WIMLIB
-This is wimlib version 0.7.2 (May 2012). wimlib can be used to read, write,
-and mount files in the Windows Imaging Format (WIM files). These files are
-normally created by using the `imagex.exe' utility on Windows, but this library
-provides a free implementetion of imagex for UNIX-based systems.
+This is wimlib version 1.0.0 (September 2012). wimlib can be used to read,
+write, and mount files in the Windows Imaging Format (WIM files). These
+files are normally created by using the `imagex.exe' utility on Windows,
+but this library provides a free implementation of imagex for UNIX-based
+systems.
-The main use of this library is to create customized images of Windows PE, the
+ WIM FILES
+
+A Windows Imaging (WIM) file is an archive. Like some other archive formats
+such as ZIP, files in WIM archives may be compressed. WIM archives support two
+Microsoft-specific compression formats: LZX and XPRESS. Both are based on LZ77
+and Huffman encoding, and both are supported by wimlib.
+
+Unlike ZIP files, WIM files can contain multiple independent toplevel directory
+trees known as images. While each image has its own metadata describing a
+directory tree and file access modes, files are not duplicated for each image;
+instead, each file is included only once in the entire WIM. Microsoft did this
+so that in one WIM file, they could do things like have 5 different versions of
+Windows that are almost exactly the same.
+
+Microsoft provides documentation for the WIM file format, XPRESS compression
+format, and LZX compression format. The XPRESS documentation is acceptable, but
+the LZX documentation is not entirely correct, and the WIM documentation itself
+is very incomplete and is of unacceptable quality.
+
+A WIM file may be either stand-alone or split into multiple parts.
+
+ WINDOWS PE
+
+A major use for this library is to create customized images of Windows PE, the
Windows Preinstallation Environment, without having to rely on Windows. Windows
PE is a lightweight version of Windows that can run entirely from memory and can
be used to install Windows from local media or a network drive or perform
-maintenance. Windows PE is the operating systems runs when you boot from the
-Windows DVD.
+maintenance. Windows PE is the operating system that runs when you boot from
+the Windows installation media.
+
+You can find Windows PE on the installation DVD for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or
+Windows 8, in the file `sources/boot.wim'. Windows PE can also be found in the
+Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), which is free to download from
+Microsoft, inside the `WinPE.cab' file, which you can extract if you install
+either the `cabextract' or `p7zip' programs.
+
+In addition, Windows installations and recovery partitions frequently contain a
+WIM containing an image of the Windows Recovery Environment, which is similar to
+Windows PE.
-You can find Windows PE on the ISO filesystem on the installation DVD for both
-Windows 7 and Windows 8. I don't have a DVD for Vista but it should be on there
-too. The Windows PE image a WIM file, `sources/boot.wim', on the ISO
-filesystem. Windows PE can also be found in the Windows Automated Installation
-Kit (WAIK), which is free to download from Microsoft, inside the `WinPE.cab'
-file, which you can extract if you install the `cabextract' program.
+ NTFS SUPPORT
+
+As of version 1.0.0, wimlib supports capturing and applying images directly to
+NTFS volumes. This was made possible with the help of libntfs-3g from the
+NTFS-3g project. This feature supports capturing and restoring NTFS-specific
+data such as security descriptors, alternate data streams, and reparse point
+data.
+
+The code for NTFS image capture and image application is complete enough that it
+is possible to apply an image from the "install.wim" contained in recent Windows
+installation media (Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8) directly to a NTFS volume,
+and then boot Windows from it after preparing the Boot Configuration Data. In
+addition, a Windows installation can be captured (or backed up) into a WIM file,
+and then re-applied later.
+
+ PROGRAMS
wimlib provides a public API for other programs to use, but also comes with two
programs: `imagex' and `mkwinpeimg'.
image of Windows PE that can be put on a CD or USB drive, or published on a
server for PXE booting. See the main page `doc/mkwinpeiso.1' for more details.
-Wimlib can also be used to handle larger WIM files such as the `install.wim'
-file that comes on the Windows DVD; however, this has not been well tested.
+ DEPENDENCIES
-An earlier version of Wimlib is being used to deploy Windows 7 from the Ultimate
-Deployment Appliance. For more information see
-http://www.ultimatedeployment.org/.
+* libxml2
+ This is a commonly used free library to read and write XML files. You
+ likely already have it installed as a dependency for some other program.
+ For more information see http://xmlsoft.org/.
+
+* libfuse
+ Unless configured with --without-fuse, wimlib requires a non-ancient
+ version of libfuse to be installed. Most GNU/Linux distributions
+ already include this, but make sure you have the libfuse package
+ installed, and also libfuse-dev if your distribution distributes header
+ files separately. FUSE also requires a kernel module. If the kernel
+ module is available it will automatically be loaded if you try to mount
+ a WIM file. For more information see http://fuse.sourceforge.net/.
+ FUSE is also available for FreeBSD.
+
+* libntfs-3g
+ Unless configured with --without-ntfs-3g, wimlib requires the library
+ and headers for libntfs-3g version 2011-4-12 or later to be installed.
+ Versions dated 2010-3-6 and earlier do not work because they are missing
+ the header xattrs.h (and the file xattrs.c, which contains functions we
+ need).
+
+* cdrkit (optional)
+* mtools (optional)
+* syslinux (optional)
+* cabextract (optional)
+ The `mkwinpeimg' shell script will look for several other programs
+ depending on what options are given to it. Depending on your GNU/Linux
+ distribution, you may already have these programs installed, or they may
+ be in the software repository. Making an ISO filesystem requires
+ `mkisofs' from `cdrkit' (http://www.cdrkit.org). Making a disk image
+ requires `mtools' (http://www.gnu.org/software/mtools) and `syslinux'
+ (http://www.syslinux.org). Retrieving files from the Windows Automated
+ Installation Kit requires `cabextract' (http://www.cabextract.org.uk).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONFIGURATION
Besides the various well-known options, the following options can be passed to
wimlib's `configure' script:
+--without-ntfs-3g
+ If libntfs-3g is not available or is not the correct version, we can
+ build without it. wimlib will then not be able to apply or capture
+ images directly to NTFS volumes.
+
--without-fuse
If libfuse or the FUSE kernel module is not available, wimlib can be
compiled with --without-fuse. This will remove the ability to mount and
from libcrypto (part of OpenSSL). The default is to use libcrypto if it
is found on the system.
+--enable-xattr, --disable-xattr
+ Enable or disable support for the extended-attributes interface to NTFS
+ alternate data streams in mounted WIMs. To support these, we require
+ the setxattr() function and the attr/xattr.h header be available. The
+ default is to autodetect whether support is possible.
+
--enable-ssse3-sha1
Use a very fast assembly language implementation of SHA1 from Intel.
Only use this if the build target supports the SSSE3 instructions.
with an error message if the decompressed data does not exactly match
the original data. This is to find bugs.
---disable-security-data
- Wimlib cannot create or modify WIM security data, but by default it will
- copy existing security data when modifying a WIM or exporting an image.
- Passing this flag will disable this support; then wimlib will always
- write WIMs without security data.
-
--disable-error-messages
Removes all error messages from the library. If left in, they still
have to explicitly turned on with wimlib_set_print_errors() in order to
Include more debugging messages. Only use this option if you have found
a bug in the library.
-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- DEPENDENCIES
-
-Wimlib requires libxml2 to build. This is a commonly used free library to read
-and write XML files. You likely already have it installed as a dependency for
-some other program. For more information see http://xmlsoft.org/.
-
-Wimlib also requires libfuse to build (unless configured with --without-fuse;
-see above). Most GNU/Linux distributions already include this, but make sure
-you have the libfuse package installed (libfuse-dev if your distribution
-distributes header files separately). FUSE also requires a kernel module. If
-the kernel module is available it will automatically be loaded if you try to
-mount a WIM file. Wimlib has only been tested with the Linux version of FUSE.
-For more information see http://fuse.sourceforge.net/.
-
-The `mkwinpeimg' shell script will look for several other programs depending on
-what options are given to it. Depending on your GNU/Linux distribution, you may
-already have these programs installed, or they may be in the software
-repository. Making an ISO filesystem requires `mkisofs' from `cdrkit'
-(http://www.cdrkit.org). Making a disk image requires `mtools'
-(http://www.gnu.org/software/mtools) and `syslinux' (http://www.syslinux.org).
-Retrieving files from the Windows Automated Installation Kit requires
-`cabextract' (http://www.cabextract.org.uk).
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
PORTABILITY
wimlib has mostly been developed and tested on x86_64 (64-bit) GNU/Linux.
It has been tested on x86 (32-bit) GNU/Linux occasionally.
-It can also be compiled and run on FreeBSD.
