during fedora boot, what picks up the initrd.img from /boot?

["Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday crashcourse ca>]

  i'm sure i'm going to regret asking this only seconds after i hit
ENTER, but at what point during the boot process does the kernel's
corresponding /boot/initrd.img file kick in and get used?

  i'm following along reading the logic of initramfs and early
userspace, and can see where a compressed cpio archive can be
incorporated into the kernel image itself.  fair enough.

  but how does the /boot/initrd.img (which is itself a compressed cpio
image) get processed during boot?  it's certainly not passed as an
argument to the kernel as i can see via /proc/cmdline.  so how does it
affect the boot sequence?  thanks.

rday

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Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry
Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

http://crashcourse.ca
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