diff --git a/usr/bin/archboot-cpio.sh b/usr/bin/archboot-cpio.sh
index 0a13009ca..87d0661f3 100755
--- a/usr/bin/archboot-cpio.sh
+++ b/usr/bin/archboot-cpio.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
 #
 # archboot-cpio.sh - modular tool for building initramfs images
-# focused and optimized for size and speed
+# optimized for size and speed
 # by Tobias Powalowski <tpowa@archlinux.org>
 
 shopt -s extglob
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
 done
 
 #shellcheck disable="SC1090"
-! . "${_CONFIG}" 2>"${_NO_LOG}" && _abort "Failed to read ${_CONFIG} configuration file"
+. "${_CONFIG}" 2>"${_NO_LOG}" || _abort "Failed to read ${_CONFIG} configuration file"
 if [[ -z "${_KERNEL}" ]]; then
     echo "Trying to autodetect ${_RUNNING_ARCH} kernel..."
     [[ "${_RUNNING_ARCH}" == "x86_64" || "${_RUNNING_ARCH}" == "riscv64" ]] && _KERNEL="/usr/lib/modules/*/vmlinuz"
@@ -57,14 +57,15 @@ _KERNELVERSION="$(_kver "${_KERNEL}")"
 _MODULE_DIR="/lib/modules/${_KERNELVERSION}"
 [[ -d "${_MODULE_DIR}" ]] || _abort "${_MODULE_DIR} is not a valid kernel module directory!"
 _BUILD_DIR="$(_init_rootfs "${_KERNELVERSION}" "${_TARGET_DIR}")" || exit 1
-_ROOTFS="${_TARGET_DIR}:-${_BUILD_DIR}/root}"
+_ROOTFS="${_TARGET_DIR:-${_BUILD_DIR}/root}"
 if (( ${#_HOOKS[*]} == 0 )); then
     _abort "No hooks found in config file!"
 fi
+echo "Using kernel version: ${_KERNELVERSION}"
 if [[ -n "${_GENERATE_IMAGE}" || -n "${_TARGET_DIR}" ]]; then
-    echo "Starting build: ${_KERNELVERSION}"
+    echo "Starting build..."
 else
-    echo "Starting dry run: ${_KERNELVERSION}"
+    echo "Starting dry run..."
 fi
 _builtin_modules
 _map _run_hook "${_HOOKS[@]}"
@@ -78,9 +79,9 @@ umask 077
 if [[ -n "${_GENERATE_IMAGE}" ]]; then
     _create_cpio "${_GENERATE_IMAGE}" "${_COMP}" || exit 1
 elif [[ -n "${_TARGET_DIR}" ]]; then
-    msg "Build complete."
+    echo "Build complete."
 else
-    msg "Dry run complete, use -g IMAGE to generate a real image"
+    echo "Dry run complete."
 fi
 
 # vim: set ft=sh ts=4 sw=4 et:
diff --git a/usr/lib/archboot/cpio/cpio.sh b/usr/lib/archboot/cpio/cpio.sh
index 96abff34a..3b6b5ca74 100644
--- a/usr/lib/archboot/cpio/cpio.sh
+++ b/usr/lib/archboot/cpio/cpio.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
 # archboot-cpio.sh - modular tool for building an initramfs image
-# simplified, stripped down, optimized for size and speed
+# optimized for size and speed
 # by Tobias Powalowski <tpowa@archlinux.org>
 