+I have tested a previous version of wimlib on FreeBSD and it worked, but this is
+not well tested, especially with the more recent versions of this software.
wimlib should work on big endian machines but it has not been tested.
There are no plans to port wimlib to Windows since the programming interface on
Windows is very different and Microsoft's imagex.exe is already available.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
REFERENCES
The WIM file format is specified in a document that can be found in the
Microsoft Download Center. There is a similar document that specifies the LZX
compression format, and a document that specifies the XPRESS compression format.
-However, some aspects of these formats are poorly documented. Some particularly
-poorly documented parts of the formats have had comments added in various places
-in the library.
+However, many parts of these formats are poorly documented, and some parts have
+no documentation whatsoever. Some particularly poorly documented parts of the
+formats have had comments added in various places in the library. Please see
+the code and/or ask me if you have any questions about the WIM file format as it
+exists in reality and not as it exists in Microsoft's poorly written
+documentation.
+
+The code in ntfs-apply.c and ntfs-capture.c uses the NTFS-3g library, which is a
+library for reading and writing to NTFS filesystems (the filesystem used by
+recent versions of Windows). Additionally, the code in ntfs-3g-security.c is
+mostly copied from NTFS-3g, but I'm hoping to get rid of this file eventually.
+See http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-download/ for more information.
lzx-decomp.c, the code to decompress WIM file resources that are compressed
using LZX compression, is originally based on code from the cabextract project
lzx-comp.c, the code to compress WIM file resources using LZX compression, is
originally based on code written by Matthew Russotto (www.russotto.net/chm/).
-lz.c, the code to find LZ77 matches, is based on code from zlib.
-
-sha1.c and sha1.h, the code to compute SHA1 message digests of WIM resources or
-of the WIM file itself in the case of integrity checks, are based on code from
-GNU coreutils.
+lz.c, the code to find LZ77 matches (used for both XPRESS and LZX compression),
+is based on code from zlib.
A very limited number of other free programs can handle some parts of the WIM
-file format. 7-zip is able to extract and create WIMs and files in many other
-archive formats. However, WIMLIB is designed specifically to handle WIM files
-and provides features previously only available in Microsoft's imagex.exe, such
-as the ability to mount WIMs read-write.
+file format. 7-zip is able to extract and create WIMs (as well as files in many
+other archive formats). However, wimlib is designed specifically to handle WIM
+files and provides features previously only available in Microsoft's imagex.exe,
+such as the ability to mount WIMs read-write as well as read-only, and the
+ability to create LZX or XPRESS compressed WIMs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+An earlier version of wimlib is being used to deploy Windows 7 from the Ultimate
+Deployment Appliance. For more information see
+http://www.ultimatedeployment.org/.
+
+You can see the documentation about Microsoft's version of the imagex program at
+http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749447(v=ws.10).aspx, so you can
+see how it compares.
MORE INFORMATION
See the manual pages for `imagex', the manual pages for the subcommands of
`imagex', and the manual page for `mkwinpeimg'.
-As of version 0.5.0, Wimlib's public API is documented. Doxygen is required to
+As of version 0.5.0, wimlib's public API is documented. Doxygen is required to
build the documentation. To build the documentation, run `configure', then
enter the directory `doc' and run `doxygen'. The HTML documentation will be
created in a directory named `html'.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
LICENSE
-Wimlib is released under the GNU LGPL version 2.1 or later. The files in the
-`programs' directory are released under the GPL version 3.
+As of version 1.0.0, wimlib is released under the GNU GPL version 3.0 or later.
+This includes the files in the `programs' directory as well as the files in the
+`src' directory.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+wimlib is independently developed and does not contain any code, data, or files
+copyrighted by Microsoft. It is not known to be affected by any patents.
DISCLAIMER
-Wimlib is experimental. Use Microsoft's `imagex.exe' if you want to make sure
-your WIM files are made correctly. Please submit a bug report (to
-ebiggers3@gmail.com) if you find a bug.
+wimlib is experimental. Use Microsoft's `imagex.exe' if you want to make sure
+your WIM files are made correctly (but beware: Microsoft's version contains some
+bugs).
+
+Please submit a bug report (to ebiggers3@gmail.com) if you find a bug in wimlib.
Some parts of the WIM file format are poorly documented or even completely
-undocumented, so these parts had to be reverse engineered.
+undocumented, so I've just had to do the best I can to read and write WIMs that
+appear to be compatible with Microsoft's software.
git://wimlib.net / wimlib / blobdiff