NAME
xorriso - creates, loads, manipulates and writes ISO 9660 filesystem
images with Rock Ridge extensions.
SYNOPSIS
xorriso [settings|actions]
DESCRIPTION
xorriso is a program which copies file objects from POSIX compliant
filesystems into Rock Ridge enhanced ISO 9660 filesystems and allows
session-wise manipulation of such filesystems. It can load the
management information of existing ISO images and it writes the session
results to optical media or to filesystem objects.
Vice versa xorriso is able to copy file objects out of ISO 9660
filesystems.
A special property of xorriso is that it needs neither an external ISO
9660 formatter program nor an external burn program for CD, DVD or BD
but rather incorporates the libraries of libburnia-project.org .
Overview of features:
Operates on an existing ISO image or creates a new one.
Copies files from disk filesystem into the ISO image.
Copies files from ISO image to disk filesystem (see osirrox).
Renames or deletes file objects in the ISO image.
Changes file properties in the ISO image.
Updates ISO subtrees incrementally to match given disk subtrees.
Writes result either as completely new image or as add-on session to
optical media or filesystem objects.
Can activate ISOLINUX and GRUB boot images via El Torito and MBR.
Can perform multi-session tasks as emulation of mkisofs and cdrecord.
Can record and restore hard links and ACL.
Content may get zisofs compressed or filtered by external processes.
Can issue commands to mount older sessions on GNU/Linux or FreeBSD.
Can check media for damages and copy readable blocks to disk.
Can attach MD5 checksums to each data file and the whole session.
Scans for optical drives, blanks re-useable optical media.
Reads its instructions from command line arguments, dialog, and files.
Provides navigation commands for interactive ISO image manipulation.
Adjustable thresholds for abort, exit value, and problem reporting.
General information paragraphs:
Session model
Media types and states
Creating, Growing, Modifying, Blind Growing
Libburn drives
Rock Ridge, POSIX, X/Open, El Torito, ACL, xattr
Command processing
Dialog, Readline, Result pager
Maybe you first want to have a look at section EXAMPLES near the end of
this text before reading the next few hundred lines of background
information.
Session model:
Unlike other filesystems, ISO 9660 is not intended for read-write
operation but rather for being generated in a single sweep and being
written to media as a session.
The data content of the session is called filesystem image.
The written image in its session can then be mounted by the operating
system for being used read-only. GNU/Linux is able to mount ISO images
from block devices, which may represent optical media, other media or
via a loop device even from regular disk files. FreeBSD mounts ISO
images from devices that represent arbitrary media or from regular disk
files.
This session usage model has been extended on CD media by the concept
of multi-session , which allows to add information to the CD and gives
the mount programs of the operating systems the addresses of the entry
points of each session. The mount programs recognize block devices
which represent CD media and will by default mount the image in the
last session.
This session usually contains an updated directory tree for the whole
media which governs the data contents in all recorded sessions. So in
the view of the mount program all sessions of a particular media
together form a single filesystem image.
Adding a session to an existing ISO image is in this text referred as
growing.
The multi-session model of the MMC standard does not apply to all media
types. But program growisofs by Andy Polyakov showed how to extend this
functionality to overwriteable media or disk files which carry valid
ISO 9660 filesystems.
xorriso provides growing as well as an own method named modifying which
produces a completely new ISO image from the old one and the
modifications. See paragraph Creating, Growing, Modifying, Blind
Growing below.
xorriso adopts the concept of multi-session by loading an eventual
image directory tree, allowing to manipulate it by several actions, and
to write the new image to the target media.
The first session of a xorriso run begins by the definition of the
input drive with the eventual ISO image or by the definition of an
output drive. The session ends by command -commit which triggers
writing. A -commit is done automatically when the program ends
regularly.
After -commit a new session begins with the freshly written one as
input. A new input drive can only be chosen as long as the loaded ISO
image was not altered. Pending alteration can be revoked by command
-rollback.
Writing a session to the target is supposed to be very expensive in
terms of time and of consumed space on appendable or write-once media.
Therefore all intended manipulations of a particular ISO image should
be done in a single session. But in principle it is possible to store
intermediate states and to continue with image manipulations.