 _CONFIG=""
@@ -37,27 +37,6 @@ _abort() {
     exit 1
 }
 
-_create_cpio() {
-    case "${_COMP}" in
-        cat)    echo "Creating uncompressed initcpio image: ${_OUT}"
-                unset _COMP_OPTS
-                ;;
-        *)      echo "Creating ${_COMP} compressed initcpio image: ${_OUT}"
-                ;;&
-        xz)     _COMP_OPTS=('-T0' '--check=crc32' "${_COMP_OPTS[@]}")
-                ;;
-        lz4)    _COMP_OPTS=('-l' "${_COMP_OPTS[@]}")
-                ;;
-        zstd)   _COMP_OPTS=('-T0' "${_COMP_OPTS[@]}")
-                ;;
-    esac
-    # Reproducibility: set all timestamps to 0
-    find . -mindepth 1 -execdir touch -hcd "@0" "{}" +
-    find . -mindepth 1 -printf '%P\0' | sort -z | LANG=C bsdtar --null -cnf - -T - |
-            LANG=C bsdtar --null -cf - --format=newc @- |
-            ${_COMP} "${_COMP_OPTS[@]}" > "${_OUT}" || _abort "initcpio image creation failed!"
-}
-
 _builtin_modules() {
     # Prime the _INCLUDED_MODS list with the builtins for this kernel.
     # kmod>=27 and kernel >=5.2 required!
@@ -231,7 +210,7 @@ _file() {
         if [[ "${_SRC}" != "${_DEST}" ]]; then
             command tar --hard-dereference --transform="s|${_SRC}|${_DEST}|" -C / -cpf - ."${_SRC}" | tar -C "${_ROOTFS}" -xpf - || return 1
         else
-            command tar --hard-dereference -C / -cpf - ."${_SRC}" | tar -C "${_DEST}" -xpf - || return 1
+            command tar --hard-dereference -C / -cpf - ."${_SRC}" | tar -C "${_ROOTFS}" -xpf - || return 1
         fi
         if [[ -L "${_SRC}" ]]; then
             _LINK_SOURCE="$(realpath -- "${_SRC}")"
@@ -296,6 +275,7 @@ _init_rootfs() {
     : >"${_ROOTFS}/etc/fstab"
     # add a blank ld.so.conf to keep ldconfig happy
     : >"${_ROOTFS}/etc/ld.so.conf"
+    echo "${_TMPDIR}"
 }
 
 _run_hook() {
@@ -327,3 +307,27 @@ _install_modules() {
     # and builtin.modinfo for checking on builtin modules)
     rm "${_ROOTFS}${_MODULE_DIR}"/modules.!(*.bin|*.modinfo|devname|softdep)
 }
+
+_create_cpio() {
+    case "${_COMP}" in
+        cat)    echo "Creating uncompressed image: ${_GENERATE_IMAGE}"
+                unset _COMP_OPTS
+                ;;
+        *)      echo "Creating ${_COMP} compressed image: ${_GENERATE_IMAGE}"
+                ;;&
+        xz)     _COMP_OPTS=('-T0' '--check=crc32' "${_COMP_OPTS[@]}")
+                ;;
+        lz4)    _COMP_OPTS=('-l' "${_COMP_OPTS[@]}")
+                ;;
+        zstd)   _COMP_OPTS=('-T0' "${_COMP_OPTS[@]}")
+                ;;
+    esac
+
+    # Reproducibility: set all timestamps to 0
+    pushd "${_ROOTFS}" >"${_NO_LOG}" || return
+    find . -mindepth 1 -execdir touch -hcd "@0" "{}" +
+    find . -mindepth 1 -printf '%P\0' | sort -z | LANG=C bsdtar --null -cnf - -T - |
+            LANG=C bsdtar --null -cf - --format=newc @- |
+            ${_COMP} "${_COMP_OPTS[@]}" > "${_GENERATE_IMAGE}" || _abort "Image creation failed!"
+    popd >"${_NO_LOG}" || return
+}
diff --git a/usr/lib/archboot/cpio/hooks/init b/usr/lib/archboot/cpio/hooks/init
index a6b7d8dab..77a8ad950 100644
--- a/usr/lib/archboot/cpio/hooks/init
+++ b/usr/lib/archboot/cpio/hooks/init
@@ -39,10 +39,4 @@ _run() {
     done
 }
 
-help() {
-    cat <<HELPEOF
-Inital setup for archboot ISO booting.
-HELPEOF
-}
-
 # vim: set ft=sh ts=4 sw=4 et: