Print current images and subvolumes. This is also the default action if no command is specified.

The IMAGE column gives the list of images. For each $image, there is an associated Unified Kernel Image $image.efi in ImageDir. The filename $image.efi is also recognised by systemd-boot as a valid boot entry id. The currently booted image is indicated with a tag, and if different, so also is the image that is set for next boot.

The SUBVOLUME column gives the subvolume that each image is set to boot into. Typically these will consist of the system itself plus a number of backups. The subvolume that currently corresponds to the system root / is indicated with a tag. These paths are relative to the filesystem root, not the system root.

The USED AS column indicates where each subvolume lies in the backup sequence, if at all. Upon backing up, Current becomes Backup 1, Backup 1 becomes Backup 2, etc.

If you have any misconfigurations, bootmap will also issue a complaint about “extraneous files” - see cleanup for what this means.

(Note) The state displayed by this command is simply the contents of the special subvolume BootmapVol. Each IMAGE is a symlink in this folder, and each SUBVOLUME is a subvolume.

(Note) If you have several linuxes coexisting on the same filesystem in different subvolumes, they can happily use the same BootmapVol. In this case, each one’s images and backups will show up when the status command is run, but they will otherwise refrain from interacting.

Create images for all installed kernels. This is useful on first install.

Only missing images are created. This means the command has no effect if run a second time. If you really do need to recreate an image, first delete it manually from ImageDir and BootmapVol.

Remove extraneous files.

Extraneous files are files in BootmapVol that should not be there. They can never be produced through normal usage, but may result from incorrect manual editing. When the status command is run it prints a warning showing all such files. You can either check and delete them yourself, or use this convenience command to delete them all.

(Caution) Files may be listed as extraneous as a result of some other misconfiguration, not because they really should be deleted. So use this command with care.

Pacman hooks. Not intended to be invoked manually, only by pacman.

The pre hook removes the image associated to a kernel before it is updated or removed, potentially backing it up along with the system. The post hook creates the image after a kernel is installed or updated. Both hooks also run if there are changes to the microcode files or mkinitcpio that require all kernels to be regenerated.

Bootmap chooses to make backups so as to preserve the “main invariant”: to always keep the N most recent confirmed-working backups (where N = MaxBackups). This means backups are not always made. In particular, if you run several kernel updates without rebooting, there is no need to worry about all backups being overwritten - at most one backup will be made.

If you are running in a backup, and update or remove the kernel, you will be forcing bootmap to violate its main invariant (because modifying a backup means that it is no longer confirmed-working). In this situation, bootmap will complain but play along anyway. You can check if you are in a backup with the status command.

Backups are created with only one kernel booting into them, even if the original system had multiple kernels. This is because only one kernel is needed to make the backup useable. The kernel used for a backup is chosen to be the same as the one that is currently running.

(Caution) If for some reason you accidentally invoke these commands, you can press Ctrl+D to exit without performing an action. Do not exit with Ctrl+C, as this may bypass cleanup and leave behind temporary files and mounts.