.TH WIMLIB-IMAGEX 1 "June 2016" "wimlib 1.9.2" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
wimlib-imagex \- Extract, create, modify, or mount a WIM (Windows Imaging Format) archive
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBwimlib-imagex append\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex apply\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex capture\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex delete\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex dir\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex export\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex extract\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex info\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex join\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex mount\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex mountrw\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex optimize\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex split\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex unmount\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex update\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex verify\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBwimlib-imagex\fR deals with archives in the Windows Imaging Format (WIM).
Its interface is similar to Microsoft's ImageX, but \fBwimlib-imagex\fR is
cross-platform and has useful improvements and extensions.
.PP
To do its work, \fBwimlib-imagex\fR uses \fBwimlib\fR, an open source C
library that provides interfaces for manipulating WIM archives.  wimlib is
completely independent from the equivalent Microsoft implementation (WIMGAPI, or
wimgapi.dll).  You can use wimlib in your own programs, although for
command-line use \fBwimlib-imagex\fR already provides access to most of
wimlib's functionality.
.SH BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Windows Imaging Format (WIM) was designed by Microsoft primarily for
archiving Windows filesystems, such as NTFS.  However, it can be used on other
platforms as well, with some limitations.  A WIM archive contains one or more
images, each of which is a logically independent directory tree.  Images are
indexed starting from 1, and each may also have a name.  File data is stored as
content-addressable "blobs" that are deduplicated across the entire archive.
Data may be compressed using one of several compression algorithms.
.PP
An update of the WIM format released with Windows 8 features solid compression
using the LZMS compression algorithm.  Such files are also called "ESD files"
and may carry the extension \.esd instead of .wim.  \fBwimlib-imagex\fR
v1.6.0 and later supports these new files, unless they are encrypted.
.SH COMMANDS
\fBwimlib-imagex\fR accepts one of a number of commands (listed above in
\fBSYNOPSYS\fR), and additional arguments depending on the specific command.
Although \fBwimlib-imagex\fR will print usage information with \fB--help\fR
or if you invoke it incorrectly, the full documentation for each
\fBwimlib-imagex\fR command can be found in the appropriate manual page.
.PP
Note: to save typing, if appropriate hard links or batch files have been
installed, a command \fBwimlib-imagex \fICOMMAND\fR can also be accessed as
simply \fBwim\fICOMMAND\fR; for example, \fBwimapply\fR for \fBwimlib-imagex
apply\fR.
.SH GENERAL FEATURES
The following are some of the general features, or use cases, currently
supported by \fBwimlib-imagex\fR, and pointers to the relevant commands:
.IP \[bu] 4
Display information about a WIM file
 (\fBwimlib-imagex info\fR)
.IP \[bu]
List the files in a WIM image
 (\fBwimlib-imagex dir\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Extract, or "apply", a full WIM image
 (\fBwimlib-imagex apply\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Extract files or directories from a WIM image
 (\fBwimlib-imagex extract\fR)
.IP \[bu] 4
Capture a WIM image and save it to a new WIM file
 (\fBwimlib-imagex capture\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Capture a WIM image and append it to an existing WIM file
 (\fBwimlib-imagex append\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Modify a WIM image by adding, deleting, or renaming files
 (\fBwimlib-imagex update\fR)
.IP \[bu]
(Linux only) Mount a WIM image read-only
 (\fBwimlib-imagex mount\fR)
.IP \[bu]
(Linux only) Mount a WIM image read-write
 (\fBwimlib-imagex mountrw\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Delete an image from a WIM file
 (\fBwimlib-imagex delete\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Export image(s) from a WIM file
 (\fBwimlib-imagex export\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Change the name or description of a WIM image
 (\fBwimlib-imagex info\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Change the bootable image index of a WIM file
 (\fBwimlib-imagex info\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Rebuild, and optionally recompress, a WIM file
 (\fBwimlib-imagex optimize\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Split a WIM file into multiple parts
 (\fBwimlib-imagex split\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Join a split WIM
 (\fBwimlib-imagex join\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Verify a WIM file
 (\fBwimlib-imagex verify\fR)
.SH DETAILED FEATURES
This section presents some of the interesting features of
\fBwimlib-imagex\fR in more detail.
.IP \[bu] 4
Multi-platform support.  \fBwimlib-imagex\fR is supported on both UNIX-like
systems (mainly Linux, but also FreeBSD, Mac OS X, etc.) and Windows, and most
code is shared among all platforms.  However, platform-specific features are
supported when possible.
.IP \[bu]
On UNIX-like systems, integration with libntfs-3g allows capturing a WIM image
directly from a block device containing an NTFS volume, or applying a WIM image
directly to a block device containing an NTFS volume.  This allows saving and
restoring NTFS-specific data, such as security descriptors and named data
streams, which would otherwise only be supported on Windows.
.IP \[bu]
Long path support on Windows.  \fBwimlib-imagex\fR can capture and apply files
with paths exceeding the MAX_PATH (260 character) limitation of the Win32
subsystem.
