normally created by using the `imagex.exe' utility on Windows, but this library
provides a free implementation of ImageX for UNIX-based systems.
-wimlib 1.3.0 has added experimental support for Windows. See the file
-"README.WINDOWS" for more details.
+wimlib 1.3.0 and later have support for Windows. See the file "README.WINDOWS"
+for more details.
WIM FILES
PORTABILITY
-wimlib has mostly been developed and tested on x86_64 (64-bit) GNU/Linux.
-
-It has been tested on x86 (32-bit) GNU/Linux occasionally.
+wimlib has primarily been tested on Linux and Windows (primarily Windows 7, but
+also Windows XP and Windows 8).
wimlib may work on FreeBSD and Mac OS X. However, this is not well tested. If
you do not have libntfs-3g 2011-4-12 or later available, you must configure
The code pays attention to endianness, so it should work on big-endian
architectures, but I've never tested this so do not expect it to work.
-As of wimlib 1.3.0, there is experimental support for Microsoft Windows. I
-expect it to work on Windows Vista and later, although I have only tested it on
-Windows 7. See README.WINDOWS for more information.
-
REFERENCES
The WIM file format is specified in a document that can be found in the
INTRODUCTION
-wimlib 1.3.0 has added experimental support for Windows builds. The Windows
-build consists of both the "wimlib" library (which can be built as a DLL) and
-the "imagex" executable.
+wimlib 1.3.0 has added experimental support for Windows builds. The support has
+been further improved in later versions. The Windows build consists of both the
+"wimlib" library (which can be built as a DLL) and the "wimlib-imagex"
+executable.
The Windows build of wimlib uses native Win32 calls when appropriate to handle
-alternate data streams, security descriptors, and reparse points.
+alternate data streams, security descriptors, reparse points, encrypted files,
+compressed files, and sparse files.
Mounting WIM files is not supported on Windows. Also please note that wimlib's
-"imagex" is NOT intended to be command-line compatible with Microsoft's
+"wimlib-imagex" is NOT intended to be command-line compatible with Microsoft's
"imagex", and wimlib is NOT intended to be API compatible with Microsoft's
WIMGAPI. They are similar, though.
NOTES ABOUT IMAGEX
-"imagex capture", "imagex append", and "imagex apply" will work on Windows and
-have the added advantage of saving and restoring alternate data streams,
-security descriptors, and reparse points.
+"wimlib-imagex capture", "wimlib-imagex append", and "wimlib-imagex apply" will
+work on Windows and have the added advantage of saving and restoring
+NTFS-specific data, such as alternate data streams, security descriptors, and
+reparse points.
-"imagex delete", "imagex dir", "imagex export", "imagex info", "imagex join",
-"imagex optimize", and "imagex split" are all portable and should work the same
-way on Windows as on UNIX.
-
-"imagex mount", "imagex mountrw", and "imagex unmount" will NOT work on Windows.
+"wimlib-imagex delete", "wimlib-imagex dir", "wimlib-imagex export",
+"wimlib-imagex info", "wimlib-imagex join", "wimlib-imagex optimize", and
+"wimlib-imagex split" are all portable and should work the same way on Windows
+as on UNIX.
+"wimlib-imagex mount", "wimlib-imagex mountrw", and "wimlib-imagex unmount" will
+NOT work on Windows.
So on Windows, why would you want to use wimlib's ImageX instead of Microsoft's?
Well, here are a few reasons:
- wimlib offers fast multithreaded compression, so making WIM images can be much
faster.
-- wimlib can correctly save and restore alternate data streams, which
- Microsoft's ImageX sometimes captures incorrectly due to a bug.
+- Whenever possible I have included improved documentation and informational
+ output compared to Microsoft's software.
+
+- wimlib can correctly save and restore some combinations of data that
+ Microsoft's ImageX runs into bugs on --- for example, uncompressed files in
+ compressed directories, or files with alternate data streams and multiple
+ links.
- wimlib is free software, so you can modify and/or audit the source code.
-See the man page for 'imagex' for more information.
+See the man page for 'wimlib-imagex' for more information.
BUILDING ON WINDOWS