Kexec
Kexec is a system call that enables loading and booting into another kernel. This is useful for fast reboots that skip the BIOS or UEFI initialisation process.
Installing kexec-tools
The userspace tools required to use it can be installed via
apk add kexec-tools
The tools are not available on all flavors of Alpine, additionally not all kernels are compiled with the kexec syscall enabled. You will most likely want to check your /boot/config-* file for CONFIG_KEXEC=y
Usage
On a typical Alpine setup, it can be used via:
# kexec -l /boot/vmlinuz-edge --initrd \ /boot/initramfs-edge --reuse-cmdline # kexec -e
kexec -e does not unmount any filesystems or gracefully shut down any services!
There are no Alpine-specific considerations for Kexec. Please review the man page and existing references below of more details. This page is deliberately kept short in order to avoid duplicating existing documentation.