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 and can offer a better compression ratio than LZX.
11 These new WIM files can be created using `wimcapture' with
12 the '--compress=lzms --pack-streams' options. Note: this new WIM format
13 is used by the Windows 8 web downloader, but important segments of the
14 raw '.esd' files are encrypted, so wimlib will not be able to extract
15 such files until they are first decrypted.
17 wimlib now supports extracting files and directories from a WIM image
18 based on a "listfile" that itself contains the list of paths to extract.
19 For `wimextract', the syntax is to specify @LISTFILE instead of a PATH,
20 and for the library itself, the new APIs are wimlib_extract_pathlist()
21 and wimlib_extract_paths(). Path globs containing wildcard characters
24 For searching WIM files, wimlib now has configurable case sensitivity.
25 The default on Windows is still case-insensitive and the default on
26 UNIX-like systems is still case-sensitive, but this can be overridden
27 on either platform through flags to wimlib_global_init(). For
28 `wimlib-imagex', the environmental variable WIMLIB_IMAGEX_IGNORE_CASE
29 can be set to 1 or 0 for case-insensitive or case-sensitive behavior,
32 Support for compression chunk sizes greater than the default of 32768
33 bytes has been added. A larger chunk size typically results in a better
34 compression ratio. However, the MS implementation is seemingly not
35 compatible with all chunk sizes, especially for LZX compression, so the
36 defaults remain unchanged, with the exception of the new LZMS-compressed
37 WIMs, which use a larger chunk size by default.
39 The compression/decompression API exported by wimlib has been changed.
40 Now one set of functions handles all supported compression formats.
42 `wimcapture' and `wimappend' will now display the progress of scanning
43 the directory tree to capture, in addition to the progress of writing
44 data to the WIM. The '--verbose' option no longer does anything. The
45 library API change for this is the addition of several members to
46 `struct wimlib_progress_info_scan' available to progress callbacks.
48 `mkwinpeimg' now correctly handles the '--start-script' option when the
49 start script is not in the working directory.
51 Sequential extraction, previously requested by using
52 WIMLIB_EXTRACT_FLAG_SEQUENTIAL, is now the default.
53 WIMLIB_EXTRACT_FLAG_FILE_ORDER can be used to get the old default
54 behavior (extract in file order).
57 The new LZX compressor added in v1.5.2 has been improved and is now
58 enabled by default, except when `wimcapture' or `wimappend' is run
59 *without* the '--compress' option, in which case the faster LZX
60 compressor is used (the same as before). This behavior is reasonably
61 consistent with ImageX which actually uses "fast" (XPRESS) compression
62 by default. In those cases, use '--compress=maximum' to explicitly
63 capture a WIM image using the new (slower but better) LZX compressor.
65 The '--compress-slow' option still exists to `wimlib-imagex optimize',
66 but its new behavior is to tweak the new LZX compressor even more to
67 produce an even better compression ratio at the cost of more time spent
70 `wimlib-imagex optimize' now supports the '--compress=TYPE' option,
71 which recompresses the WIM file using the specified compression TYPE.
72 The new library API function used for this is
73 wimlib_set_output_compression_type().
75 Added the wimlib_get_xml_data() function to allow library clients to
76 easily retrieve the raw XML data from a WIM file if needed.
78 Fixed a bug that could cause an error code to be incorrectly returned
79 when writing XML data containing a <WINDOWS> element.
81 Mounted WIM images will now correctly show the default file stream even
82 if appears in the alternate data stream entries of the corresponding WIM
86 Added a new experimental LZX compressor which can be enabled by passing
87 '--compress-slow' to `wimlib-imagex capture' or `wimlib-imagex
88 optimize'. (The latter is only applicable if the WIM is already
89 LZX-compressed and the '--recompress' option is also given.) The
90 experimental compressor is much slower but compresses the data slightly
91 more --- currently usually to within a fraction of a percent of the
92 results from WIMGAPI/ImageX.
94 A workaround has been added for compatibility with versions of WinPE
95 that interpret alternate data stream entries in the boot WIM
98 An alignment bug that caused a crash in the LZX decompressor on some
101 wimlib now attempts to clear the WIM_HDR_FLAG_WRITE_IN_PROGRESS flag in
102 the WIM header when restoring the previous state of a WIM it failed to
105 Added a workaround to avoid an access denied error on Windows when
106 replacing a WIM file that another process has opened.
109 wimlib can now open WinPE WIMs from WAIK v2.1, which had a quirk that
110 needed to be handled.