Media types and states:
There are two families of media in the MMC standard:
Multi-session media are CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+R/DL, BD-R, and
unformatted DVD-RW. These media provide a table of content which
describes their existing sessions. See option -toc.
Overwriteable media are DVD-RAM, DVD+RW, BD-RE, and formatted DVD-RW.
They allow random write access but do not provide information about
their session history. If they contain one or more ISO 9660 sessions
and if the first session was written by xorriso, then a table of
content can be emulated. Else only a single overall session will be
visible.
DVD-RW media can be formatted by -format "full". They can be made
unformatted by -blank "deformat".
Regular files and block devices are handled as overwriteable media.
Pipes and other writeable file types are handled as blank multi-session
media.
These media can assume several states in which they offer different
capabilities.
Blank media can be written from scratch. They contain no ISO image
suitable for xorriso.
Blank is the state of newly purchased optical media. With used CD-RW
and DVD-RW it can be achieved by action -blank "as_needed".
Overwriteable media are considered blank if they are new or if they
have been marked as blank by xorriso. Action -blank "as_needed" can be
used to do this marking on overwriteable media, or to apply eventual
mandatory formatting to new media.
Appendable media accept further sessions. Either they are MMC multi-
session media in appendable state, or they are overwriteable media
which contain an ISO image suitable for xorriso.
Appendable is the state after writing a session with option -close off.
Closed media cannot be written. They may contain an ISO image suitable
for xorriso.
Closed is the state of DVD-ROM media and of multi-session media which
were written with option -close on. If the drive is read-only hardware
then it will probably show any media as closed CD-ROM resp. DVD-ROM.
Overwriteable media assume this state in such read-only drives or if
they contain unrecognizable data in the first 32 data blocks.
Read-only drives may or may not show session histories of multi-session
media. Often only the first and the last session are visible. Sometimes
not even that. Option -rom_toc_scan might or might not help in such
cases.
Creating, Growing, Modifying, Blind Growing:
A new empty ISO image gets created if there is no input drive with a
valid ISO 9660 image when the first time an output drive is defined.
This is achieved by option -dev on blank media or by option -outdev on
media in any state.
The new empty image can be populated with directories and files.
Before it can be written, the media in the output drive must get into
blank state if it was not blank already.
If there is a input drive with a valid ISO image, then this image gets
loaded as foundation for manipulations and extension. The constellation
of input and output drive determines which write method will be used.
They have quite different capabilities and constraints.
The method of growing adds new data to the existing media. These data
comprise of eventual new file content and they override the existing
ISO 9660 + Rock Ridge directory tree. It is possible to hide files from
previous sessions but they still exist on media and with many types of
optical media it is quite easy to recover them by mounting older
sessions.
Growing is achieved by option -dev.
The write method of modifying produces compact filesystem images with
no outdated files or directory trees. Modifying can write its images to
target media which are completely unsuitable for multi-session
operations. E.g. DVD-RW which were treated with -blank
deformat_quickest, named pipes, character devices, sockets. On the
other hand modified sessions cannot be written to appendable media but
to blank media only.
So for this method one needs either two optical drives or has to work
with filesystem objects as source and/or target media.
Modifying takes place if input drive and output drive are not the same
and if option -grow_blindly is set to its default "off". This is
achieved by options -indev and -outdev.
If option -grow_blindly is set to a non-negative number and if -indev
and -outdev are both set to different drives, then blind growing is
performed. It produces an add-on session which is ready for being
written to the given block address. This is the usage model of
mkisofs -M $indev -C $msc1,$msc2 -o $outdev
which gives much room for wrong parameter combinations and should thus
only be employed if a strict distinction between ISO formatter xorriso
and the burn program is desired. -C $msc1,$msc2 is equivalent to:
-load sbsector $msc1 -grow_blindly $msc2
Libburn drives:
Input drive, i.e. source of an existing or empty ISO image, can be any
random access readable libburn drive: optical media with readable data,
blank optical media, regular files, block devices.
Output drive, i.e. target for writing, can be any libburn drive. Some
drive types do not support the method of growing but only the methods
of modifying and blind growing. They all are suitable for newly created
images.
