-.TH IMAGEX 1 "May 2012" "imagex (wimlib @VERSION@)" "User Commands"
+.TH IMAGEX 1 "March 2013" "imagex (wimlib @VERSION@)" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
imagex \- Create, modify, extract, mount, or unmount a WIM (Windows Imaging Format) archive
.SH SYNOPSIS
.br
\fBimagex mountrw\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.br
+\fBimagex optimize\fR \fIarguments...\fR
+.br
+\fBimagex split\fR \fIarguments...\fR
+.br
\fBimagex unmount\fR \fIarguments...\fR
.SH DESCRIPTION
To do its work, \fBimagex\fR uses \fBwimlib\fR, a library which provides
interfaces for manipulating WIM archives. You could wimlib in your own programs
-if you wanted to. Wimlib's public interface is documented.
-
-See \fBWARNING\fR.
+if you wanted to. wimlib's public interface is documented.
.SH COMMANDS
.SH SUPPORTED FEATURES
-The following features are currently supported:
-
-.IP \[bu] 2
-Mount an image in a WIM read-only (\fBimagex mount\fR)
-.IP \[bu] 2
-Mount an image in a WIM read-write (\fBimagex mountrw\fR)
-.IP \[bu] 2
-LZX decompression and compression
-.IP \[bu] 2
-XPRESS decompression and compression
-.IP \[bu] 2
-Integrity table
-.IP \[bu] 2
-XML data (parsed and written using \fBlibxml\fR(3))
-.IP \[bu] 2
-Create a WIM from a directory (\fBimagex capture\fR)
-.IP \[bu] 2
-Append a directory onto a WIM as a new image (\fBimagex append\fR)
-.IP \[bu] 2
-Delete image(s) from a WIM (\fBimagex delete\fR)
-.IP \[bu] 2
-Export image(s) from a WIM (\fBimagex export\fR)
-.IP \[bu] 2
+The following general features are currently supported (note: this is not a
+complete list):
+
+.IP \[bu] 3
+Create a stand-alone WIM from a directory or NTFS volume (\fBimagex capture\fR)
+.IP \[bu]
+Append a directory or NTFS volume onto a stand-alone WIM as a new image (\fBimagex
+append\fR)
+.IP \[bu]
+Apply an image from a stand-alone or split WIM to a directory or NTFS volume
+(\fBimagex apply\fR)
+.IP \[bu]
+Mount an image from a stand-alone or split WIM read-only (\fBimagex mount\fR)
+.IP \[bu]
+Mount an image from a stand-alone WIM read-write (\fBimagex mountrw\fR)
+.IP \[bu]
+Delete image(s) from a stand-alone WIM (\fBimagex delete\fR)
+.IP \[bu]
+Export image(s) from a stand-alone or split WIM (\fBimagex export\fR)
+.IP \[bu]
Display information about a WIM file (\fBimagex info\fR, \fBimagex dir\fR)
-.IP \[bu] 2
+.IP \[bu]
Change the name or description of an image in the WIM (\fBimagex info\fR)
-.IP \[bu] 2
+.IP \[bu]
Change which image in a WIM is bootable (\fBimagex info\fR)
-.IP \[bu] 2
-Combining split WIMs into one WIM (\fBimage join\fR)
-
-.SH UNSUPPORTED FEATURES
-The following features are currently unsupported:
-.IP \[bu] 2
-File permissions and security descriptors are ignored. The information
-contained in them in an existing WIM will be lost when wimlib writes a WIM file.
-This does not seem to matter for Windows PE, but this means that you should not
-use this program to image a drive containing Windows Vista/7/8 and expect it to
-be applied with the correct file permissions.
-.IP \[bu] 2
-Split WIMs are not fully supported. These can be used to split up a WIM to fit
-on multiple CDs, if you can't use a DVD for some reason. You can use
-\fBimagex join\fR to combine split WIMs, but you cannot yet create split WIMs or
-mount them directly.
-.IP \[bu] 2
-The \fB--verify\fR option, for all commands that use it. Without this option,
-there theoretically could be a SHA1 hash collision between two files, although
-it's very unlikely.
-.IP \[bu] 2
-The \fB--config\fR option, for all commands that use it.
-.IP \[bu] 2
-Alternate stream entries
-.IP \[bu] 2
-Different versions of the WIM file format (if different versions even exist)
-
-Also see the Doxygen documentation for Wimlib.
