WIMLIB
-This is wimlib version 0.6.3 (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 1.0.4 (October 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.
+
+ 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.
-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.
+ 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.
+ COMPRESSION RATIO
-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/.
+wimlib can create XPRESS or LZX compressed WIM archives. As of wimlib v1.0.3,
+the XPRESS compression ratio is slightly better than that provided by
+Microsoft's software, while the LZX compression ratio is approaching that of
+Microsoft's software but is not quite there yet. Running time is as good as or
+better than Microsoft's software.
+
+The following tables compare the compression ratio and performance for creating
+a compressed Windows PE image (disk usage of about 524 MB, uncompressed WIM size
+361 MB):
+
+ Table 1. WIM size
+
+ XPRESS Compression LZX Compression
+ wimlib imagex (v1.0.2): 145,283,871 bytes 139,288,293 bytes
+ wimlib imagex (v1.0.3): 139,288,293 bytes 131,379,869 bytes
+ Microsoft imagex.exe: 140,406,981 bytes 127,249,176 bytes
+
+ Table 2. Time to create WIM
+
+ XPRESS Compression LZX Compression
+ wimlib imagex (v1.0.2): 18 sec 49 sec
+ wimlib imagex (v1.0.3): 19 sec 30 sec
+ Microsoft imagex.exe: 25 sec 89 sec
+
+
+ DEPENDENCIES
+
+* 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
unmount WIM files. wimlib_mount() and wimlib_unmount() will fail with
WIMLIB_ERR_UNSUPPORTED.
---disable-libcrypto
+--without-libcrypto
Build in functions for SHA1 rather than using external SHA1 functions
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.
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
-I have been developing and testing wimlib on x86_64 (64-bit) GNU/Linux.
+wimlib has mostly been developed and tested on x86_64 (64-bit) GNU/Linux.
-wimlib has been tested on x86 (32-bit) GNU/Linux occasionally.
+It has been tested on x86 (32-bit) GNU/Linux occasionally.
-I have not tried to compile wimlib with compilers other than gcc.
+wimlib may work on FreeBSD. However, this is not well tested. If you do not
+have libntfs-3g 2011-4-12 or later available, you must configure with
+--without-ntfs-3g. Also, GNU coreutils is needed to run the test suite. Before
+mounting a WIM you need to load the POSIX message queue module (run `kldload
+mqueuefs').
-It should be possible to compile wimlib on other UNIX systems such as FreeBSD.
-If this doesn't work, let me know. If libfuse is not available, try compiling
-with --without-fuse.
+wimlib should work on big endian machines but it has not been tested.
-While the code has been tested on a little endian machine, it has been written
-to work on big endian machines as well. (See endianness.h). However it has
-never actually been tested on a big endian machine. Let me know if it doesn't
-work.
-
-I am not planning to port wimlib to Windows since the programming interface on
+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). 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.
+
+ GNU/Linux equivalents of WIM format
+
+What's the equivalent way to capture the filesystem of a GNU/Linux operating
+system into an archive file? You have a few options:
+
+SquashFS:
+ SquashFS (http://squashfs.sourceforge.net/) provides a compressed,
+ read-only filesystem for Linux, and it's probably the closest equivalent
+ of the WIM format and better designed. Although you can't mount
+ SquashFS read-write, when wimlib does this for WIM files it's really an
+ illusion since the WIM isn't actually modified until the image is
+ unmounted. Multiple top-level images in SquashFS files are not
+ supported, although nothing stops you from just putting each image in a
+ separate directory.
+
+FSArchiver:
+ FSArchiver (http://www.fsarchiver.org/Main_Page) is not widely used, but
+ it appears to have some features quite similar to the WIM format.
+
+Tar:
+ The well-known tar format can usually capture a UNIX filesystem just
+ fine, and compressing the tar file produces a good compression ratio
+ (better than WIM, especially if using XZ compression), but there is no
+ support for random access, file deduplication, multiple images per
+ archive, or extended attributes.
+
+Zip:
+ Zip shares some features with WIM but is not designed to store entire
+ filesystems.
+
+7z:
+ The 7z format has some nice features but is unfortunately not designed
+ with UNIX in mind.
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