+++ /dev/null
-
- INTRODUCTION
-
-wimlib is free and open source software that is available on both UNIX-like
-systems and Windows. This file provides additional information specifically
-about the Windows version of wimlib and the command line tool "wimlib-imagex"
-that is distributed with it. It does not obsolete the generic README.txt, which
-you should read too.
-
- WINDOWS DISTRIBUTION
-
-The Windows distribution of wimlib is a ZIP file containing the following items:
-
- * wimlib-imagex.exe, a command-line tool to deal with WIM (.wim), split WIM
- (.swm), and ESD (.esd) files that is inspired by Microsoft's ImageX and
- DISM. This is a ready-to-run executable and not an installer.
-
- * Very short batch scripts (e.g. wimapply.cmd) which are shortcuts to the
- corresponding wimlib-imagex commands (e.g. `wimlib-imagex apply').
-
- * The library itself in DLL format (libwim-15.dll). wimlib-imagex.exe
- requires this to run.
-
- * The documentation, including this file, the generic README.txt, and
- PDF documentation for wimlib-imagex in the 'doc' directory.
-
- * License files for all software included. These are all free software
- licenses. COPYING.txt is the main license, and it refers to
- COPYING.GPLv3.txt and COPYING.LGPLv3.txt. The other licenses are for
- third-party software included in the library.
-
- * Development files in the 'devel' directory. These are only needed if you
- are developing C or C++ applications that use wimlib.
-
-Note that there are separate ZIP files for 32-bit (i686) and 64-bit (x86_64)
-binaries. They are both fully supported, but you should prefer the 64-bit
-binaries when possible as they can be noticeably faster.
-
- WIMLIB-IMAGEX
-
-wimlib-imagex supports most features of Microsoft's ImageX as well as some
-features that are supported by DISM but not by ImageX. wimlib-imagex also
-supports some features that neither ImageX nor DISM support. Some of the
-advantages of wimlib-imagex compared to ImageX and DISM are:
-
- * wimlib-imagex provides "extract" and "update" commands which allow
- you to quickly work with WIM images without mounting them.
-
- * wimlib-imagex provides an easy-to-use "optimize" command which removes
- wasted space from a WIM file and optionally recompresses it with stronger
- compression.
-
- * wimlib includes advanced implementations of all compression algorithms used
- in WIM files. They usually outperform and outcompress their Microsoft
- equivalents.
-
- * wimlib-imagex supports solid WIM files and LZMS compression, for example as
- used in ESD (.esd) files. (These are partially supported by recent DISM
- versions but not by ImageX.)
-
- * wimlib-imagex supports imaging a live Windows system. Just use the
- --snapshot option.
-
- * In many cases, wimlib-imagex has simpler command-line syntax than either
- ImageX or DISM.
-
- * Whenever possible, wimlib-imagex includes improved documentation and
- informational output compared to Microsoft's software.
-
- * wimlib and wimlib-imagex are free software, so you can modify and/or audit
- the source code.
-
-However, some limitations of wimlib-imagex compared to ImageX and DISM are:
-
- * On Windows, wimlib-imagex does not support mounting WIM images.
-
- * wimlib-imagex has no awareness of Windows "packages".
-
- ADDITIONAL NOTES
-
-It's recommended to use wimlib-imagex in scripts to avoid having to
-interactively enter commands. However, note that wimlib-imagex is largely just
-a command-line front-end for wimlib, and it's possible to use wimlib's API in
-other front-ends or applications. Currently there is no official graphical user
-interface available for wimlib or wimlib-imagex. However, an unofficial, beta,
-Windows-only graphical user interface that provides a thin wrapper around
-wimlib-imagex can be downloaded at
-http://reboot.pro/files/file/485-wimlib-imagex-command-line-compiler/.
-
- BUILDING FROM SOURCE
-
-As with other open source software, advanced users may choose to build wimlib
-from source, potentially with customizations. Although wimlib's build system is
-designed for UNIX-like systems and is easiest to use on Linux, it's possible to
-build Windows binaries on Windows using Cygwin with MinGW. To do this, follow
-the instructions below. For the sake of example, I'll assume you are building a
-64-bit version of wimlib v1.11.0.
-
-Run the Cygwin installer, available from https://www.cygwin.com/setup-x86.exe.
-When you get to the package selection screen, choose the following additional
-packages from category "Devel":
-
- - make
- - mingw64-x86_64-binutils
- - mingw64-x86_64-gcc-g++
- - mingw64-x86_64-libxml2
- - mingw64-x86_64-pkg-config
- - mingw64-x86_64-winpthreads
-
-Download wimlib's source code from https://wimlib.net/downloads/wimlib-1.11.0.tar.gz.
-
-Start a Cygwin terminal and run the following commands:
-
- cd /cygdrive/c/Users/example/Downloads # (or wherever you downloaded the source to)
- tar xf wimlib-1.11.0.tar.gz
- cd wimlib-1.11.0
- ./configure --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32
- make
-
-If successful, the new binaries "libwim-15.dll" and "wimlib-imagex.exe" will
-have been produced in the .libs directory.
-
-By default the binaries are built with debug symbols. If desired, you can use
-x86_64-w64-mingw32-strip to strip them.
-
-libwim-15.dll will be linked to several other DLLs which you will need as well:
-
- - libwinpthread-1.dll
- - libxml2-2.dll, which also requires:
- - iconv.dll
- - liblzma-5.dll
- - zlib1.dll
-
-These DLLs can be found in "C:\cygwin\usr\x86_64-w64-mingw32\sys-root\mingw\bin"
-and must be placed alongside libwim-15.dll for it to run portably. But see
-below for an alternative.
-
-Building 32-bit binaries is very similar, but you'll need to replace "x86_64"
-with "i686" everywhere in the above instructions, and libwim-15.dll will also
-depend on libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll. Note that you can build both 32-bit and 64-bit
-binaries from the same Cygwin installation, provided that you install both the
-mingw64-i686-* and mingw64-x86_64-* packages; and you can run the Cygwin setup
-program to install more packages at any time.
-
-In the official binary releases from wimlib.net, libwim-15.dll's dependent
-libraries are linked in statically rather than dynamically, so it does not
-depend on any DLLs other than standard Windows DLLs. If you want to do this,
-install the following additional Cygwin packages:
-
- - p7zip (category "Archiver")
- - autoconf (category "Devel")
- - automake (category "Devel")
- - git (category "Devel")
- - libtool (category "Devel")
- - nasm (category "Devel")
- - pkg-config (category "Devel")
- - ghostscript (category "Graphics")
- - wget (category "Web")
-
-Then, in a Cygwin terminal, clone the git repository, checkout the wimlib
-version you want, bootstrap the repository, and run the Windows release script:
-
- git clone git://wimlib.net/wimlib
- cd wimlib
- git checkout v1.11.0
- ./bootstrap
- ./tools/make-windows-release x86_64
-
-The release script will download and build libxml2 and winpthreads as static
-libraries, then build wimlib, then do some final tasks and bundle the resulting
-files up into a ZIP archive. If successful you'll end up with a file like
-"wimlib-1.11.0-windows-x86_64-bin.zip", just like the official releases. For
-32-bit binaries just use "i686" instead of "x86_64".
git://wimlib.net / wimlib / blobdiff