+.IP \[bu]
+Combine split WIMs into one stand-alone WIM (\fBimage join\fR)
+.IP \[bu]
+Split a stand-alone WIM into multiple parts (\fBimage split\fR)
+.IP \[bu]
+Support for all WIM compression types, both compression and decompression (LZX,
+XPRESS, and none)
+.IP \[bu]
+WIM integrity table is supported (\fB--check\fR option to many commands)
+.IP \[bu]
+WIM XML data (parsed and written using \fBlibxml\fR(3))
.SH DIFFERENCES FROM MICROSOFT IMAGEX
-See \fBUNSUPPORTED FEATURES\fR.
-
-The \fB/scroll\fR and \fB/log\fR switches from Microsoft's version imagex are
-not planned to be implemented. Note that to scroll the output in the UNIX shell
-you can just pipe the output into \fBless\fR(1).
-
-Some features, such as the ability to keep files hard-linked when they are
-extracted from a WIM, are not available in Microsoft's version of imagex.
-
-See the documentation for each command; in some cases they do not do exactly the
-same thing as imagex.exe.
-
-Obviously, this version of imagex is free software but Microsoft's version is
-not.
+While similar to Microsoft's "imagex.exe" program, this program is designed for
+UNIX-based systems and by the nature of the platform cannot be exactly the same
+as Microsoft's version. In addition, I have added additional useful features
+when appropriate.
+
+.IP \[bu] 4
+Because Microsoft designed the WIM file format to accomodate Windows-specific
+and NTFS-specific features, wimlib must have two separate image capture and
+application modes (although the \fBimagex\fR subcommands for the modes are the
+same): one for general image capture and application, and one for the capture or
+application of an image specifically from/to an NTFS volume.
+
+Note: the above applies to UNIX builds. On the Windows builds of wimlib, there
+is only one image capture and application mode, similar to Microsoft's ImageX.
+
+.IP \[bu]
+Microsoft's version has some weird limitations, like it won't let you extract a
+WIM on a shared folder, and it requires some commands to be run only from
+Windows PE and not from regular Windows. This version does not have these
+unusual limitations.
+
+.IP \[bu]
+There are bugs in Microsoft's WIM library and I obviously have not included the
+same bugs in wimlib, although in some cases I have had to work around bugs for
+compatibility purposes.
+
+.IP \[bu]
+wimlib's \fBimagex\fR offers the extra command \fBimagex optimize\fR,
+which lets you easily remove wasted space in a WIM (which can arise after
+a WIM image is appended or mounted read-write).
+
+.IP \[bu]
+wimlib's \fBimagex\fR also offers the command \fBimagex join\fR, which lets you
+easily join the parts of a split WIM.
+
+.IP \[bu]
+wimlib's \fBimagex apply\fR supports keeping files hard-linked or symlinked
+across WIM images when extracted from a WIM. So you can, for example, extract
+different versions of Windows from an install.wim without using much extra
+space. (Note: this functionality is only available in UNIX builds of wimlib.)
+
+.IP \[bu]
+wimlib's \fBimagex capture\fR supports combining multiple separate directories
+and files together in a configurable way to create a WIM image.
+
+.IP \[bu]
+wimlib's XPRESS compressor is better than Microsoft's.
+
+.IP \[bu]
+wimlib supports multithreaded compression, which can make it much faster to
+create compressed WIM files.
+
+.IP \[bu]
+wimlib's \fBimagex capture\fR supports a special mode where UNIX file modes,
+owners, and groups are stored. (Note: this functionality is only available on
+UNIX builds.)
+
+.IP \[bu]
+wimlib's \fBimagex mount\fR and \fBimagex mountrw\fR are much faster than
+Microsoft's versions for some reason. I don't know what they have their program
+do that takes so long to simply set up a mountpoint. (Note: this functionality
+is only available on UNIX builds.)
+
+.IP \[bu]
+wimlib's \fBimagex mount\fR supports mounting an image from a split WIM, but
+Microsoft's software does not. (Note: this functionality is only available on
+UNIX builds.)
.SH WARNING
Note: \fBwimlib\fR and \fBimagex\fR are experimental. Use Microsoft's
-imagex.exe if you have to make sure your WIM files are made correctly. Not all
-features listed under \fBSUPPORTED FEATURES\fR have been thoroughly tested.
-Feel free to submit a bug report if you find a bug.
+imagex.exe if you have to make sure your WIM files are made "correctly". Feel
+free to submit a bug report 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 for compatibility
-purposes.
+undocumented, so I've just had to do the best I can to read and write WIMs in a
+way that appears to be compatible with Microsoft's software.
.SH REPORTING BUGS
.BR imagex-join (1),
.BR imagex-mount (1),
.BR imagex-mountrw (1),
+.BR imagex-optimize (1),
+.BR imagex-split (1),
.BR imagex-unmount (1),
-
git://wimlib.net / wimlib / blobdiff