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On Linux systems, vmlinux is an ELF executable file that contains the Linux kernel. It typically resides in the "/boot/" directory.
On many Linux distributions, vmlinux can be compressed into a file called bzImage or vmlinuz (a shortening of the filename "vmlinux.z") to save space, though this may slightly increase boot-up time. The file called zImage is a binary version of vmlinux, which may speed up boot time.
The term vmlinux is a descendant of Unix's vmunix and vmuniz . VM stands for virtual machine.