wimlib-imagex : custom temp folder ?

Comments, questions, bug reports, etc.
Post Reply
Friendly
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 02, 2020 2:55 pm

wimlib-imagex : custom temp folder ?

Post by Friendly »

Greets,

First of all : Many thanks for this great utility! I am having a lot of fun with wimlib-imagex. The documentation is very informative & useful.

I would like to know if there is any way to assign / define a custom temp folder location, only & only for wimlib-imagex usages ? I think It will help me to speed up the whole process by putting temp folder on the fastest drive / partition.

Thanks. ...
synchronicity
Site Admin
Posts: 472
Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2015 10:31 pm

Re: wimlib-imagex : custom temp folder ?

Post by synchronicity »

wimlib hardly ever uses temporary files, so choosing a different temporary directory wouldn't actually matter.
Friendly
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 02, 2020 2:55 pm

Re: wimlib-imagex : custom temp folder ?

Post by Friendly »

synchronicity wrote: Sat May 02, 2020 4:24 pm wimlib hardly ever uses temporary files, so choosing a different temporary directory wouldn't actually matter.
Thanks for the quick & prompt response. Its clear now that largely wimlib does not use temporary files. But... somewhere saw .tmp file in the documentation ? Ok, I will be back if I face any problem regarding that.

Thanks. ...
chrislong2
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Dec 16, 2023 10:39 pm

Re: wimlib-imagex : custom temp folder ?

Post by chrislong2 »

synchronicity wrote: Sat May 02, 2020 4:24 pm wimlib hardly ever uses temporary files, so choosing a different temporary directory wouldn't actually matter.
Except it DOES need it for --rebuild or wimoptimize. This lack of an ability to specify temp directory does matter because in a backup type scenario it currently is requiring roughly double the disk space on the target if you want to maintain an optimized WIM. In the case of a very large WIM archive, that could be a problem. It would be ideal if there was a switch like 7-Zip's -w switch to just set the temp working folder to whatever you want. This also has a side-benefit in that sometimes it is much more advantageous to actually rebuild on one drive as oppposed to another due to speed (i.e. super-fast SSD drive vs slow flash drive etc) and then move/copy over in one swoop. Since this is my first post here, I just want to also say thank you for your work with Wimlib - much appreciated. :)
Last edited by chrislong2 on Tue Dec 19, 2023 7:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
chrislong2
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Dec 16, 2023 10:39 pm

Re: wimlib-imagex : custom temp folder ?

Post by chrislong2 »

Also, while on this subject, it is also a problem that wimlib randomly assigns some characters to the temp file it creates because if there's an interruption while running (i.e. power loss), that file will be left behind with no easy programatic way to have a program later clean-up such file(s) which again could be a BIG deal with very large WIM's - it currently requires manual user intervention to hunt such files down and delete. 7-Zip handles this better also where it names the temp file the same as the normal filename but just adds ".tmp" to the end, so "abc.wim" becomes "abc.wim.tmp". Predictable & very unlikely to be in use for anything else and allows other tools that might be using wimlib to do any necessary cleanup work.
gailium
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:23 am

Re: wimlib-imagex : custom temp folder ?

Post by gailium »

chrislong2 wrote: Sat Dec 16, 2023 10:49 pm
synchronicity wrote: Sat May 02, 2020 4:24 pm wimlib hardly ever uses temporary files, so choosing a different temporary directory wouldn't actually matter.
Except it DOES need it for --rebuild or wimoptimize. This lack of an ability to specify temp directory does matter because in a backup type scenario it currently is requiring roughly double the disk space on the target if you want to maintain an optimized WIM. In the case of a very large WIM archive, that could be a problem. It would be ideal if there was a switch like 7-Zip's -w switch to just set the temp working folder to whatever you want. This also has a side-benefit in that sometimes it is much more advantageous to actually rebuild on one drive as oppposed to another due to speed (i.e. super-fast SSD drive vs slow flash drive etc) and then move/copy over in one swoop. Since this is my first post here, I just want to also say thank you for your work with Wimlib - much appreciated. :)
You simply use wimexport to export the original wim to a file in your custom temp folder and then move the exported wim to overwrite the original wim
chrislong2
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Dec 16, 2023 10:39 pm

Re: wimlib-imagex : custom temp folder ?

Post by chrislong2 »

gailium wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2024 1:52 pm You simply use wimexport to export the original wim to a file in your custom temp folder and then move the exported wim to overwrite the original wim
I think you have misunderstood the discussion above. That does not do anything to change the fact that wimlib will only rebuild to update a wim or optimize a wim in the same folder as the wim, as opposed to being able to read from one folder (or drive) and write to a completely different folder (or drive), which could significantly save time in certain situations.
Post Reply