1 Only the most important changes more recent than version 0.6 are noted here.
4 Stored files with size exactly 4 GiB (4,294,967,296 bytes) are now
5 decompressed correctly.
7 Fixed a minor compatibility issue with the LZMS compressor and
8 decompressor. This is *not* the default compression type and was only
9 introduced in v1.6.0. In the unlikely event that you created a
10 LZMS-compressed WIM with v1.6.0 and a checksum error is reported when
11 applying it with v1.6.1, decompress it with v1.6.0 then compress it with
14 Paths passed to wimlib_extract_paths() and wimlib_iterate_dir_tree() may
15 now use either forwards or backwards slashes, as documented.
17 Fixed a potential stack overflow when extracting solid archives (packed
18 streams) containing more than about 100000 files.
20 Memory usage for LZMS and LZX compression has been decreased.
23 Support for extracting and updating the new version 3584 WIMs has been
24 added. These WIMs typically pack many streams ("files") together into a
25 single compressed resource, thereby saving space. This degrades the
26 performance of random access (such as that which occurs on a mounted
27 image), but optimizations have been implemented for extraction. These
28 new WIM files also typically use a new compression format (LZMS), which
29 is similar to LZMA and can offer a better compression ratio than LZX.
30 These new WIM files can be created using `wimcapture' with
31 the '--compress=lzms --pack-streams' options. Note: this new WIM format
32 is used by the Windows 8 web downloader, but important segments of the
33 raw '.esd' files are encrypted, so wimlib will not be able to extract
34 such files until they are first decrypted.
36 wimlib now supports extracting files and directories from a WIM image
37 based on a "listfile" that itself contains the list of paths to extract.
38 For `wimextract', the syntax is to specify @LISTFILE instead of a PATH,
39 and for the library itself, the new APIs are wimlib_extract_pathlist()
40 and wimlib_extract_paths(). Path globs containing wildcard characters
43 For searching WIM files, wimlib now has configurable case sensitivity.
44 The default on Windows is still case-insensitive and the default on
45 UNIX-like systems is still case-sensitive, but this can be overridden
46 on either platform through flags to wimlib_global_init(). For
47 `wimlib-imagex', the environmental variable WIMLIB_IMAGEX_IGNORE_CASE
48 can be set to 1 or 0 for case-insensitive or case-sensitive behavior,
51 Support for compression chunk sizes greater than the default of 32768
52 bytes has been added. A larger chunk size typically results in a better
53 compression ratio. However, the MS implementation is seemingly not
54 compatible with all chunk sizes, especially for LZX compression, so the
55 defaults remain unchanged, with the exception of the new LZMS-compressed
56 WIMs, which use a larger chunk size by default.
58 The compression/decompression API exported by wimlib has been changed.
59 Now one set of functions handles all supported compression formats.
61 `wimcapture' and `wimappend' will now display the progress of scanning
62 the directory tree to capture, in addition to the progress of writing
63 data to the WIM. The '--verbose' option no longer does anything. The
64 library API change for this is the addition of several members to
65 `struct wimlib_progress_info_scan' available to progress callbacks.
67 `mkwinpeimg' now correctly handles the '--start-script' option when the
68 start script is not in the working directory.
70 Sequential extraction, previously requested by using
71 WIMLIB_EXTRACT_FLAG_SEQUENTIAL, is now the default.
72 WIMLIB_EXTRACT_FLAG_FILE_ORDER can be used to get the old default
73 behavior (extract in file order).
76 The new LZX compressor added in v1.5.2 has been improved and is now
77 enabled by default, except when `wimcapture' or `wimappend' is run
78 *without* the '--compress' option, in which case the faster LZX
79 compressor is used (the same as before). This behavior is reasonably
80 consistent with ImageX which actually uses "fast" (XPRESS) compression
81 by default. In those cases, use '--compress=maximum' to explicitly
82 capture a WIM image using the new (slower but better) LZX compressor.
