1 Only the most important changes more recent than version 0.6 are noted here.
4 Support for extracting and updating the new version 3584 WIMs has been
5 added. These WIMs typically pack many streams ("files") together into a
6 single compressed resource, thereby saving space. This degrades the
7 performance of random access (such as that which occurs on a mounted
8 image), but optimizations have been implemented for extraction. These
9 new WIM files also typically use a new compression format (LZMS), which
10 is similar to LZMA. These new WIM files can be created with Dism using
11 "/compress recovery". Note: this format is used by the Windows 8 web
12 downloader, but important segments of the raw '.esd' files are
13 encrypted, so wimlib will not be able to extract such files until they
16 Support for compression chunk sizes greater than the default of 32768
17 bytes has been added. A larger chunk size typically results in a better
18 compression ratio. However, this is currently disabled for LZX
19 compression due to lack of interoperability with the MS implementation.
21 The compression/decompression API exported by wimlib has been changed.
22 Now one set of functions support all supported compression formats.
24 `wimcapture' and `wimappend' will now display the progress of scanning
25 the directory tree to capture, in addition to the progress of writing
26 data to the WIM. The '--verbose' option no longer does anything. The
27 library API change for this is the addition of several members to
28 `struct wimlib_progress_info_scan' available to progress callbacks.
30 `mkwinpeimg' now correctly handles the '--start-script' option when the
31 start script is not in the working directory.
33 Sequential extraction, previously required by using
34 WIMLIB_EXTRACT_FLAG_SEQUENTIAL, is now the default.
35 WIMLIB_EXTRACT_FLAG_FILE_ORDER can be used to get the old behavior
36 (extract in file order).
39 The new LZX compressor added in v1.5.2 has been improved and is now
40 enabled by default, except when `wimcapture' or `wimappend' is run
41 *without* the '--compress' option, in which case the faster LZX
42 compressor is used (the same as before). This behavior is reasonably
43 consistent with ImageX which actually uses "fast" (XPRESS) compression
44 by default. In those cases, use '--compress=maximum' to explicitly
45 capture a WIM image using the new (slower but better) LZX compressor.
47 The '--compress-slow' option still exists to `wimlib-imagex optimize',
48 but its new behavior is to tweak the new LZX compressor even more to
49 produce an even better compression ratio at the cost of more time spent
52 `wimlib-imagex optimize' now supports the '--compress=TYPE' option,
53 which recompresses the WIM file using the specified compression TYPE.
54 The new library API function used for this is
55 wimlib_set_output_compression_type().
57 Added the wimlib_get_xml_data() function to allow library clients to
58 easily retrieve the raw XML data from a WIM file if needed.
60 Fixed a bug that could cause an error code to be incorrectly returned
61 when writing XML data containing a <WINDOWS> element.
63 Mounted WIM images will now correctly show the default file stream even
64 if appears in the alternate data stream entries of the corresponding WIM
68 Added a new experimental LZX compressor which can be enabled by passing
69 '--compress-slow' to `wimlib-imagex capture' or `wimlib-imagex
70 optimize'. (The latter is only applicable if the WIM is already
71 LZX-compressed and the '--recompress' option is also given.) The
72 experimental compressor is much slower but compresses the data slightly
73 more --- currently usually to within a fraction of a percent of the
74 results from WIMGAPI/ImageX.
76 A workaround has been added for compatibility with versions of WinPE
77 that interpret alternate data stream entries in the boot WIM
80 An alignment bug that caused a crash in the LZX decompressor on some
83 wimlib now attempts to clear the WIM_HDR_FLAG_WRITE_IN_PROGRESS flag in
84 the WIM header when restoring the previous state of a WIM it failed to
87 Added a workaround to avoid an access denied error on Windows when
88 replacing a WIM file that another process has opened.
91 wimlib can now open WinPE WIMs from WAIK v2.1, which had a quirk that
94 A bug in the interpretation of negative IMAGE indices in the
95 --update-of=[WIMFILE:]IMAGE option to `wimlib-imagex capture' and
96 `wimlib-imagex append' has been fixed.
98 A workaround has been added to successfully apply security descriptors
99 with empty DACLs when the NTFS-3g apply mode is being used with NTFS-3g
100 2013.1.13 or earlier.
102 `wimlib-imagex capture' can now accept the '--delta-from' option
106 Added support for "pipable" WIMs. Pipable WIMs allow capturing images
107 to standard output and applying images from standard input, but they are
108 not compatible with Microsoft's software and are not created by default.