112 A bug in the interpretation of negative IMAGE indices in the
113 --update-of=[WIMFILE:]IMAGE option to `wimlib-imagex capture' and
114 `wimlib-imagex append' has been fixed.
116 A workaround has been added to successfully apply security descriptors
117 with empty DACLs when the NTFS-3g apply mode is being used with NTFS-3g
118 2013.1.13 or earlier.
120 `wimlib-imagex capture' can now accept the '--delta-from' option
124 Added support for "pipable" WIMs. Pipable WIMs allow capturing images
125 to standard output and applying images from standard input, but they are
126 not compatible with Microsoft's software and are not created by default.
127 See the documentation for --pipable flag of `wimlib-imagex capture' for
130 To better support incremental backups, added support for declaring an
131 image as a modified form of another image. See the documentation for
132 the '--update-of' option of `wimlib-imagex append' and `wimlib-imagex
135 Added supported for "delta" WIMs. See the documentation for the
136 '--delta-from' option of `wimlib-imagex capture'.
138 The library support for managing split WIMs has been changed to support
139 other arrangements, such as delta WIMs, and be easier to use. This
140 change is visible in `wimlib-imagex', which also can now accept the
141 '--ref' option multiple times, and also now supports "delta" WIMs as
144 wimlib now preserves WIM integrity tables by default, even if
145 WIMLIB_WRITE_FLAG_CHECK_INTEGRITY is not specified. This changes the
146 behavior of `wimlib-imagex' whenever the WIM being operated on contains
147 an integrity table and the '--check' option is not specified.
149 `wimlib-imagex capture' now creates LZX-compressed WIMs by default
150 (when --compress is not specified). This provides the best compression
151 ratio by default, which is usually what is desired, at a cost of some
154 `wimlib-imagex' now supports being invoked as wimCOMMAND, where COMMAND
155 is the command as in `wimlib-imagex COMMAND'; for example, it can be
156 invoked as `wimapply' as an alternative to `wimlib-imagex apply'. The
157 appropriate hard links are created in UNIX installations of
158 `wimlib-imagex', while for the Windows distribution of `wimlib-imagex',
159 batch files that emulate this behavior are generated.
161 Security descriptors are now extracted correctly on Windows.
163 Fixed archiving DOS names in NTFS-3g capture mode.
165 The extraction code has been rewritten and it will now be easier to
166 support new features on all supported backends (currently Win32, UNIX,
167 and NTFS-3g). For example, hard-linked extraction mode (--hardlink) is
168 now supported on all backends, not just UNIX.
170 `mkwinpeimg' now supports grabbing files from the WAIK supplement rather
171 than the WAIK itself.
173 wimlib_global_init() now, by default, attempts to acquire additional
174 privileges on Windows, so library clients need not do this.
176 This update bumps the shared library version number up to 9, since it is
177 not binary compatibible with previous releases.
180 Fixed bug in `wimlib-imagex export' that made it impossible to export an
181 image from a WIM that is readonly at the filesystem level.
183 Return error code rather than segfaulting when trying to list files from
184 a non-first part of a split WIM.
186 Joining a WIM will now preserve the RP_FIX and READONLY flags.
189 On Windows, paths given to wimlib-imagex are now treated case
192 Improved behavior regarding invalid filenames; in particular, on
193 Windows, wimlib-imagex will, when extracting, now omit (with an option
194 to override this default) filenames differing only in case, or filenames
195 containing characters not valid on Windows.
197 On Windows, wimlib now supports capturing and extracting long paths
198 (longer than the so-called MAX_PATH).
200 On Windows, `wimlib-imagex update' now acquires proper privileges when
201 running as an Administrator.
203 `wimlib-imagex update' will now complain if no image is specified when
204 trying to update a multi-image WIM.
206 `wimlib-imagex update' now supports specifying a single update command
207 directly on the command line using the --command option.
209 wimlib-imagex will now choose different units for progress messages,
210 depending on the amount of data that needs to be processed.
212 `wimlib-imagex append' will now generate a unique WIM image name if no
213 name is specified and the defaulted name already exists in the WIM.
215 wimlib now allows you to create unnamed WIM images, which can then only
216 be referred to by index.
