WINDOWS DISTRIBUTION
-For the convenience of Windows users, the Windows distribution of wimlib is a
-ZIP file containing the following items:
+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) and split WIM
- (.swm) files that is similar to Microsoft's ImageX. This is a ready-to-run
- executable and not an installer.
+ * 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 documentation, including this file, the generic README.txt, and
PDF documentation for wimlib-imagex in the 'doc' directory.
- * Various DLL (.dll) files, including the wimlib library itself
- (libwim-9.dll). The C header wimlib.h is not included; download the source
- if you want it.
+ * The library itself (libwim-15.dll). The C header wimlib.h is not
+ included; download the source if you want it.
* License files for all software included. These are all free software
- licenses.
+ 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.
+
+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 provides most features of Microsoft's ImageX, plus additional
-features. First, the main limitations of wimlib-imagex compared to Microsoft's
-ImageX are the following:
+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.
- * Mounting images from a WIM file is not supported on Windows.
+ * wimlib-imagex provides an easy-to-use "optimize" command which removes
+ wasted space from a WIM file and optionally recompresses it with stronger
+ compression.
-However, wimlib-imagex provides a number of advantages compared to Microsoft's
-ImageX, including but not limited to the following:
+ * wimlib includes advanced implementations of all compression algorithms used
+ in WIM files. They usually outperform and outcompress their Microsoft
+ equivalents.
- * wimlib-imagex provides "extract" and "update" commands that can be used to
- work around the lack of mount support. These commands are very fast
- compared to mounting and unmounting images with Microsoft's ImageX, so you
- may prefer them anyway.
+ * 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 provides an easy-to-use "optimize" command to remove wasted
- space from WIM files.
+ * wimlib-imagex supports imaging a live Windows system. Just use the
+ --snapshot option.
- * In some cases, wimlib-imagex uses simpler command-line syntax. For
- example, integrity tables are treated as persistent, and in some cases image
- names need not be explicitly specified.
+ * 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.
- * On Windows, wimlib-imagex 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 hard links.
-
* 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
-Currently there is no graphical user interface available for wimlib or
-wimlib-imagex. 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.
+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
+32-bit version of wimlib v1.9.0.
+
+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-i686-gcc-g++
+ - mingw64-i686-binutils
+ - mingw64-i686-libxml2
+ - mingw64-i686-winpthreads
+ - mingw64-i686-win-iconv
+ - mingw64-i686-pkg-config
+
+Download wimlib's source code from https://wimlib.net/downloads/wimlib-1.9.0.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-1.9.0.tar.gz
+ cd wimlib-1.9.0
+ ./configure --host=i686-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
+i686-w64-mingw32-strip to strip them.
+
+libwim-15.dll will be linked to several other DLLs which you will need as well:
+
+ - iconv.dll
+ - libwinpthread-1.dll
+ - libxml2-2.dll
+ - libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll
+
+They can be found in "C:\cygwin\usr\i686-w64-mingw32\sys-root\mingw\bin" and
+must be placed alongside libwim-15.dll for it to run portably. (In the official
+binary release, these third-party libraries are linked to libwim-15.dll
+statically rather than dynamically.)
+
+Building 64-bit binaries is very similar, but you'll need to replace "i686" with
+"x86_64" everywhere in the above instructions. 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.
git://wimlib.net / wimlib / blobdiff