Live-initramfs is a hook for the initramfs-tools, used to generate a initramfs capable to boot live systems, such as those created by live-helper. this includes the debian live isos, netboot tarballs, and usb stick images.

at boot time it will look for a (read-only) media containing a "/live" directory where a root filesystems (often a compressed filesystem image like squashfs) is stored. if found, it will create a writable environment, using aufs or unionfs, for debian like systems to boot from.

you probably do not want to install this package onto a non-live system, although it will do no harm.

live-initramfs is a fork of casper .