1 .TH IMAGEX "1" "October 2012" "imagex (wimlib) wimlib @VERSION@" "User Commands"
3 imagex-apply \- Extract one image, or all images, from a WIM archive
6 \fBimagex apply\fR \fIWIMFILE\fR \fIIMAGE\fR \fITARGET\fR [\fIOPTION\fR]...
11 \fBimagex apply\fR extracts an image, or all images, from the Windows Imaging
12 (WIM) file \fIWIMFILE\fR.
14 \fIIMAGE\fR specifies the WIM image to extract. It may be a 1-based index of an
15 image in the WIM, the name of an image in the WIM, or the keyword "all" to
16 indicate that all images are to be extracted. Use the \fBimagex info\fR (1)
17 command to show what images a WIM file contains.
19 \fITARGET\fR specifies where to extract the WIM image(s) to. If \fITARGET\fR
20 specifies a directory, the WIM image(s) are extracted to that directory. If
21 \fITARGET\fR specifies a non-existent file, a directory is created in that
22 location and the WIM image(s) are extracted to that directory. If \fITARGET\fR
23 specifies a regular file or block device, it is interpreted as a NTFS volume to
24 which the WIM image is to be extracted.
26 \fBimagex apply\fR supports applying images from stand-alone WIMs as well as
27 split WIMs. See \fBSPLIT WIMS\fR.
31 The normal extraction mode is entered when \fITARGET\fR is a directory or
32 non-existent file. If a single WIM image is being extracted, it is extracted
33 with the root directory of the image corresponding to the directory named by
34 \fITARGET\fR; or, if the keyword \fBall\fR is given, the images are extracted
35 into subdirectories of \fITARGET\fR that are be named after the image names,
36 falling back to the image index for an image with no name. \fITARGET\fR can
37 specify a directory on any type of filesystem.
39 In the normal mode of extraction, the following information is extracted from
43 The default (unnamed) data stream of each file
45 Hard links, if supported by the underlying filesystem
47 File and directory creation, access, and modification timestamps to the nearest
48 microsecond, if supported by the underlying filesystem
50 Symbolic links and junction points, although they will not necessarily point to
51 the desired location (for example, the target of the link may contain a Windows
55 In the normal mode of extraction, the following information will \fInot\fR be
56 extracted from the WIM image(s):
59 Security descriptors (file permissions)
61 The alternate (named) data streams for each file
63 Reparse points other than symbolic links and junction points
65 Certain file attributes such as compression, encryption, and sparseness.
67 Short (DOS) names for files
71 A special extraction mode is entered when \fITARGET\fR is a regular file or
72 block device. If this is the case, \fITARGET\fR is interpreted as an NTFS
73 volume and opened using libntfs-3g. If successful, the WIM image is extracted
74 to the root of the NTFS volume in a special mode that preserves all, or almost
75 all, information contained in the WIM. \fIIMAGE\fR may not be "all" for this
78 The NTFS volume does not need to be empty, although it's expected that it be
79 empty for the intended use cases. A new NTFS filesystem can be created using
80 the \fBmkntfs\fR (8) command.
82 The NTFS extraction mode is not available if wimlib was compiled using the
83 --without-ntfs-3g option.
85 Please note that the NTFS extraction mode is \fInot\fR entered if \fITARGET\fR
86 is a directory, even if a NTFS filesystem is mounted on \fITARGET\fR. You must
87 specify the NTFS volume itself (and it must be unmounted, and you must have
88 permission to write to it).
90 In the NTFS extraction mode, the following information will be extracted from
94 The data streams of all files, including the un-named data stream as well as all
97 Reparse points, including symbolic links, junction points, and other reparse
102 File and directory creation, access, and modification timestamps are set to the
103 100-nanosecond resolution values specified in the WIM file.
105 The security descriptor for each file is applied if there is one specified in
108 File attribute flags are applied.
110 Short (DOS) names for files are extracted. The corresponding long name for each
111 DOS name is made to be a Win32 name. Any additional names for the file in the
112 same directory are made to be names in the POSIX namespace.
116 In the NTFS extraction mode, we restore enough information from the WIM that it
117 is possible, in most cases, to restore or install an image of an actual Windows
118 installation. In the examples at the end of this manual page, we show an example
119 of applying an image from the "install.wim" file contained in the installation
120 media for Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 in the "sources" directory.
122 In order to actually boot Windows from an applied image, you must understand the
123 boot process of Windows versions Vista and later. Basically, it is the
128 The Master Boot Record loads the Volume Boot Record (also called the Boot
129 Sector) of the active partition, which is on an NTFS filesystem. This partition
130 is called the "system partition".
