💀 BUGS 💀

At the time this man page was written, there were no noticeable bugs present. iconic behavior fr fr.

But bestie, bugs are like... a moving target. So please go visit

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/mkinitcpio/mkinitcpio/-/issues

for an up to date list 🔥

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

👑 AUTHORS 👑

mkinitcpio is maintained by the Arch Linux community. and if you want the full list of contributors, refer to the AUTHORS file 🫶

Copyright 🄯 mkinitcpio contributors. GPL-2.0-only.

ok that's the whole page bestie, go forth and inspect your initramfs 💖

mkinitcpio 42.2 🌸 2026-10-01 ✨ mwah, love u, bye 💅🦋

📦 where this page comes from