109 See the documentation for --pipable flag of `wimlib-imagex capture' for
112 To better support incremental backups, added support for declaring an
113 image as a modified form of another image. See the documentation for
114 the '--update-of' option of `wimlib-imagex append' and `wimlib-imagex
117 Added supported for "delta" WIMs. See the documentation for the
118 '--delta-from' option of `wimlib-imagex capture'.
120 The library support for managing split WIMs has been changed to support
121 other arrangements, such as delta WIMs, and be easier to use. This
122 change is visible in `wimlib-imagex', which also can now accept the
123 '--ref' option multiple times, and also now supports "delta" WIMs as
126 wimlib now preserves WIM integrity tables by default, even if
127 WIMLIB_WRITE_FLAG_CHECK_INTEGRITY is not specified. This changes the
128 behavior of `wimlib-imagex' whenever the WIM being operated on contains
129 an integrity table and the '--check' option is not specified.
131 `wimlib-imagex capture' now creates LZX-compressed WIMs by default
132 (when --compress is not specified). This provides the best compression
133 ratio by default, which is usually what is desired, at a cost of some
136 `wimlib-imagex' now supports being invoked as wimCOMMAND, where COMMAND
137 is the command as in `wimlib-imagex COMMAND'; for example, it can be
138 invoked as `wimapply' as an alternative to `wimlib-imagex apply'. The
139 appropriate hard links are created in UNIX installations of
140 `wimlib-imagex', while for the Windows distribution of `wimlib-imagex',
141 batch files that emulate this behavior are generated.
143 Security descriptors are now extracted correctly on Windows.
145 Fixed archiving DOS names in NTFS-3g capture mode.
147 The extraction code has been rewritten and it will now be easier to
148 support new features on all supported backends (currently Win32, UNIX,
149 and NTFS-3g). For example, hard-linked extraction mode (--hardlink) is
150 now supported on all backends, not just UNIX.
152 `mkwinpeimg' now supports grabbing files from the WAIK supplement rather
153 than the WAIK itself.
155 wimlib_global_init() now, by default, attempts to acquire additional
156 privileges on Windows, so library clients need not do this.
158 This update bumps the shared library version number up to 9, since it is
159 not binary compatibible with previous releases.
162 Fixed bug in `wimlib-imagex export' that made it impossible to export an
163 image from a WIM that is readonly at the filesystem level.
165 Return error code rather than segfaulting when trying to list files from
166 a non-first part of a split WIM.
168 Joining a WIM will now preserve the RP_FIX and READONLY flags.
171 On Windows, paths given to wimlib-imagex are now treated case
174 Improved behavior regarding invalid filenames; in particular, on
175 Windows, wimlib-imagex will, when extracting, now omit (with an option
176 to override this default) filenames differing only in case, or filenames
177 containing characters not valid on Windows.
179 On Windows, wimlib now supports capturing and extracting long paths
180 (longer than the so-called MAX_PATH).
182 On Windows, `wimlib-imagex update' now acquires proper privileges when
183 running as an Administrator.
185 `wimlib-imagex update' will now complain if no image is specified when
186 trying to update a multi-image WIM.
188 `wimlib-imagex update' now supports specifying a single update command
189 directly on the command line using the --command option.
191 wimlib-imagex will now choose different units for progress messages,
192 depending on the amount of data that needs to be processed.
194 `wimlib-imagex append' will now generate a unique WIM image name if no
195 name is specified and the defaulted name already exists in the WIM.
197 wimlib now allows you to create unnamed WIM images, which can then only
198 be referred to by index.
200 wimlib now allows you to explicitly declare you want write access to a
201 WIM by providing the WIMLIB_OPEN_FLAG_WRITE_ACCESS flag to
204 wimlib now respects the WIM_HDR_FLAG_READONLY flag when set in the WIM
207 Progress callbacks have been added to wimlib's wimlib_update_image()
210 Added wimlib_get_wim_info(), wimlib_set_wim_info(),
211 wimlib_iterate_dir_tree(), and wimlib_iterate_lookup_table() functions
214 NTFS-3g capture now only warns about two conditions previously treated
217 Fixed a couple issues with using wimlib-imagex on UDF filesystems on
220 wimlib now correctly detects and returns an error when reading a WIM
221 image with a cyclic directory structure. (Fun fact: such a WIM will
222 crash Microsoft's software.)