84 The '--compress-slow' option still exists to `wimlib-imagex optimize',
85 but its new behavior is to tweak the new LZX compressor even more to
86 produce an even better compression ratio at the cost of more time spent
89 `wimlib-imagex optimize' now supports the '--compress=TYPE' option,
90 which recompresses the WIM file using the specified compression TYPE.
91 The new library API function used for this is
92 wimlib_set_output_compression_type().
94 Added the wimlib_get_xml_data() function to allow library clients to
95 easily retrieve the raw XML data from a WIM file if needed.
97 Fixed a bug that could cause an error code to be incorrectly returned
98 when writing XML data containing a <WINDOWS> element.
100 Mounted WIM images will now correctly show the default file stream even
101 if appears in the alternate data stream entries of the corresponding WIM
105 Added a new experimental LZX compressor which can be enabled by passing
106 '--compress-slow' to `wimlib-imagex capture' or `wimlib-imagex
107 optimize'. (The latter is only applicable if the WIM is already
108 LZX-compressed and the '--recompress' option is also given.) The
109 experimental compressor is much slower but compresses the data slightly
110 more --- currently usually to within a fraction of a percent of the
111 results from WIMGAPI/ImageX.
113 A workaround has been added for compatibility with versions of WinPE
114 that interpret alternate data stream entries in the boot WIM
117 An alignment bug that caused a crash in the LZX decompressor on some
120 wimlib now attempts to clear the WIM_HDR_FLAG_WRITE_IN_PROGRESS flag in
121 the WIM header when restoring the previous state of a WIM it failed to
124 Added a workaround to avoid an access denied error on Windows when
125 replacing a WIM file that another process has opened.
128 wimlib can now open WinPE WIMs from WAIK v2.1, which had a quirk that
129 needed to be handled.
131 A bug in the interpretation of negative IMAGE indices in the
132 --update-of=[WIMFILE:]IMAGE option to `wimlib-imagex capture' and
133 `wimlib-imagex append' has been fixed.
135 A workaround has been added to successfully apply security descriptors
136 with empty DACLs when the NTFS-3g apply mode is being used with NTFS-3g
137 2013.1.13 or earlier.
139 `wimlib-imagex capture' can now accept the '--delta-from' option
143 Added support for "pipable" WIMs. Pipable WIMs allow capturing images
144 to standard output and applying images from standard input, but they are
145 not compatible with Microsoft's software and are not created by default.
146 See the documentation for --pipable flag of `wimlib-imagex capture' for
149 To better support incremental backups, added support for declaring an
150 image as a modified form of another image. See the documentation for
151 the '--update-of' option of `wimlib-imagex append' and `wimlib-imagex
154 Added supported for "delta" WIMs. See the documentation for the
155 '--delta-from' option of `wimlib-imagex capture'.
157 The library support for managing split WIMs has been changed to support
158 other arrangements, such as delta WIMs, and be easier to use. This
159 change is visible in `wimlib-imagex', which also can now accept the
160 '--ref' option multiple times, and also now supports "delta" WIMs as
163 wimlib now preserves WIM integrity tables by default, even if
164 WIMLIB_WRITE_FLAG_CHECK_INTEGRITY is not specified. This changes the
165 behavior of `wimlib-imagex' whenever the WIM being operated on contains
166 an integrity table and the '--check' option is not specified.
168 `wimlib-imagex capture' now creates LZX-compressed WIMs by default
169 (when --compress is not specified). This provides the best compression
170 ratio by default, which is usually what is desired, at a cost of some
173 `wimlib-imagex' now supports being invoked as wimCOMMAND, where COMMAND
174 is the command as in `wimlib-imagex COMMAND'; for example, it can be
175 invoked as `wimapply' as an alternative to `wimlib-imagex apply'. The
176 appropriate hard links are created in UNIX installations of
177 `wimlib-imagex', while for the Windows distribution of `wimlib-imagex',
178 batch files that emulate this behavior are generated.
180 Security descriptors are now extracted correctly on Windows.
182 Fixed archiving DOS names in NTFS-3g capture mode.
184 The extraction code has been rewritten and it will now be easier to
185 support new features on all supported backends (currently Win32, UNIX,
186 and NTFS-3g). For example, hard-linked extraction mode (--hardlink) is
187 now supported on all backends, not just UNIX.
189 `mkwinpeimg' now supports grabbing files from the WAIK supplement rather
190 than the WAIK itself.
192 wimlib_global_init() now, by default, attempts to acquire additional
193 privileges on Windows, so library clients need not do this.
195 This update bumps the shared library version number up to 9, since it is
196 not binary compatibible with previous releases.
199 Fixed bug in `wimlib-imagex export' that made it impossible to export an
200 image from a WIM that is readonly at the filesystem level.
202 Return error code rather than segfaulting when trying to list files from
203 a non-first part of a split WIM.
205 Joining a WIM will now preserve the RP_FIX and READONLY flags.
208 On Windows, paths given to wimlib-imagex are now treated case
211 Improved behavior regarding invalid filenames; in particular, on
212 Windows, wimlib-imagex will, when extracting, now omit (with an option
213 to override this default) filenames differing only in case, or filenames
214 containing characters not valid on Windows.
216 On Windows, wimlib now supports capturing and extracting long paths
217 (longer than the so-called MAX_PATH).
219 On Windows, `wimlib-imagex update' now acquires proper privileges when
220 running as an Administrator.
222 `wimlib-imagex update' will now complain if no image is specified when
223 trying to update a multi-image WIM.
225 `wimlib-imagex update' now supports specifying a single update command
226 directly on the command line using the --command option.
228 wimlib-imagex will now choose different units for progress messages,
229 depending on the amount of data that needs to be processed.
231 `wimlib-imagex append' will now generate a unique WIM image name if no
232 name is specified and the defaulted name already exists in the WIM.
234 wimlib now allows you to create unnamed WIM images, which can then only
235 be referred to by index.
237 wimlib now allows you to explicitly declare you want write access to a
238 WIM by providing the WIMLIB_OPEN_FLAG_WRITE_ACCESS flag to
241 wimlib now respects the WIM_HDR_FLAG_READONLY flag when set in the WIM
244 Progress callbacks have been added to wimlib's wimlib_update_image()
247 Added wimlib_get_wim_info(), wimlib_set_wim_info(),
248 wimlib_iterate_dir_tree(), and wimlib_iterate_lookup_table() functions
251 NTFS-3g capture now only warns about two conditions previously treated
254 Fixed a couple issues with using wimlib-imagex on UDF filesystems on
257 wimlib now correctly detects and returns an error when reading a WIM
258 image with a cyclic directory structure. (Fun fact: such a WIM will
259 crash Microsoft's software.)
262 Added new "extract" and "update" subcommands to wimlib-imagex, along
263 with associated APIs in the library. These commands are intended mainly
264 for Windows use but can be used on UNIX as well.
266 Many documentation improvements.
268 Fixed a bug in the Windows build where relative symbolic links were not
269 captured in reparse-point fixup mode.
271 Fixed a bug in the Windows build where file handles were left open to
272 the WIM file, causing `wimlib_imagex optimize' to fail in some cases.
274 Fixed a bug in the Windows build of wimlib-imagex where globbing
275 split-WIM parts could cause the program to crash.
277 Fixed a bug where the creation time of WIM images would be shown instead
278 of the last modification time.
280 With the Windows build it is now possible to restore a WIM containing
281 symbolic links as a non-Administrator; however you will receive warnings
282 about not being able to extract the symbolic links.
285 Capturing a WIM image should now be significantly faster in most cases
286 due to improved use of the operating system's cache and avoiding reading
287 files twice whenever possible.
