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.
-
.SH COMMANDS
There is a separate manual page for each \fBimagex\fR command.
.SH SUPPORTED FEATURES
-The following features are currently supported:
+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]
WIM XML data (parsed and written using \fBlibxml\fR(3))
-.SH UNSUPPORTED FEATURES
-
-As of version 1.0.0, wimlib supports capturing and applying WIMs directly from
-NTFS and has much improved support for hard links and symbolic links. In
-addition, you may now apply split WIMs and mount them read-only. I don't think
-there are many other features that would be worth it to implement. Besides
-porting the library to Windows (which I'm not really interested in), the main
-thing that could use improvement (in my opinion) is that the LZX compression
-ratio still isn't quite as good as Microsoft's version. Furthermore, if
-Microsoft updates the WIM format, I'd need to support it, but it looks like the
-format for Windows 8 is the same as that of Windows 7.
-
.SH DIFFERENCES FROM MICROSOFT IMAGEX
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.
+as Microsoft's version. In addition, I have added additional useful features
+when appropriate.
-In particular, because Microsoft designed the WIM file format to accomodate
-Windows-specific and NTFS-specific features, we 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.
+.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.
-Some features, such as the ability to keep files hard-linked across WIM images
-when they are extracted from a WIM, are not available in Microsoft's version of
-imagex. Also, this version of \fBimagex\fR lets you mount an image from a split
-WIM read-only, while Microsoft's version does not.
+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, although it won't actually run on Windows anyway.
+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.
-There are bugs in Microsoft's WIM library and I obviously have not included
-these bugs in my version; however it's to be expected that despite that fact, my
-version has more bugs because it's been less widely tested and used.
+.IP \[bu]
+wimlib supports multithreaded compression, which can make it much faster to
+create compressed WIM files.
-Obviously, this version of imagex is free software but Microsoft's version is
-not.
+.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 LOCALES AND CHARACTER ENCODINGS
+
+wimlib 1.3.0 has improved support for alternate character encodings.
+However, not everything has been well tested, and on UNIX you are strongly
+encouraged to use a UTF-8 locale so that you do not run into any problems.
+In particular, if your locale uses a character encoding that is
+not UTF-8, then you will not be able to open or capture WIM files containing
+files with paths not representable in the current locale's character encoding.
+
+Similar restrictions apply to the Windows-native build of wimlib, but
+unfortunately Windows does not support UTF-8 locales. So you will not be able
+to apply a WIM image containing files with names not representable in the
+current Windows code page, nor will you be able to capture a directory tree
+containing files with names not representable in the current Windows code page.
.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 I've just had to do the best I can to read and write WIMs in a
.BR imagex-optimize (1),
.BR imagex-split (1),
.BR imagex-unmount (1),
-
git://wimlib.net / wimlib / blobdiff