.TH IMAGEX "1" "November 2012" "imagex (wimlib) wimlib @VERSION@" "User Commands" .SH NAME imagex-capture, imagex-append \- Capture a WIM image from a directory tree .SH SYNOPSIS \fBimagex capture\fR \fISOURCE\fR \fIWIMFILE\fR [\fIIMAGE_NAME\fR] \ [\fIDESCRIPTION\fR] [\fIOPTION\fR]... .br \fBimagex append\fR \fISOURCE\fR \fIWIMFILE\fR [\fIIMAGE_NAME\fR] \ [\fIDESCRIPTION\fR] [\fIOPTION\fR]... .SH DESCRIPTION .PP The \fBimagex capture\fR and \fBimagex append\fR commands create a Windows Imaging (WIM) image from a directory tree. The \fBimagex capture\fR command creates a new WIM file containing the captured image, while the \fBimagex append\fR command appends the captured image to an existing WIM file. A WIM image is an independent directory tree in the WIM file. A WIM file may contain any number of separate images. However, files are stored only one time in the entire WIM, regardless of how many images the file appears in. \fISOURCE\fR specifies the location of the files to create the new WIM image from. If \fISOURCE\fR is a directory, the WIM image is captured from that directory. If \fISOURCE\fR is a regular file or block device, it is interpreted as a NTFS volume from which a WIM image is to be captured. \fIIMAGE_NAME\fR and \fIDESCRIPTION\fR specify the name and description of the new image. If \fIIMAGE_NAME\fR is not given, it is taken to be the same as the base name of \fISOURCE\fR. If \fIDESCRIPTION\fR is not given, no description is given to the new image. .SH NORMAL MODE The normal image capture mode is entered when \fISOURCE\fR specifies a directory. The WIM image will be captured from the directory tree rooted at this directory. The directory may be on any type of filesystem. In this normal image capture mode, we capture the following information from the directory tree: .IP \[bu] 4 The "normal" name and contents of each file and directory .IP \[bu] File and directory creation, access, and modification timestamps to the nearest 100 nanoseconds, if supported by the underlying filesystem .IP \[bu] Hard links and symbolic links .PP However, in the normal image capture mode, we do \fInot\fR capture the following information from the directory tree: .IP \[bu] 4 File permissions. The resulting WIM image will not contain any security descriptors because the format of the security descriptors is Windows-specific, and they cannot contain UNIX file modes. .IP \[bu] No alternate data streams will be captured, since these do not exist on POSIX-compliant filesystems. The resulting WIM image will not contain any alternate data streams. .SH NTFS MODE A special image capture mode is entered when \fISOURCE\fR is a regular file or block device. \fISOURCE\fR is interpreted as an NTFS volume and opened using libntfs-3g. If successful, a WIM image is captured containing the contents of the NTFS volume, including NTFS-specific data. Please note that the NTFS image capture mode is \fInot\fR entered if \fISOURCE\fR is a directory, even if a NTFS filesystem is mounted on \fISOURCE\fR. You must specify the NTFS volume itself (and it must be unmounted, and you must have permission to read from it). More specifically, in this mode, we capture the following types of information from the NTFS volume: .IP \[bu] 4 All data streams of all files, including the un-named data stream as well as all named data streams. .IP \[bu] Reparse points, including symbolic links, junction points, and other reparse points. .IP \[bu] File and directory creation, access, and modification timestamps from NTFS inodes (these have a resolution of 100 nanoseconds). .IP \[bu] The security descriptor for each NTFS inode. .IP \[bu] File attribute flags. .IP \[bu] All names of all files, including names in the Win32 namespace, DOS namespace, Win32+DOS namespace, and POSIX namespace. This includes hard links. .SH OPTIONS .TP 6 \fB--boot\fR Specifies that the new image is to be made the bootable image of the WIM archive. .TP \fB--check\fR Include an integrity table in the new WIM file or the modified WIM file. If this option is not specified, no integrity table is included in \fIWIMFILE\fR, even if there was one before in the case of \fBimagex append\fR. .TP \fB--compress\fR=\fITYPE\fR Specifies the compression type for the new WIM file. This flag is only valid for \fBimagex capture\fR, since the compression mode for \fBimagex append\fR must be the same as