289 The Windows build should now work on Windows XP.
291 The Windows build now supports capturing and restoring hidden,
292 compressed, sparse, and encrypted files.
294 The Windows build now supports capturing and applying WIM images from
295 filesystems other than NTFS (with some reduced functionality).
297 The Windows build now extracts short names correctly.
299 Added support for "reparse-point" fixups (i.e. fixing up of symbolic
300 links). See docs for --rpfix and --norpfix flags of `wimlib-imagex
301 capture' and `wimlib-imagex apply'.
303 The performance of splitting and joining WIMs should be slightly
306 The LZX and XPRESS compression and decompression functions are now
307 exported from the library.
310 Improvements and bugfixes for the Windows build.
312 Added --strict-acls options.
314 Fixed the way that wimlib determines the order of images in the WIM.
317 Since wimlib can now be used on Windows, wimlib's implementation of
318 ImageX has been renamed to wimlib-imagex to avoid confusion with
319 Microsoft's implementation of ImageX, which would have the same file
320 name ("imagex.exe"). If you really don't like this you can pass the
321 --with-imagex-progname option to `configure' to choose a different name,
322 or even simply rename the binary yourself (but the former way will
323 configure the man pages to use the chosen name).
325 Various bugs fixed in the Windows build. Mainly to do with capturing
326 and restoring alternate data streams correctly in weird cases, and
327 requesting the correct privileges when opening files. Also added the
328 --noacls options to wimlib-imagex capture, append, and apply.
330 Windows build again: FindFirstStreamW() and FindNextStreamW() are now
331 dynamically loaded, so this may make the library compatible with Windows
332 XP (however, there may still be other problems).
335 Added experimental support for native Windows builds. Binaries can be
336 downloaded from the SourceForge page.
338 --source-list option added to `imagex capture' and `imagex append'.
340 Better support for different character encodings.
343 Storing UNIX file owners, groups, and modes in WIM images is now
344 possible using `imagex capture' with the --unix-data flag.
346 Minor bug fixes and documentation fixes.
349 NTFS capture: Fixed capturing duplicate reparse points.
351 NTFS capture: Capture first unnamed stream if there are more than one
352 (print warning instead of error).
354 Allow multiple test cases to execute concurrently (e.g. make -j2 check).
357 Added --arch switch to mkwinpeimg script to support getting AMD64 WinPE
360 Update to work with ntfs-3g version 2013.1.13.
363 Fixed truncating file to shorter but non-zero length on read-write
366 Various code cleanups and minor documentation fixes.
369 LZX and XPRESS decompression have received some additional optimizations
370 and should now be even faster. (Although, they were already pretty
371 fast--- much faster than typical I/O speeds.)
373 Fixed a bug introduced in v1.2.1 that would cause a directory tree
374 containing hard links to be captured incorrectly in some cases.
377 By default, unmounting a read-write mounted WIM with 'imagex unmount
378 --commit' will now change the WIM in-place without needing to write the
379 entire WIM again. Use 'imagex unmount --commit --rebuild' to get the
382 'imagex unmount' no longer has a hard-coded limit of 10 minutes to wait
383 for a response from the daemon servicing the mounted WIM. Instead,
384 every second 'imagex unmount' will check if the daemon is still alive,
385 and keep waiting if so, otherwise terminate with an error.
387 'imagex unmount --commit' on a read-write mounted WIM will now print
388 progress information regarding the writing of new or modified streams
389 the WIM, just like when capturing or appending a WIM.
391 A small change has been made to XPRESS compression and it should improve
392 the compression ratio slightly.