All drive file objects have to offer rw-permission to the user of
xorriso. Even those which will not be useable for reading an ISO
image.
MMC compliant (i.e. optical) drives on GNU/Linux usually get addressed
by the path of their block device or of their generic character device.
E.g.
-dev /dev/sr0
-dev /dev/hdc
-dev /dev/sg2
On FreeBSD the device files have names like
-dev /dev/cd0
Get a list of accessible drives by command
-devices
It might be necessary to do this as superuser in order to see all
drives and to then allow rw-access for the intended users. Consider to
bundle the authorized users in a group like old "floppy".
Filesystem objects of nearly any type can be addressed by prefix
"stdio:" and their path in the filesystem. E.g.:
-dev stdio:/dev/sdc
The default setting of -drive_class allows to address files outside the
/dev tree without that prefix. E.g.:
-dev /tmp/pseudo_drive
If path leads to a regular file or to a block device then the emulated
drive is random access readable and can be used for the method of
growing if it already contains a valid ISO 9660 image. Any other file
type is not readable via "stdio:" and can only be used as target for
the method of modifying or blind growing. Non-existing paths in
existing directories are handled as empty regular files.
A very special kind of pseudo drive are open file descriptors. They are
depicted by "stdio:/dev/fd/" and descriptor number (see man 2 open).
Addresses "-" or "stdio:/dev/fd/1" depict standard output, which
normally is the output channel for result texts. To prevent a fatal
intermingling of ISO image and text messages, all result texts get
redirected to stderr if -*dev "-" or "stdio:/dev/fd/1" is among the
start arguments of the program.
Standard output is currently suitable for creating one session per
program run without dialog. Use in other situations is discouraged and
several restrictions apply:
It is not allowed to use standard output as pseudo drive if it was not
among the start arguments. Do not try to fool this ban via backdoor
addresses to stdout.
If stdout is used as drive, then -use_readline is permanently disabled.
Use of backdoors can cause severe memory and/or tty corruption.
Be aware that especially the superuser can write into any accessible
file or device by using its path with the "stdio:" prefix. By default
any address in the /dev tree without prefix "stdio:" will work only if
it leads to a MMC drive.
One may use option -ban_stdio_write to surely prevent this risk and to
allow only MMC drives.
One may prepend "mmc:" to a path to surely disallow any automatic
"stdio:".
By option -drive_class one may ban certain paths or allow access
without prefix "stdio:" to other paths.
Rock Ridge, POSIX, X/Open, El Torito, ACL, xattr:
Rock Ridge is the name of a set of additional information which enhance
an ISO 9660 filesystem so that it can represent a POSIX compliant
filesystem with ownership, access permissions, symbolic links, and
other attributes.
This is what xorriso uses for a decent representation of the disk files
within the ISO image. Rock Ridge information is produced with any
xorriso image.
xorriso is not named "porriso" because POSIX only guarantees 14
characters of filename length. It is the X/Open System Interface
standard XSI which demands a file name length of up to 255 characters
and paths of up to 1024 characters. Rock Ridge fulfills this demand.
An El Torito boot record connects one or more boot images, which are
binary program files stored in the ISO image, with the bootstrapping
facility of contemporary computers. The content of the boot image
files is not in the scope of El Torito.
Most bootable GNU/Linux CDs are equipped with ISOLINUX or GRUB boot
images. xorriso is able to create or maintain an El Torito object
which makes such an image bootable. For details see option -boot_image.
It is possible to make ISO images bootable from USB stick or other
hard-disk-like media by -boot_image argument system_area= . This
installs a Master Boot Record which may get adjusted according to the
needs of GRUB resp. ISOLINUX. An MBR contains boot code and a
partition table. It does not hamper CDROM booting. The new MBR of a
follow-up session can get in effect only on overwriteable media.
Emulation -as mkisofs supports the example options out of the ISOLINUX
wiki. It also supports the options used in GRUB script grub-mkrescue.
The support for other boot image types is sparse.
ACL are an advanced way of controlling access permissions to file
objects. Neither ISO 9660 nor Rock Ridge specify a way to record ACLs.
So libisofs has introduced a standard conformant extension named AAIP
for that purpose. It uses this extension if enabled by option -acl.
