The LILO map installer utility accepts a number of options on the command line. Many of the command-line options are mirrored by configuration variables, discussed in the next section. The following list describes the command-line options:

* The -b dev option uses dev as the boot device. If no value is specified, the default device given by the boot configuration variable is used.

* The -c option turns on compact, merging read requests for adjacent sectors into one request to reduce load time. This option is often used for boot floppy disks. You also can use the compact configuration variable to specify this option.

* The -C file option uses file as the configuration file. If no file is specified, /etc/lilo/config is used as the default.

* The -d secs option specifies the number of tenths of a second to wait before booting the first image. You also can specify this number in the configuration variable delay.

* The -f file option uses file as the name of the disk parameter table (called disktab). If a filename is omitted, the file /etc/lilo/disktab is used.

* The -i sector option installs the kernel as the new boot sector. The argument to be used with this option can be read from the install configuration variable.

* The -I name option displays the path of the named kernel image file. If no matching name is found, an error is generated. You can add the v option after the name to verify the existence of the image file. This option uses the BOOT_IMAGE environment variable.

* The -l option generates linear sector addresses instead of the default sector/head/cylinder addresses. You also can specify this option with the configuration variable linear.

* The -m file option uses file as the location of the map file. If no filename is given, /etc/lilo/map is used.

* The -P fix option allows LILO to adjust sector/head/cylinder addresses using the table file. You also can specify this option with the fix-table configuration variable.

* The -P ignore option overrides correction of sector/head/cylinder addresses. You also can specify this option with the ignore-table configuration variable.

* The -q option displays the currently mapped files.

* The -r dir option performs a chroot command on dir before continuing. This option is necessary if the root filesystem is mounted in a different location from the map installer command. Because the current directory is changed with this command, use absolute pathnames for all files.

* The -R words option stores words in the map file for use by the boot loader. The words are parameters that the boot process uses as part of the default command line. The first word must be the name of the boot image.

* The -s file option copies the original boot sector to file instead of /etc/lilo/boot.hex_num.

* The -S file option is the same as -s, but it overwrites the old file if one exists.

* The -t option performs a test by executing the entire installation process except writing the map file and boot sector. Ideally, you use this option with the -v option to verify accurate behavior of the map installer.

* The -u dev option restores the backup copy of the boot sector for dev. If no device is specified, the default value is used. If the default is not a valid value, the current root device is used. The backup copy is checked for a time stamp before the write is completed.

* The -U dev option is the same as -u except that it doesn’t check for the time stamp.

* The -v level option uses the verbose output level specified to display messages.

* The -V option displays the version number of the map installer, and then exits.