394 A change was made that may improve performance slightly when applying a
395 WIM image to a NTFS volume.
397 Microsoft has managed to introduce even more bugs into their software,
398 and now the WIMs for Windows 8 have incorrect (too low) reference counts
399 for some streams. This is unsafe because such streams can be removed
400 when they are in actuality still referenced in the WIM (perhaps by a
401 different image). wimlib will now work around this problem by fixing
402 the stream reference counts. This is only done when wimlib_delete_image() is
403 called ('imagex delete') or when wimlib_mount_image() is called with
404 WIMLIB_MOUNT_FLAG_READWRITE ('imagex mountrw'). Please note that this
405 requires reading the metadata for all images in the WIM, so this will
406 make these operations noticably slower on WIMs with multiple images.
408 Various other bugfixes.
411 Appending images to a WIM is now be done by default without re-building
412 the whole WIM. Use the --rebuild flag to get the old behavior (which
413 was to re-build the entire WIM when a new image is appended).
415 A new command `imagex optimize' is now available to manually re-build a
416 WIM that has wasted space due to repeated appends.
418 Progress information has been improved, and now arbitrary callback
419 functions can be used to show the progress of a WIM operation.
421 A possible bug with changing the bootable image of a WIM was fixed.
423 Some advisory locking is now done to prevent two processes from
424 modifying a WIM at the same time (but only in some cases). For example,
425 you cannot mount two images from a WIM read-write at the same time.
427 Some functions have been reorganized:
428 * wimlib_mount() renamed to wimlib_mount_image().
429 * wimlib_unmount() renamed to wimlib_unmount_image().
430 * wimlib_overwrite_xml_and_header() removed as
431 wimlib_overwrite() suffices now.
432 * wimlib_apply_image_to_ntfs_volume() removed as
433 wimlib_extract_image() suffices now.
434 * wimlib_add_image_from_ntfs_volume() removed as
435 * wimlib_add_image() suffices now.
437 Previously, the soname of libwim.so has been 0.0.0, despite many
438 interface changes. The soname is now updated to 1.0.0 and will now be
439 updated each release.
442 Resources will now be compressed using multiple threads by default.
443 (This applies to `imagex capture', `imagex append', and `imagex
446 Some performance improvements in mounted WIMs.
448 More progress information is shown when capturing a WIM.
451 Lots of minor fixes, code cleanups, and some documentation updates.
452 Nothing in particular is really noteworthy.
455 LZX and XPRESS compression improvements.
457 Fixed calculation of Directory Count, File Count, Total Bytes, and Hard
458 Link Bytes of the WIM.
461 Fixed bug when capturing NTFS file with multiple named data streams.
463 Internally, we are now using inode structures, even though these don't
464 appear literally in the WIM file. This simplifies some of the code
465 (mainly for WIM mounting) and likely fixed a few problems, although it
469 Fixed problem when exporting images from XPRESS to LZX compressed WIM or
473 Enough changes to call it version 1.0.0!
475 Capturing a WIM directly from a NTFS volume, and applying a WIM directly
476 to a NTFS volume, is now supported.
478 Hard links and symbolic links have much improved support. They are
479 supported for WIM capture, WIM application, and mounted WIMs (you can
480 even make them on read-write mounted WIMs).
482 Alternate data streams are now supported on mounted WIMs through an
483 xattr or a Windows-style stream interface. Also they are supported when
484 capturing a WIM from NTFS or applying a WIM to NTFS.
486 Split WIMs are better supported. You may now apply an image directly
487 from a split WIM, mount an image from a split WIM read-only, or export
488 an image from a split WIM.
490 Using a capture configuration file is now supported (but not fully yet).
492 SHA1 message digests are checked in more places, so we can make sure
493 applied and captured data is correct.
495 Man pages have been updated and consolidated.
498 Fixed segfault when unmounting read-only WIM.
501 Support for joining and splitting WIMs.
502 Also, security data is now preserved by default.
505 Can now build with older gcc and system headers, like on CentOS 5.
508 Fixed bug that made it impossible to overwrite files in read-write
512 Write byte-order mark before WIM XML data. (imagex.exe requires this to