X-Git-Url: https://wimlib.net/git/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=README.WINDOWS;h=c54a773bedab3cbaed3fca4a2003fd86da885582;hb=refs%2Fheads%2Fmaster;hp=09f9624ac7755e006ff124be2a4ee9efd8241482;hpb=5583aa693640a088ca961347104bc830436b2184;p=wimlib diff --git a/README.WINDOWS b/README.WINDOWS deleted file mode 100644 index 09f9624a..00000000 --- a/README.WINDOWS +++ /dev/null @@ -1,72 +0,0 @@ - INTRODUCTION - -wimlib 1.3.0 has added experimental support for Windows builds. The support has -been further improved in later versions. The Windows build consists of both the -"wimlib" library (which can be built as a DLL) and the "wimlib-imagex" -executable. - -The Windows build of wimlib uses native Win32 calls when appropriate to handle -alternate data streams, security descriptors, reparse points, encrypted files, -compressed files, and sparse files. - -Mounting WIM files is not supported on Windows. Also please note that wimlib's -"wimlib-imagex" is NOT intended to be command-line compatible with Microsoft's -"imagex", and wimlib is NOT intended to be API compatible with Microsoft's -WIMGAPI. They are similar, though. - - NOTES ABOUT IMAGEX - -"wimlib-imagex capture", "wimlib-imagex append", and "wimlib-imagex apply" will -work on Windows and have the added advantage of saving and restoring -NTFS-specific data, such as alternate data streams, security descriptors, and -reparse points. - -"wimlib-imagex delete", "wimlib-imagex dir", "wimlib-imagex export", -"wimlib-imagex info", "wimlib-imagex join", "wimlib-imagex optimize", and -"wimlib-imagex split" are all portable and should work the same way on Windows -as on UNIX. - -"wimlib-imagex mount", "wimlib-imagex mountrw", and "wimlib-imagex unmount" will -NOT work on Windows. - -So on Windows, why would you want to use wimlib's ImageX instead of Microsoft's? -Well, here are a few reasons: - -- wimlib offers fast multithreaded compression, so making WIM images can be much - faster. - -- Whenever possible I have included improved documentation and informational - output compared to Microsoft's software. - -- wimlib can correctly save and restore some combinations of data that - Microsoft's ImageX runs into bugs on --- for example, uncompressed files in - compressed directories, or files with alternate data streams and multiple - links. - -- wimlib is free software, so you can modify and/or audit the source code. - -See the man page for 'wimlib-imagex' for more information. - - BUILDING ON WINDOWS - -Actually doing the Windows build is a bit tricky, and I'd recommend you download -precompiled binaries from http://sourceforge.net/projects/wimlib/files/ instead. -I did it using MinGW-w64 on a Linux host, with the following configuration -command: - -$ ./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32 - -after having installed the required libraries: - -* mingw-w64-gettext -* mingw-w64-libiconv -* mingw-w64-libxml2 -* mingw-w64-winpthreads -* mingw-w64-zlib - -Note: zlib and gettext are only necessary when required by the build of libxml2. - -Building wimlib using Cygwin is not supported. I was trying this for a while, -but I ran into some issues with mixing native Win32 functions and -Cygwin-provided functions, so I made it possible to do a native Win32 build -instead.