WIMLIB
-This is wimlib version 0.7.1 (May 2012). wimlib can be used to read, write,
+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.
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 DVD.
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
+too. The Windows PE image is 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.
+file, which you can extract if you install either the `cabextract' or `p7zip'
+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.
+wimlib can also be used to handle larger WIM files such as the `install.wim'
+file that comes on the Windows DVD. You may not, however, losslessly capture
+and apply Windows installations using wimlib because of issues with NTFS and
+Windows-specific information.
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/.
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-
CONFIGURATION
Besides the various well-known options, the following options can be passed to
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.
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
program if an assertion fails. An assertion failure should only occur
if there is a bug in wimlib.
---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.
-
--enable-debug
Include debugging messages. Only use this option if you have found a
bug in the library.
Include more debugging messages. Only use this option if you have found
a bug in the library.
-
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-
DEPENDENCIES
Wimlib requires libxml2 to build. This is a commonly used free library to read
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/.
+mount a WIM file. For more information see http://fuse.sourceforge.net/. FUSE
+is also available for FreeBSD.
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
Retrieving files from the Windows Automated Installation Kit requires
`cabextract' (http://www.cabextract.org.uk).
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-
PORTABILITY
wimlib has mostly been developed and tested on x86_64 (64-bit) GNU/Linux.
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.
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-
REFERENCES
The WIM file format is specified in a document that can be found in the
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.
MORE INFORMATION
enter the directory `doc' and run `doxygen'. The HTML documentation will be
created in a directory named `html'.
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-
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
DISCLAIMER
Wimlib is experimental. Use Microsoft's `imagex.exe' if you want to make sure
ebiggers3@gmail.com) if you find a bug.
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