218 wimlib now allows you to explicitly declare you want write access to a
219 WIM by providing the WIMLIB_OPEN_FLAG_WRITE_ACCESS flag to
222 wimlib now respects the WIM_HDR_FLAG_READONLY flag when set in the WIM
225 Progress callbacks have been added to wimlib's wimlib_update_image()
228 Added wimlib_get_wim_info(), wimlib_set_wim_info(),
229 wimlib_iterate_dir_tree(), and wimlib_iterate_lookup_table() functions
232 NTFS-3g capture now only warns about two conditions previously treated
235 Fixed a couple issues with using wimlib-imagex on UDF filesystems on
238 wimlib now correctly detects and returns an error when reading a WIM
239 image with a cyclic directory structure. (Fun fact: such a WIM will
240 crash Microsoft's software.)
243 Added new "extract" and "update" subcommands to wimlib-imagex, along
244 with associated APIs in the library. These commands are intended mainly
245 for Windows use but can be used on UNIX as well.
247 Many documentation improvements.
249 Fixed a bug in the Windows build where relative symbolic links were not
250 captured in reparse-point fixup mode.
252 Fixed a bug in the Windows build where file handles were left open to
253 the WIM file, causing `wimlib_imagex optimize' to fail in some cases.
255 Fixed a bug in the Windows build of wimlib-imagex where globbing
256 split-WIM parts could cause the program to crash.
258 Fixed a bug where the creation time of WIM images would be shown instead
259 of the last modification time.
261 With the Windows build it is now possible to restore a WIM containing
262 symbolic links as a non-Administrator; however you will receive warnings
263 about not being able to extract the symbolic links.
266 Capturing a WIM image should now be significantly faster in most cases
267 due to improved use of the operating system's cache and avoiding reading
268 files twice whenever possible.
270 The Windows build should now work on Windows XP.
272 The Windows build now supports capturing and restoring hidden,
273 compressed, sparse, and encrypted files.
275 The Windows build now supports capturing and applying WIM images from
276 filesystems other than NTFS (with some reduced functionality).
278 The Windows build now extracts short names correctly.
280 Added support for "reparse-point" fixups (i.e. fixing up of symbolic
281 links). See docs for --rpfix and --norpfix flags of `wimlib-imagex
282 capture' and `wimlib-imagex apply'.
284 The performance of splitting and joining WIMs should be slightly
287 The LZX and XPRESS compression and decompression functions are now
288 exported from the library.
291 Improvements and bugfixes for the Windows build.
293 Added --strict-acls options.
295 Fixed the way that wimlib determines the order of images in the WIM.
298 Since wimlib can now be used on Windows, wimlib's implementation of
299 ImageX has been renamed to wimlib-imagex to avoid confusion with
300 Microsoft's implementation of ImageX, which would have the same file
301 name ("imagex.exe"). If you really don't like this you can pass the
302 --with-imagex-progname option to `configure' to choose a different name,
303 or even simply rename the binary yourself (but the former way will
304 configure the man pages to use the chosen name).
306 Various bugs fixed in the Windows build. Mainly to do with capturing
307 and restoring alternate data streams correctly in weird cases, and
308 requesting the correct privileges when opening files. Also added the
309 --noacls options to wimlib-imagex capture, append, and apply.
311 Windows build again: FindFirstStreamW() and FindNextStreamW() are now
312 dynamically loaded, so this may make the library compatible with Windows
313 XP (however, there may still be other problems).
316 Added experimental support for native Windows builds. Binaries can be
317 downloaded from the SourceForge page.
319 --source-list option added to `imagex capture' and `imagex append'.
321 Better support for different character encodings.
324 Storing UNIX file owners, groups, and modes in WIM images is now
325 possible using `imagex capture' with the --unix-data flag.
327 Minor bug fixes and documentation fixes.
330 NTFS capture: Fixed capturing duplicate reparse points.
332 NTFS capture: Capture first unnamed stream if there are more than one
333 (print warning instead of error).
335 Allow multiple test cases to execute concurrently (e.g. make -j2 check).
338 Added --arch switch to mkwinpeimg script to support getting AMD64 WinPE
341 Update to work with ntfs-3g version 2013.1.13.
344 Fixed truncating file to shorter but non-zero length on read-write
347 Various code cleanups and minor documentation fixes.
350 LZX and XPRESS decompression have received some additional optimizations
351 and should now be even faster. (Although, they were already pretty
352 fast--- much faster than typical I/O speeds.)
354 Fixed a bug introduced in v1.2.1 that would cause a directory tree
355 containing hard links to be captured incorrectly in some cases.
358 By default, unmounting a read-write mounted WIM with 'imagex unmount
359 --commit' will now change the WIM in-place without needing to write the
360 entire WIM again. Use 'imagex unmount --commit --rebuild' to get the
363 'imagex unmount' no longer has a hard-coded limit of 10 minutes to wait
364 for a response from the daemon servicing the mounted WIM. Instead,
365 every second 'imagex unmount' will check if the daemon is still alive,
366 and keep waiting if so, otherwise terminate with an error.
