ZIPL(8)

NAME
zipl - boot loader for IBM S/390 and zSeries architectures

SYNOPSIS
zipl [OPTION] [SECTION]

DESCRIPTION
zipl is a boot loader tool for IBM S/390 and zSeries machines. It can be used to prepare devices for initial program load (IPL). The following functions are supported:

-   booting a Linux kernel with optional ramdisk and kernel command line

-   taking a snapshot of the current system status (system dump)

-   loading a data file to initialize named saved segments (NSS)

Each of these operations is characterized by a boot configuration, i.e. a set of required parameters. zipl supports two ways of specifying a boot configuration:

-   command line: all parameters are provided through the command line switches described below. Using this mode, only a single boot configuration can be specified.

-   configuration file: parameters are provided by sections defined in a configuration file (see zipl.conf(5)). Using a configuration file, you can either specify a single boot configuration or a menu, i.e. a list of configurations defined by a special section. If supported by the hardware, an interactive choice of these configurations will be available at boot time, otherwise the menu's default entry is booted.

To use a specific boot configuration section, provide its name as single parameter to zipl. If zipl is called without parameters, it searches the configuration file for a section marked as default.

OPTIONS

-h or --help
    Print usage information, then exit.

-v or --version
    Print version information, then exit.

-c <CONFIG FILE> or --config=<CONFIG FILE>
    Use the specified <CONFIG FILE>. If none is supplied, the environment variable ZIPLCONF is evaluated if set, otherwise /etc/zipl.conf is used.

-t <TARGET DIRECTORY> or --target=<TARGET DIRECTORY>
    Use the specified <TARGET DIRECTORY>. zipl uses this directory to store the bootmap, i.e. a file containing boot data. The actual boot loader is installed onto the device containing the target directory. Supported devices are DASD and SCSI disks. This option is not available when specifying a configuration or menu section.

-i <IMAGE[,ADDRESS]> or --image=<IMAGE[,ADDRESS]>
    Use the Linux kernel image file <IMAGE>. An optional hexadecimal ADDRESS may be provided to specify a non-standard load address for the image file. This option is not available when specifying a configuration or menu section.

-r <RAMDISK[,ADDRESS]> or --ramdisk=<RAMDISK[,ADDRESS]>
    Use the ramdisk image <RAMDISK>. An optional hexadecimal ADDRESS may be provided to specify a non-standard load address for the ramdisk file. This option is not available when specifying a configuration or menu section.

-p <PARMFILE[,ADDRESS]> or --parmfile=<PARMFILE[,ADDRESS]>
    Use the kernel command line stored in file <PARMFILE>. An optional hexadecimal ADDRESS may be provided to specify a non-standard load address for the parameter file. This option is not available when specifying a configuration or menu section.

-P <PARMLINE> or --parameters=<PARMLINE>
    When installing a kernel, use the kernel command line <PARMLINE>. When --parmfile is specified as well, the contents of the parmfile and <PARMLINE> are appended to form the resulting command line. This option is not available when specifying a menu section.

-s <SEGMENT,ADDRESS> or --segment=<SEGMENT,ADDRESS>
    Use the segment image <SEGMENT>. The mandatory hexadecimal ADDRESS specifies the load address for the segment file. This option is not available when specifying a configuration or menu section.

-d <DEVICENODE> or --dumpto=<DEVICENODE>
    Install a system dump record on the device identified by <DEVICENODE>. Supported devices are DASD ECKD disk partitions and IBM 3480/3490/3590 tape devices. Note that on partitions formatted with the ECKD/linux disk layout, the dump record will be overwritten by system dump data so that it can be used for IPL only once before the system dump record has to be installed again. Partitions formatted with the ECKD/compatible disk layout allow for an arbitrary number of subsequent dumps. This option is not available when specifying a configuration or menu section.

-D <DEVICENODE> or --dumptofs=<DEVICENODE>
    Install a dump record on the target device which writes system dumps to the file system on the disk partition identified by DEVICENODE if supported by the hardware. This option is not available when specifying a configuration or menu section.

-m <MENU> or --menu=<MENU>
    Install the multi-boot configuration defined in menu section <MENU> of the configuration file. This option cannot be used together with either --target, --image, --ramdisk, --parmfile, --parameters, --segment, --dumpto or --dumptofs.

-n or --noninteractive
    Answer all confirmation questions with 'yes'. This option may be useful when zipl is called from within a shell script or in other situations where no user interaction is possible.

-V or --verbose
    Provide more verbose output.

-a or --add-files
    Copy all specified files to the bootmap file instead of just referencing them. This option allows specifying files in a boot configuration which are not located on the target device.

EXAMPLE
1. Scenario: prepare disk for booting a Linux kernel image using the following parameters:
  - the directory /boot is located on the boot device
  - /boot/image contains the Linux kernel image
  - /boot/ramdisk.img contains a ramdisk image
  - /boot/parmfile contains the kernel parameter line
The respective zipl call reads:
  zipl -t /boot -i /boot/image -r /boot/ramdisk.img
       -p /boot/parmfile
2. Scenario: prepare DASD partition /dev/dasda1 for system dump:
  zipl -d /dev/dasda1

BUGS
Please report bugs to linux390@de.ibm.com

SEE ALSO
zipl.conf(5)