132 The "bootmgr" program on the "system partition" is loaded (\\BOOTMGR).
134 bootmgr loads the Boot Configuration Data (\\Boot\\BCD) from the "system
137 Based on the information contained in the Boot Configuration Data, a loader for
138 the Windows kernel is executed from the "Boot" partition, which is where Windows
143 So let's say you applied an image from an existing "install.wim" as in the
144 example, or you've applied a custom Windows image that you've created using the
145 \fBimagex capture\fR (1) command. You've just applied the "Boot" partition, or
146 the main Windows partition, but there is no "System" partition yet (i.e. no
147 \\BOOTMGR and no \\Boot\\BCD).
149 A "System" partition can be created created by running the "bcdboot.exe" program
150 from within Windows or Windows PE. Alternatively, you can capture a separate
151 WIM image containing the "System" partition. Or, the "System" partition may the
152 same as the "Boot" partition, so the two "partitions" may be combined in one WIM
153 image. However, as the \\Boot\\BCD file contains the Windows bootloader
154 configuration, a WIM containing it can only be used on systems where you are
155 setting up the same bootloader configuration, including the same partition
158 Besides setting up the files on the "System" partition, don't forget to set the
159 bootable flag on it, and have a master boot record that loads the bootable
160 partition (Windows' MBR does, and SYSLINUX provides an equivalent MBR).
164 You may use \fBimagex apply\fR to apply images from a split WIM. The
165 \fIWIMFILE\fR argument is used to specify the first part of the split WIM, and
166 the \fB--refs\fR="\fIGLOB\fR" option is used to provide a shell-style file glob
167 that specifies the additional parts of the split WIM. \fIGLOB\fR is expected to
168 be a single string on the command line, so \fIGLOB\fR must be quoted so that it
169 is protected against shell expansion. \fIGLOB\fR must expand to all parts of
170 the split WIM, except optionally the first part which may either omitted or
171 included in the glob (but the first part MUST be specified as \fIWIMFILE\fR as
174 Here's an example. The names for the split WIMs usually go something like:
186 To apply the first image of this split WIM to the directory "dir", we would do:
189 imagex apply mywim.swm 1 dir --ref="mywim*.swm"
196 When reading \fIWIMFILE\fR, verify its integrity if the integrity table is
200 When extracting a file from the WIM that is identical to a file that has already
201 extracted, create a hard link using \fBlink\fR (3) rather than creating a
202 separate file. This option causes all identical files to be hard-linked,
203 overriding the hard link groups that are specified in the WIM image(s). In the
204 case of extracting all images from the WIM, files may be hard-linked even if
205 they are in different WIM images. This option is not available in the NTFS
209 This option is similar to \fB--hardlink\fR, except symbolic links are created
210 instead. This option is not available in the NTFS extraction mode.
213 Print the path to of each file or directory within the WIM image as it is
214 extracted, and some additional informational messages.
216 \fB--ref\fR="\fIGLOB\fR"
217 File glob of additional split WIM parts that are part of the split WIM being
218 applied. See \fBSPLIT_WIMS\fR.
222 \fBimagex apply\fR calculates the SHA1 message digest of every file stream it
223 extracts and verifies that it is the same as the SHA1 message digest provided in
224 the WIM file. It is an error if the message digests don't match. It's also
225 considered to be an error if any WIM resources cannot be found in the stream
226 lookup table. So you can be fairly certain that the file streams are extracted
227 correctly, even though we don't provide a \fB/verify\fR option like Microsoft's
228 version of imagex does. Please note that this is separate from the integrity
229 table of the WIM, which provides SHA1 message digests over raw chunks of the
230 entire WIM file and is checked separately if the \fB--check\fR option is
234 .SS Normal extraction mode
235 Extract the first image from the Windows PE image from the Windows Vista/7/8
236 installation media to the directory "boot":
239 image apply /media/windows/sources/boot.wim 1 boot
242 Extract all images from the Windows PE image from the Windows Vista/7/8
243 installation media to the directory "boot", and hard link all identical files:
246 image apply /media/windows8/sources/boot.wim all boot --hardlink
249 .SS NTFS extraction mode
250 Verbosely apply a WIM image to a NTFS filesystem image:
253 imagex apply mywim.wim 1 fsimage.ntfs --verbose
256 Create a new NTFS filesystem on the partition /dev/sda2 and apply the first
257 image in the Windows Vista/7/8 installation WIM to it. (Obviously, only do this
258 if you want to erase everything on that partition.)
261 mkntfs /dev/sda2 && imagex apply /media/windows/sources/install.wim 1 /dev/sda2