368 'imagex unmount --commit' on a read-write mounted WIM will now print
369 progress information regarding the writing of new or modified streams
370 the WIM, just like when capturing or appending a WIM.
372 A small change has been made to XPRESS compression and it should improve
373 the compression ratio slightly.
375 A change was made that may improve performance slightly when applying a
376 WIM image to a NTFS volume.
378 Microsoft has managed to introduce even more bugs into their software,
379 and now the WIMs for Windows 8 have incorrect (too low) reference counts
380 for some streams. This is unsafe because such streams can be removed
381 when they are in actuality still referenced in the WIM (perhaps by a
382 different image). wimlib will now work around this problem by fixing
383 the stream reference counts. This is only done when wimlib_delete_image() is
384 called ('imagex delete') or when wimlib_mount_image() is called with
385 WIMLIB_MOUNT_FLAG_READWRITE ('imagex mountrw'). Please note that this
386 requires reading the metadata for all images in the WIM, so this will
387 make these operations noticably slower on WIMs with multiple images.
389 Various other bugfixes.
392 Appending images to a WIM is now be done by default without re-building
393 the whole WIM. Use the --rebuild flag to get the old behavior (which
394 was to re-build the entire WIM when a new image is appended).
396 A new command `imagex optimize' is now available to manually re-build a
397 WIM that has wasted space due to repeated appends.
399 Progress information has been improved, and now arbitrary callback
400 functions can be used to show the progress of a WIM operation.
402 A possible bug with changing the bootable image of a WIM was fixed.
404 Some advisory locking is now done to prevent two processes from
405 modifying a WIM at the same time (but only in some cases). For example,
406 you cannot mount two images from a WIM read-write at the same time.
408 Some functions have been reorganized:
409 * wimlib_mount() renamed to wimlib_mount_image().
410 * wimlib_unmount() renamed to wimlib_unmount_image().
411 * wimlib_overwrite_xml_and_header() removed as
412 wimlib_overwrite() suffices now.
413 * wimlib_apply_image_to_ntfs_volume() removed as
414 wimlib_extract_image() suffices now.
415 * wimlib_add_image_from_ntfs_volume() removed as
416 * wimlib_add_image() suffices now.
418 Previously, the soname of libwim.so has been 0.0.0, despite many
419 interface changes. The soname is now updated to 1.0.0 and will now be
420 updated each release.
423 Resources will now be compressed using multiple threads by default.
424 (This applies to `imagex capture', `imagex append', and `imagex
427 Some performance improvements in mounted WIMs.
429 More progress information is shown when capturing a WIM.
432 Lots of minor fixes, code cleanups, and some documentation updates.
433 Nothing in particular is really noteworthy.
436 LZX and XPRESS compression improvements.
438 Fixed calculation of Directory Count, File Count, Total Bytes, and Hard
439 Link Bytes of the WIM.
442 Fixed bug when capturing NTFS file with multiple named data streams.
444 Internally, we are now using inode structures, even though these don't
445 appear literally in the WIM file. This simplifies some of the code
446 (mainly for WIM mounting) and likely fixed a few problems, although it
450 Fixed problem when exporting images from XPRESS to LZX compressed WIM or
454 Enough changes to call it version 1.0.0!
456 Capturing a WIM directly from a NTFS volume, and applying a WIM directly
457 to a NTFS volume, is now supported.
459 Hard links and symbolic links have much improved support. They are
460 supported for WIM capture, WIM application, and mounted WIMs (you can
461 even make them on read-write mounted WIMs).
463 Alternate data streams are now supported on mounted WIMs through an
464 xattr or a Windows-style stream interface. Also they are supported when
465 capturing a WIM from NTFS or applying a WIM to NTFS.
467 Split WIMs are better supported. You may now apply an image directly
468 from a split WIM, mount an image from a split WIM read-only, or export
469 an image from a split WIM.
471 Using a capture configuration file is now supported (but not fully yet).
473 SHA1 message digests are checked in more places, so we can make sure
474 applied and captured data is correct.
476 Man pages have been updated and consolidated.
479 Fixed segfault when unmounting read-only WIM.
482 Support for joining and splitting WIMs.
483 Also, security data is now preserved by default.
486 Can now build with older gcc and system headers, like on CentOS 5.
489 Fixed bug that made it impossible to overwrite files in read-write
493 Write byte-order mark before WIM XML data. (imagex.exe requires this to