AAIP enhanced images are supposed to be mountable normally, but one
cannot expect that the mounted filesystem will show and respect the
eventual ACLs. For now, only xorriso is able to retrieve those ACLs.
It can bring them into effect when files get restored to an ACL enabled
file system or it can print them in a format suitable for tool setfacl.
Files with ACL show as group permissions the setting of entry "mask::"
if that entry exists. Nevertheless the non-listed group members get
handled according to entry "group::". xorriso brings "group::" into
effect before eventually removing the ACL from a file.
xattr (aka EA) are pairs of name and value which can be attached to
file objects. AAIP is able to represent them and xorriso allows to
record and restore pairs which have names out of the user namespace.
I.e. those which begin with "user.", like "user.x" or "user.whatever".
Name has to be a 0 terminated string. Value may be any array of bytes
which does not exceed the size of 4095 bytes. xattr processing happens
only if it is enabled by option -xattr.
As with ACL, currently only xorriso is able to retrieve xattr from AAIP
enhanced images, to restore them to xattr capable file systems, or to
print them.
Command processing:
Commands are either actions which happen immediately or settings which
influence following actions. So their sequence does matter.
Commands consist of a command word, followed by zero or more parameter
words. If the list of parameter words is of variable length (indicated
by "[...]" or "[***]") then it has to be terminated by either the list
delimiter, or the end of argument list, or an end of an input line.
At program start the list delimiter is the word "--". This may be
changed by option -list_delimiter in order to allow "--" as argument in
a list of variable length. It is advised to reset the delimiter to
"--" immediately afterwards.
For brevity the list delimiter is referred as "--" throughout this
text.
The list delimiter is silently tolerated if it appears after the
parameters of a command with a fixed list length. It is handled as
normal text if it appears among the arguments of such a command.
Pattern expansion converts a list of pattern words into a list of
existing file addresses. Eventual unmatched pattern words appear
themselves in that result list, though.
Pattern matching supports the usual shell parser wildcards '*' '?'
'[xyz]' and respects '/' as separator which may only be matched
literally.
It is a property of some particular commands and not a general feature.
It gets controlled by commands -iso_rr_pattern and -disk_pattern.
Commands which eventually use pattern expansion all have variable
argument lists which are marked in this man page by "[***]" rather than
"[...]".
Some other commands perform pattern matching unconditionally.
Command and parameter words are either read from program arguments,
where one argument is one word, or from quoted input lines where words
are recognized similar to the quotation rules of a shell parser.
xorriso is not a shell, although it might appear so on first glimpse.
Be aware that the interaction of quotation marks and pattern symbols
like "*" differs from the usual shell parsers. In xorriso, a quotation
mark does not make a pattern symbol literal.
Quoted input converts whitespace separated text pieces into words. The
double quotation mark " and the single quotation mark ' can be used to
enclose whitespace and make it part of words (e.g. of file names). Each
mark type can enclose the marks of the other type. A trailing backslash
\ outside quotations or an open quotation cause the next input line to
be appended.
Quoted input accepts any ASCII character except NUL (0) as content of
quotes. Nevertheless it can be cumbersome for the user to produce
those characters at all. Therefore quoted input and program arguments
allow optional Backslash Interpretation which can represent all ASCII
characters except NUL (0) by backslash codes as in $'...' of bash.
It is not enabled by default. See option -backslash_codes.
When the program begins then it first looks for argument -no_rc. If
this is not present then it looks for its startup files and eventually
reads their content as command input lines. Then it interprets the
program arguments as commands and parameters and finally it enters
dialog mode if command -dialog "on" was executed up to then.
The program ends either by command -end, or by the end of program
arguments if not dialog was enabled up to that moment, or by a problem
event which triggers the threshold of command -abort_on.
Dialog, Readline, Result pager:
Dialog mode prompts for a quoted input line, parses it into words, and
performs them as commands with their parameters. It provides assisting
services to make dialog more comfortable.
Readline is an enhancement for the input line. You may know it already
from the bash shell. Whether it is available in xorriso depends on the
availability of package readline-dev at the time when xorriso was built
from its sourcecode.