that of the existing WIM. \fITYPE\fR may be "none", "maximum", or "fast". By default, it is "fast". You may also specify the actual names of the compression algorithms, "XPRESS" and "LZX", instead of "fast" and "maximum", respectively. .TP \fB--threads\fR=\fINUM_THREADS\fR Number of threads to use for compressing data. Default: autodetect (number of processors). Note: if creating or appending to an uncompressed WIM, additional threads will not be used, regardless of this parameter, since no compression needs to be done in this case. .TP \fB--rebuild\fR For \fBimagex append\fR: rebuild the entire WIM rather than appending an image to the end of it. Rebuilding the WIM is slower, but will save a little bit of space that would otherwise be left as a hole in the WIM. Also see \fBimagex optimize\fR. .TP \fB--flags\fR=\fIEDITIONID\fR Specify a string to use in the element of the XML data for the new image. .TP \fB--verbose\fR Print the names of files and directories as they are captured, as well as a few other informational messages. .TP \fB--dereference\fR Follow symlinks; archive and dump the files they point to. (The default is to archive the symlinks themselves.) This flag is only valid in the normal image capture mode. .TP \fB--config\fR=\fIFILE\fR Specifies a configuration file for capturing the new image. The configuration file specifies files that are to be treated specially during the image capture. The format of the configuration file is a number of sections containing file globs one per line, where each section begins with the tag [ExclusionList], [ExclusionException], [CompressionExclusionList], or [AlignmentList]. Currently, only the [ExclusionList] and [ExclusionException] sections are implemented. The [ExclusionList] section specifies a list of file globs to exclude from capture, while the [ExclusionException] section specifies a list of file globs to include in the capture even if the matched file or directory name also appears in the [ExclusionList]. Relative globs with only one path component match against a filename in any directory. Relative globs with multiple path components, as well as absolute globs, are treated as paths starting at the root directory of capture, or the root of the NTFS volume for NTFS capture mode. If a directory is matched by a glob in the [ExclusionList], the entire directory tree rooted at that directory is excluded from the capture, unless \fB--dereference\fR is specified and there is another path into that directory through a symbolic link. For compatibility with Windows, the path separators in the globs may be either forward slashes or backslashes, and the line separators may be either UNIX-style or DOS-style. However, globs with spaces in them currently must not be quoted. Empty lines are ignored. If this option is not specified the following default configuration file is used: .RS .RS .PP .nf [ExclusionList] \\$ntfs.log \\hiberfil.sys \\pagefile.sys \\System Volume Information \\RECYCLER \\Windows\\CSC [CompressionExclusionList] *.mp3 *.zip *.cab \\WINDOWS\\inf\\*.pnf .RE .RE .SH NOTES \fBimage append\fR does not support appending an image to a split WIM. The two different capture modes only specify the data that is captured and don't specify a special WIM format. A WIM file can contain images captured using different modes. However, all images in a WIM must have the same compression type, and \fBimagex\fR always enforces this. \fBimagex\fR writes WIMs having the version number 0x10d00 and a compressed stream chunk size of 32768. The only WIMs I've seen that are different from this are some pre-Vista WIMs that had a different version number. .SH EXAMPLES Create a new WIM 'mywim.wim' from the directory 'somedir', using LZX compression and including an integrity table: .RS .PP imagex capture somedir mywim.wim --compress=maximum --check .RE .PP Append an image to the WIM we just captured, but do it from a NTFS volume on the partition /dev/sda2, and name the image "Windows 7" and give it a description. You do not need to specify the compression type, because the WIM already is using LZX compression and this cannot be changed. You need to specify --check if you don't want the integrity table to be discarded. .RS .PP imagex append /dev/sda2 mywim.wim --check "Windows 7" "Warning: This operating system has been approved by Bill Gates" .RE .PP .SH SEE ALSO .BR imagex (1)