References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_ramdisk
2. https://www.cnblogs.com/arnoldlu/p/10986583.html
3. https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/ramfs-rootfs-initramfs.txt
4. https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/initrd.html

init/main.c start_kernel

start_kernel->arch_call_rest_init->rest_init->kernel_init->kernel_init_freeable/run_init_process

kernel_init_freeable->do_basic_setup/console_on_rootfs/init_eaccess/prepare_namespace

do_basic_setup->do_initcalls->do_initcall_level->do_one_initcall-?>rootfs_initcall(populate_rootfs);

asmlinkage __visible void __init __no_sanitize_address start_kernel(void)
{
	char *command_line;
	char *after_dashes;

	set_task_stack_end_magic(&init_task);
	smp_setup_processor_id();
	debug_objects_early_init();
	init_vmlinux_build_id();

	cgroup_init_early();

	local_irq_disable();
	early_boot_irqs_disabled = true;

	/*
	 * Interrupts are still disabled. Do necessary setups, then
	 * enable them.
	 */
	boot_cpu_init();
	page_address_init();
	pr_notice("%s", linux_banner);
	early_security_init();
	setup_arch(&command_line);
	setup_boot_config();
	setup_command_line(command_line);
	setup_nr_cpu_ids();
	setup_per_cpu_areas();
	smp_prepare_boot_cpu();	/* arch-specific boot-cpu hooks */
	boot_cpu_hotplug_init();

	build_all_zonelists(NULL);
	page_alloc_init();

	pr_notice("Kernel command line: %s\n", saved_command_line);
	/* parameters may set static keys */
	jump_label_init();
	parse_early_param();
	after_dashes = parse_args("Booting kernel",
				  static_command_line, __start___param,
				  __stop___param - __start___param,
				  -1, -1, NULL, &unknown_bootoption);
	print_unknown_bootoptions();
	if (!IS_ERR_OR_NULL(after_dashes))
		parse_args("Setting init args", after_dashes, NULL, 0, -1, -1,
			   NULL, set_init_arg);
	if (extra_init_args)
		parse_args("Setting extra init args", extra_init_args,
			   NULL, 0, -1, -1, NULL, set_init_arg);

	/* Architectural and non-timekeeping rng init, before allocator init */
	random_init_early(command_line);

	/*
	 * These use large bootmem allocations and must precede
	 * kmem_cache_init()
	 */
	setup_log_buf(0);
	vfs_caches_init_early();
	sort_main_extable();
	trap_init();
	mm_init();

	ftrace_init();

	/* trace_printk can be enabled here */
	early_trace_init();

	/*
	 * Set up the scheduler prior starting any interrupts (such as the
	 * timer interrupt). Full topology setup happens at smp_init()
	 * time - but meanwhile we still have a functioning scheduler.
	 */
	sched_init();

	if (WARN(!irqs_disabled(),
		 "Interrupts were enabled *very* early, fixing it\n"))
		local_irq_disable();
	radix_tree_init();
	maple_tree_init();

	/*
	 * Set up housekeeping before setting up workqueues to allow the unbound
	 * workqueue to take non-housekeeping into account.
	 */
	housekeeping_init();

	/*
	 * Allow workqueue creation and work item queueing/cancelling
	 * early.  Work item execution depends on kthreads and starts after
	 * workqueue_init().
	 */
	workqueue_init_early();

	rcu_init();

	/* Trace events are available after this */
	trace_init();

	if (initcall_debug)
		initcall_debug_enable();

	context_tracking_init();
	/* init some links before init_ISA_irqs() */
	early_irq_init();
	init_IRQ();
	tick_init();
	rcu_init_nohz();
	init_timers();
	srcu_init();
	hrtimers_init();
	softirq_init();
	timekeeping_init();
	time_init();

	/* This must be after timekeeping is initialized */
	random_init();

	/* These make use of the fully initialized rng */
	kfence_init();
	boot_init_stack_canary();

	perf_event_init();
	profile_init();
	call_function_init();
	WARN(!irqs_disabled(), "Interrupts were enabled early\n");

	early_boot_irqs_disabled = false;
	local_irq_enable();

	kmem_cache_init_late();

	/*
	 * HACK ALERT! This is early. We're enabling the console before
	 * we've done PCI setups etc, and console_init() must be aware of
	 * this. But we do want output early, in case something goes wrong.
	 */
	console_init();
	if (panic_later)
		panic("Too many boot %s vars at `%s'", panic_later,
		      panic_param);

	lockdep_init();

	/*
	 * Need to run this when irqs are enabled, because it wants
	 * to self-test [hard/soft]-irqs on/off lock inversion bugs
	 * too:
	 */
	locking_selftest();

	/*
	 * This needs to be called before any devices perform DMA
	 * operations that might use the SWIOTLB bounce buffers. It will
	 * mark the bounce buffers as decrypted so that their usage will
	 * not cause "plain-text" data to be decrypted when accessed.
	 */
	mem_encrypt_init();

#ifdef CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD
	if (initrd_start && !initrd_below_start_ok &&
	    page_to_pfn(virt_to_page((void *)initrd_start)) < min_low_pfn) {
		pr_crit("initrd overwritten (0x%08lx < 0x%08lx) - disabling it.\n",
		    page_to_pfn(virt_to_page((void *)initrd_start)),
		    min_low_pfn);
		initrd_start = 0;
	}
#endif
	setup_per_cpu_pageset();
	numa_policy_init();
	acpi_early_init();
	if (late_time_init)
		late_time_init();
	sched_clock_init();
	calibrate_delay();
	pid_idr_init();
	anon_vma_init();
#ifdef CONFIG_X86
	if (efi_enabled(EFI_RUNTIME_SERVICES))
		efi_enter_virtual_mode();
#endif
	thread_stack_cache_init();
	cred_init();
	fork_init();
	proc_caches_init();
	uts_ns_init();
	key_init();
	security_init();
	dbg_late_init();
	net_ns_init();
	vfs_caches_init();
	pagecache_init();
	signals_init();
	seq_file_init();
	proc_root_init();
	nsfs_init();
	cpuset_init();
	cgroup_init();
	taskstats_init_early();
	delayacct_init();

	poking_init();
	check_bugs();

	acpi_subsystem_init();
	arch_post_acpi_subsys_init();
	kcsan_init();

	/* Do the rest non-__init'ed, we're now alive */
	arch_call_rest_init();

	prevent_tail_call_optimization();
}