It allows to move the cursor over the text in the line by help of the
Leftward and the Rightward arrow key. Text may be inserted at the
cursor position. The Delete key removes the character under the cursor.
Upward and Downward arrow keys navigate through the history of previous
input lines.
See man readline for more info about libreadline.
Option -page activates a built-in result text pager which may be
convenient in dialog. After an action has put out the given number of
terminal lines, the pager prompts the user for a line of input.
An empty line lets xorriso resume work until the next page is put out.
The single character "@" disables paging for the current action.
"@@@", "x", "q", "X", or "Q" urge the current action to abort and
suppress further result output.
Any other line will be interpreted as new dialog line. The current
action is urged to abort. Afterwards, the input line is executed.
Some actions apply paging to their info output, too.
The urge to abort may or may not be obeyed by the current action. All
actions try to abort as soon as possible.
OPTIONS
All command words are shown with a leading dash although this dash is
not mandatory for the option to be recognized. Nevertheless within
option -as the dashes of the emulated options are mandatory.
Normally any number of leading dashes is ignored with command words and
inner dashes are interpreted as underscores.
Aquiring source and target drive:
Before aquiring a drive one will eventually enable options which
influence the behavior of image loading. See next option group.
-dev address
Set input and output drive to the same address and load an
eventual ISO image. If there is no ISO image then create a
blank one. Set the image expansion method to growing.
This is only allowed as long as no changes are pending in the
currently loaded ISO image. Eventually one has to perform
-commit or -rollback first.
Special address string "-" means standard output, to which
several restrictions apply. See above paragraph "Libburn
drives".
An empty address string "" gives up the current device without
aquiring a new one.
-indev address
Set input drive and load an eventual ISO image. If the new input
drive differs from -outdev then switch from growing to modifying
or to blind growing. It depends on the setting of -grow_blindly
which of both gets activated. The same rules and restrictions
apply as with -dev.
-outdev address
Set output drive and if it differs from the input drive then
switch from growing to modifying or to blind growing. Unlike
-dev and -indev this action does not load a new ISO image. So it
can be performed even if there are pending changes.
-outdev can be performed without previous -dev or -indev. In
that case an empty ISO image with no changes pending is created.
It can either be populated by help of -map, -add et.al. or it
can be discarded silently if -dev or -indev are performed
afterwards.
Special address string "-" means standard output, to which
several restrictions apply. See above paragraph "Libburn
drives".
An empty address string "" gives up the current output drive
without aquiring a new one. No writing is possible without an
output drive.
-grow_blindly "off"|predicted_nwa
If predicted_nwa is a non-negative number then perform blind
growing rather than modifying if -indev and -outdev are set to
different drives. "off" or "-1" switch to modifying, which is
the default.
predicted_nwa is the block address where the add-on session of
blind growing will finally end up. It is the responsibility of
the user to ensure this final position and the presence of the
older sessions. Else the overall ISO image will not be mountable
or will produce read errors when accessing file content. xorriso
will write the session to the address as obtained from examining
-outdev and not necessarily to predicted_nwa.
During a run of blind growing, the input drive is given up
before output begins. The output drive is given up when writing
is done.
Influencing the behavior of image loading:
The following options should normally be performed before loading an
image by aquiring an input drive. In rare cases it is desirable to
activate them only after image loading.
-load entity id
Load a particular (possibly outdated) ISO session from -dev or
-indev. Usually all available sessions are shown with option
-toc.
entity depicts the kind of addressing. id depicts the particular
address. The following entities are defined:
"auto" with any id addresses the last session in -toc. This is
the default.
"session" with id being a number as of a line "ISO session",
column "Idx".
"track" with id being a number as of a line "ISO track", column
"Idx".
"lba" or "sbsector" with a number as of a line "ISO ...", column
"sbsector".
"volid" with a search pattern for a text as of a line "ISO ...",
column "Volume Id".
Adressing a non-existing entity or one which does not represent
an ISO image will either abandon -indev or at least lead to a
blank image.
If an input drive is set at the moment when -load is executed,
then the addressed ISO image is loaded immediately. Else, the
setting will be pending until the next -dev or -indev. After the
image has been loaded once, the setting is valid for -rollback
until next -dev or -indev, where it will be reset to "auto".
