X-Git-Url: https://wimlib.net/git/?p=wimlib;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fimagex.1.in;h=263b2c964849a37076674d30f721d09bd201d088;hp=c65cd2d870deffbcf71a9ca3f39e8863f55928f5;hb=512d3f87a1e7b59ca19ae6d6965dbcf7f4a17c15;hpb=bec7f491bd14b1da3aae7054edd72575dcf77a4f diff --git a/doc/imagex.1.in b/doc/imagex.1.in index c65cd2d8..263b2c96 100644 --- a/doc/imagex.1.in +++ b/doc/imagex.1.in @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -.TH IMAGEX 1 "May 2012" "imagex (wimlib @VERSION@)" "User Commands" +.TH IMAGEX 1 "September 2012" "imagex (wimlib @VERSION@)" "User Commands" .SH NAME imagex \- Create, modify, extract, mount, or unmount a WIM (Windows Imaging Format) archive .SH SYNOPSIS @@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ imagex \- Create, modify, extract, mount, or unmount a WIM (Windows Imaging Form .br \fBimagex mountrw\fR \fIarguments...\fR .br +\fBimagex split\fR \fIarguments...\fR +.br \fBimagex unmount\fR \fIarguments...\fR .SH DESCRIPTION @@ -30,7 +32,7 @@ files). Its interface is meant to be similar to Microsoft's imagex.exe program. 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. +if you wanted to. wimlib's public interface is documented. See \fBWARNING\fR. @@ -42,74 +44,81 @@ There is a separate manual page for each \fBimagex\fR command. 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 +.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 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) +.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 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. - -.SH DIFFERENCES FROM MICROSOFT IMAGEX -See \fBUNSUPPORTED FEATURES\fR. +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. Also, exporting an +image from a split WIM could be supported. 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. -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. +.SH DIFFERENCES FROM MICROSOFT IMAGEX -See the documentation for each command; in some cases they do not do exactly the -same thing as imagex.exe. +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 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. + +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, doesn't seem to be an equivalent of \fBimagex join\fR in +Microsoft's version; you would have to use \fBimagex.exe /export\fR, but that +doesn't let you export all images at once. Furthermore, this version of +\fBimagex\fR lets you mount an image from a split WIM read-only, while +Microsoft's version does not. + +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. + +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. Obviously, this version of imagex is free software but Microsoft's version is not. @@ -117,13 +126,13 @@ not. .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. +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. 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 @@ -140,5 +149,6 @@ Report bugs to ebiggers3@gmail.com. .BR imagex-join (1), .BR imagex-mount (1), .BR imagex-mountrw (1), +.BR imagex-split (1), .BR imagex-unmount (1),