225 Added new "extract" and "update" subcommands to wimlib-imagex, along
226 with associated APIs in the library. These commands are intended mainly
227 for Windows use but can be used on UNIX as well.
229 Many documentation improvements.
231 Fixed a bug in the Windows build where relative symbolic links were not
232 captured in reparse-point fixup mode.
234 Fixed a bug in the Windows build where file handles were left open to
235 the WIM file, causing `wimlib_imagex optimize' to fail in some cases.
237 Fixed a bug in the Windows build of wimlib-imagex where globbing
238 split-WIM parts could cause the program to crash.
240 Fixed a bug where the creation time of WIM images would be shown instead
241 of the last modification time.
243 With the Windows build it is now possible to restore a WIM containing
244 symbolic links as a non-Administrator; however you will receive warnings
245 about not being able to extract the symbolic links.
248 Capturing a WIM image should now be significantly faster in most cases
249 due to improved use of the operating system's cache and avoiding reading
250 files twice whenever possible.
252 The Windows build should now work on Windows XP.
254 The Windows build now supports capturing and restoring hidden,
255 compressed, sparse, and encrypted files.
257 The Windows build now supports capturing and applying WIM images from
258 filesystems other than NTFS (with some reduced functionality).
260 The Windows build now extracts short names correctly.
262 Added support for "reparse-point" fixups (i.e. fixing up of symbolic
263 links). See docs for --rpfix and --norpfix flags of `wimlib-imagex
264 capture' and `wimlib-imagex apply'.
266 The performance of splitting and joining WIMs should be slightly
269 The LZX and XPRESS compression and decompression functions are now
270 exported from the library.
273 Improvements and bugfixes for the Windows build.
275 Added --strict-acls options.
277 Fixed the way that wimlib determines the order of images in the WIM.
280 Since wimlib can now be used on Windows, wimlib's implementation of
281 ImageX has been renamed to wimlib-imagex to avoid confusion with
282 Microsoft's implementation of ImageX, which would have the same file
283 name ("imagex.exe"). If you really don't like this you can pass the
284 --with-imagex-progname option to `configure' to choose a different name,
285 or even simply rename the binary yourself (but the former way will
286 configure the man pages to use the chosen name).
288 Various bugs fixed in the Windows build. Mainly to do with capturing
289 and restoring alternate data streams correctly in weird cases, and
290 requesting the correct privileges when opening files. Also added the
291 --noacls options to wimlib-imagex capture, append, and apply.
293 Windows build again: FindFirstStreamW() and FindNextStreamW() are now
294 dynamically loaded, so this may make the library compatible with Windows
295 XP (however, there may still be other problems).
298 Added experimental support for native Windows builds. Binaries can be
299 downloaded from the SourceForge page.
301 --source-list option added to `imagex capture' and `imagex append'.
303 Better support for different character encodings.
306 Storing UNIX file owners, groups, and modes in WIM images is now
307 possible using `imagex capture' with the --unix-data flag.
309 Minor bug fixes and documentation fixes.
312 NTFS capture: Fixed capturing duplicate reparse points.
314 NTFS capture: Capture first unnamed stream if there are more than one
315 (print warning instead of error).
317 Allow multiple test cases to execute concurrently (e.g. make -j2 check).
320 Added --arch switch to mkwinpeimg script to support getting AMD64 WinPE
323 Update to work with ntfs-3g version 2013.1.13.
326 Fixed truncating file to shorter but non-zero length on read-write
329 Various code cleanups and minor documentation fixes.
332 LZX and XPRESS decompression have received some additional optimizations
333 and should now be even faster. (Although, they were already pretty
334 fast--- much faster than typical I/O speeds.)
336 Fixed a bug introduced in v1.2.1 that would cause a directory tree
337 containing hard links to be captured incorrectly in some cases.
340 By default, unmounting a read-write mounted WIM with 'imagex unmount
341 --commit' will now change the WIM in-place without needing to write the
342 entire WIM again. Use 'imagex unmount --commit --rebuild' to get the
345 'imagex unmount' no longer has a hard-coded limit of 10 minutes to wait
346 for a response from the daemon servicing the mounted WIM. Instead,
347 every second 'imagex unmount' will check if the daemon is still alive,
348 and keep waiting if so, otherwise terminate with an error.