-drive_class "harmless"|"banned"|"caution"|"clear_list" disk_pattern
Add a drive path pattern to one of the safety lists or make
those lists empty. There are three lists defined which get
tested in the following sequence:
If a drive address path matches the "harmless" list then the
drive will be accepted. If it is not a MMC device then the
prefix "stdio:" will be prepended automatically. This list is
empty by default.
Else if the path matches the "banned" list then the drive will
not be accepted by xorriso but rather lead to a FAILURE event.
This list is empty by default.
Else if the path matches the "caution" list and if it is not a
MMC device, then its address must have the prefix "stdio:" or it
will be rejected. This list has by default one entry: "/dev".
If a drive path matches no list then it is considered
"harmless". By default these are all paths which do not begin
with directory "/dev".
A path matches a list if one of its parent paths or itself
matches a list entry. An eventual address prefix "stdio:" or
"mmc:" will be ignored when testing for matches.
By pseudo-class "clear_list" and pseudo-patterns "banned",
"caution", "harmless", or "all", the lists may be made empty.
E.g.: -drive_class clear_list banned
One will normally define the -drive_class lists in one of the
xorriso Startup Files.
Note: This is not a security feature but rather a bumper for the
superuser to prevent inadverted mishaps. For reliably blocking
access to a device file you have to deny its rw-permissions in
the filesystem.
-assert_volid pattern severity
Refuse to load ISO images with volume ids which do not match the
given search pattern. When refusing an image, give up the input
drive and issue an event of the given severity (like FAILURE,
see -abort_on). An empty search pattern accepts any image.
This option does not hamper the creation of an empty image from
blank input media and does not discard an already loaded image.
-in_charset character_set_name
Set the character set from which to convert file names when
loading an image. This has eventually to be done before
specifying -dev , -indev or -rollback. See paragraph "Character
sets" for more explanations. When loading the written image
after -commit the setting of -out_charset will be copied to
-in_charset.
-auto_charset "on"|"off"
Enable or disable recording and interpretation of the output
character set name in an xattr attribute of the image root
directory. If enabled then an eventual recorded character set
name gets used as input character set when reading an image.
Note that the default output charset is the local character set
of the terminal where xorriso runs. Before attributing this
local character set to the produced ISO image, check whether the
terminal properly displays all intended filenames, especially
exotic national characters.
-hardlinks mode[:mode...]
Enable or disable loading and recording of hardlink relations.
In default mode "off", iso_rr files lose their inode numbers at
image load time. Each iso_rr file object which has no inode
number at image generation time will get a new unique inode
number if -compliance is set to new_rr.
Mode "on" preserves eventual inode numbers from the loaded
image. When committing a session it searches for families of
iso_rr files which stem from the same disk file, have identical
content filtering and have identical properties. The family
members all get the same inode number. Whether these numbers
are respected at mount time depends on the operating system.
Commands -update and -update_r track splits and fusions of hard
links in filesystems which have stable device and inode numbers.
This can cause automatic last minute changes before the session
gets written. Command -hardlinks "perform_update" may be used to
do these changes earlier, e.g. if you need to apply filters to
all updated files.
Mode "without_update" avoids hardlink processing during update
commands. Use this if your filesystem situation does not allow
-disk_dev_ino "on".
xorriso commands which extract files from an ISO image try to
hardlink files with identical inode number. The normal scope of
this operation is from image load to image load. One may give up
the accumulated hard link addresses by -hardlinks
"discard_extract".
A large number of hardlink families may exhaust -temp_mem_limit
if not -osirrox "sort_lba_on" and -hardlinks
"cheap_sorted_extract" are both in effect. This restricts hard
linking to other files restored by the same single extract
command. -hardlinks "normal_extract" re-enables wide and
expensive hardlink accumulation.
Hardlink processing automatically enables -compliance new_rr.
This may be overridden by a following -compliance old_rr . In
this case the resulting image will violate the RRIP-1.10 specs
for entry PX in the same way as mkisofs does.