.IP \[bu]
Non-Administrator support on Windows.  You can run \fBwimlib-imagex\fR without
Administrator rights, subject to some limitations.
.IP \[bu]
Support for WIM integrity tables.  An integrity table is a list of SHA-1 message
digests appended to the end of a WIM file which gives checksums over the WIM
file itself.  The \fB--check\fR option to several \fBwimlib-imagex\fR commands
can be used to verify or add integrity tables.
.IP \[bu]
On UNIX-like systems, support for saving and restoring UNIX uids (user IDs),
gids (group IDs), and modes to/from WIM images.  This is a wimlib extension, but
the Microsoft implementation ignores this extra metadata.
.IP \[bu]
Multithreaded compression.  By default, data compression is multithreaded and
will use all available processors.
.IP \[bu]
XPRESS, LZX, and LZMS decompression and compression.  wimlib contains
independent implementations of all these compression algorithms.  Sometimes they
can do better than the equivalent Microsoft implementations.
.IP \[bu]
"ESD file" support.  As mentioned in \fBBACKGROUND INFORMATION\fR, "ESD files"
use a new WIM format that features solid resources and LZMS compression.  This
support was first present in wimlib v1.6.0, but v1.7.0 and later have improved
compatibility.
.IP \[bu]
On Linux, support for mounting WIM images with FUSE (Filesystem in UserSpacE).
.IP \[bu]
"Pipable" WIMs.  This is a wimlib extension and is not compatible with the
Microsoft implementation.  A pipable WIM, created with \fBwimcapture\fR with the
\fB--pipable\fR option, can be written to standard output or read from standard
input.  This can be used to pipe images to or from a server over the network to
implement fast filesystem imaging and restore.
.IP \[bu]
Split WIMs.  A split WIM is a WIM archive split into multiple parts.
\fBwimsplit\fR can create a split WIM from a standalone WIM, and \fBwimjoin\fR
can create a standalone WIM from a split WIM.
.IP \[bu]
Delta WIMs.  A delta WIM contains image metadata but excludes file data already
present in another WIM file.  A delta WIM can be created using \fBwimcapture\fR
with the \fB--delta-from\fR option.
.IP \[bu]
Fast incremental backups.  Using the \fB--update-of\fR option of
\fBwimcapture\fR or \fBwimappend\fR, you can optimize an image capture so that
files that are unmodified based on timestamps are not be read from disk.  But
even without this option, since the WIM format features single-instance files, a
file identical to any already present in the WIM archive (in any image) will not
be written, but rather a reference to the stored file will be used.
.IP \[bu]
Windows-specific image metadata support.  When capturing an image of a Windows
operating system, wimlib will automatically populate XML metadata fields such as
the Windows OS version details by scanning well-known system files.
.IP \[bu]
WIMBoot support.  On Windows 8.1 and later, files can be "externally backed" by
a WIM archive with the help of Microsoft's Windows Overlay Filesystem filter
driver (WOF).  With the \fB--wimboot\fR option, \fBwimapply\fR will extract
"pointer files" to the WIM archive rather than the files themselves.
.IP \[bu]
VSS snapshot support.  On Windows, \fBwimcapture\fR or \fBwimappend\fR with the
\fB--snapshot\fR option will automatically create a temporary VSS snapshot and
capture the image from it.  This can be used to image a "live" Windows system.
.SH CASE SENSITIVITY
By default, the case sensitivity of \fBwimlib-imagex\fR differs somewhat
between UNIX-like systems and Windows.  WIM images may (but usually do not) have
multiple files with the same case-insensitive name.  Internally, wimlib
stores filenames as case-sensitive, but on Windows paths
actually provided by the user for use in a WIM image (e.g. for extracting,
adding, renaming, or deleting files) will by default be treated as
case-insensitive in order to get the "expected" behavior. This differs from the
default behavior on UNIX-like systems, where such paths will be treated as
case-sensitive.
.PP
Note that with case insensitivity, a path component may in general be ambiguous
due to multiple files or directories having the same case-insensitive name.  In
such cases, if there is a file or directory with an exactly matching name, it is
chosen; otherwise, one of the case-insensitively matching file or directories is
chosen arbitrarily.
.PP
The default case sensitivity of \fBwimlib-imagex\fR can be overridden by
explicitly setting the environmental variable \fBWIMLIB_IMAGEX_IGNORE_CASE\fR to
1, in which case such paths will be treated case insensitively, or 0, in which
such paths will be treated case sensitively.
.PP
Regardless of these settings, options and non-path arguments must be specified
in lower case.
.SH LICENSE
wimlib-imagex may be redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the GNU
General Public License; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any
later version.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.SH REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to ebiggers3@gmail.com.  Feedback and suggestions are also welcome.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR wimlib-imagex-append (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-apply (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-capture (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-delete (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-dir (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-export (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-extract (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-info (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-join (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-mount (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-mountrw (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-optimize (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-split (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-unmount (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-update (1),
.BR wimlib-imagex-verify (1),