350 'imagex unmount --commit' on a read-write mounted WIM will now print
351 progress information regarding the writing of new or modified streams
352 the WIM, just like when capturing or appending a WIM.
354 A small change has been made to XPRESS compression and it should improve
355 the compression ratio slightly.
357 A change was made that may improve performance slightly when applying a
358 WIM image to a NTFS volume.
360 Microsoft has managed to introduce even more bugs into their software,
361 and now the WIMs for Windows 8 have incorrect (too low) reference counts
362 for some streams. This is unsafe because such streams can be removed
363 when they are in actuality still referenced in the WIM (perhaps by a
364 different image). wimlib will now work around this problem by fixing
365 the stream reference counts. This is only done when wimlib_delete_image() is
366 called ('imagex delete') or when wimlib_mount_image() is called with
367 WIMLIB_MOUNT_FLAG_READWRITE ('imagex mountrw'). Please note that this
368 requires reading the metadata for all images in the WIM, so this will
369 make these operations noticably slower on WIMs with multiple images.
371 Various other bugfixes.
374 Appending images to a WIM is now be done by default without re-building
375 the whole WIM. Use the --rebuild flag to get the old behavior (which
376 was to re-build the entire WIM when a new image is appended).
378 A new command `imagex optimize' is now available to manually re-build a
379 WIM that has wasted space due to repeated appends.
381 Progress information has been improved, and now arbitrary callback
382 functions can be used to show the progress of a WIM operation.
384 A possible bug with changing the bootable image of a WIM was fixed.
386 Some advisory locking is now done to prevent two processes from
387 modifying a WIM at the same time (but only in some cases). For example,
388 you cannot mount two images from a WIM read-write at the same time.
390 Some functions have been reorganized:
391 * wimlib_mount() renamed to wimlib_mount_image().
392 * wimlib_unmount() renamed to wimlib_unmount_image().
393 * wimlib_overwrite_xml_and_header() removed as
394 wimlib_overwrite() suffices now.
395 * wimlib_apply_image_to_ntfs_volume() removed as
396 wimlib_extract_image() suffices now.
397 * wimlib_add_image_from_ntfs_volume() removed as
398 * wimlib_add_image() suffices now.
400 Previously, the soname of libwim.so has been 0.0.0, despite many
401 interface changes. The soname is now updated to 1.0.0 and will now be
402 updated each release.
405 Resources will now be compressed using multiple threads by default.
406 (This applies to `imagex capture', `imagex append', and `imagex
409 Some performance improvements in mounted WIMs.
411 More progress information is shown when capturing a WIM.
414 Lots of minor fixes, code cleanups, and some documentation updates.
415 Nothing in particular is really noteworthy.
418 LZX and XPRESS compression improvements.
420 Fixed calculation of Directory Count, File Count, Total Bytes, and Hard
421 Link Bytes of the WIM.
424 Fixed bug when capturing NTFS file with multiple named data streams.
426 Internally, we are now using inode structures, even though these don't
427 appear literally in the WIM file. This simplifies some of the code
428 (mainly for WIM mounting) and likely fixed a few problems, although it
432 Fixed problem when exporting images from XPRESS to LZX compressed WIM or
436 Enough changes to call it version 1.0.0!
438 Capturing a WIM directly from a NTFS volume, and applying a WIM directly
439 to a NTFS volume, is now supported.
441 Hard links and symbolic links have much improved support. They are
442 supported for WIM capture, WIM application, and mounted WIMs (you can
443 even make them on read-write mounted WIMs).
445 Alternate data streams are now supported on mounted WIMs through an
446 xattr or a Windows-style stream interface. Also they are supported when
447 capturing a WIM from NTFS or applying a WIM to NTFS.
449 Split WIMs are better supported. You may now apply an image directly
450 from a split WIM, mount an image from a split WIM read-only, or export
451 an image from a split WIM.
453 Using a capture configuration file is now supported (but not fully yet).
455 SHA1 message digests are checked in more places, so we can make sure
456 applied and captured data is correct.
458 Man pages have been updated and consolidated.
461 Fixed segfault when unmounting read-only WIM.
464 Support for joining and splitting WIMs.
465 Also, security data is now preserved by default.
468 Can now build with older gcc and system headers, like on CentOS 5.
471 Fixed bug that made it impossible to overwrite files in read-write
475 Write byte-order mark before WIM XML data. (imagex.exe requires this to