-acl "on"|"off"
Enable or disable processing of ACLs. If enabled, then xorriso
will obtain ACLs from disk file objects, store ACLs in the ISO
image using the libisofs specific AAIP format, load AAIP data
from ISO images, test ACL during file comparison, and restore
ACLs to disk files when extracting them from ISO images. See
also options -getfacl, -setfacl.
-xattr "on"|"off"
Enable or disable processing of xattr attributes in user
namespace. If enabled, then xorriso will handle xattr similar
to ACL. See also options -getfattr, -setfattr and above
paragraph about xattr.
-md5 "on"|"all"|"off"
Enable or disable processing of MD5 checksums for the overall
session and for each single data file. If enabled then images
get loaded only if eventual checksums tags of superblock and
directory tree match properly. The MD5 checksums of data files
and whole session get loaded from the image if there are any.
With options -compare and -update the eventually recorded MD5 of
a file will be used to avoid content reading from the image.
Only the disk file content will be read and compared with that
MD5. This can save much time if -disk_dev_ino "on" is not
suitable.
At image generation time they are computed for each file which
gets its data written into the new session. The checksums of
files which have their data in older sessions get copied into
the new session. Superblock, tree and whole session get a
checksum tag each.
Mode "all" will additionally check during image generation
whether the checksum of a data file changed between the time
when its reading began and the time when it ended. This implies
reading every file twice.
Checksums can be exploited via options -check_md5, -check_md5_r,
via find actions get_md5, check_md5, and via -check_media.
-for_backup
Enable all extra features which help to produce or to restore
backups with highest fidelity of file properties. Currently
this is a shortcut for: -hardlinks on -acl on -xattr on -md5 on.
-disk_dev_ino "on"|"ino_only"|"off"
Enable or disable processing of recorded file identification
numbers (dev_t and ino_t). They are eventually stored as xattr
and allow to substantially accelerate file comparison. The root
node gets a global start timestamp. If during comparison a file
with younger timestamps is found in the ISO image, then it is
suspected to have inconsistent content.
If device numbers and inode numbers of the disk filesystems are
persistent and if no irregular alterations of timestamps or
system clock happen, then potential content changes can be
detected without reading that content. File content change is
assumed if any of mtime, ctime, device number or inode number
have changed.
Mode "ino_only" replaces the precondition that device numbers
are stable by the precondition that mount points in the compared
tree always lead to the same filesystems. Use this if mode "on"
always sees all files changed.
The speed advantage appears only if the loaded session was
produced with -disk_dev_ino "on" too.
Note that -disk_dev_ino "off" is totally in effect only if
-hardlinks is "off", too.
-rom_toc_scan "on"|"force"|"off"[:"emul_on"|"emul_off"]
Read-only drives do not tell the actual media type but show any
media as ROM (e.g. as DVD-ROM). The session history of MMC
multi-session media might be truncated to first and last session
or even be completely false. (The eventual emulated history of
overwriteable media is not affected by this.)
To have in case of failure a chance of getting the session
history and especially the address of the last session, there is
a scan for ISO 9660 filesystem headers which might help but also
might yield worse results than the drive's table of content. At
its end it can cause read attempts to invalid addresses and thus
ugly drive behavior. Setting "on" enables that scan for alleged
read-only media.
Some operating systems are not able to mount the most recent
session of multi-session DVD or BD. If on such a system xorriso
has no own MMC capabilities then it may still find that session
from a scanned table of content. Setting "force" handles any
media like a ROM media with setting "on".
On the other hand the emulation of session history on
overwriteable media can hamper reading of partly damaged media.
Setting "off:emul_off" disables the elsewise trustworthy table-
of-content scan for those media.
To be in effect, the -rom_toc_scan setting has to be made before
the -*dev command which aquires drive and media.
-calm_drive "in"|"out"|"all"|"revoke"|"on"|"off"
Reduce drive noise until it is actually used again. Some drives
stay alert for substantial time after they have been used for
reading. This reduces the startup time for the next drive
operation but can be loud and waste energy if no i/o with the
drive is expected to happen soon.
Modes "in", "out", "all" immediately calm down -indev, -outdev,
resp. both. Mode "revoke" immediately alerts both. Mode "on"
causes -calm_drive to be performed automatically after each
-dev, -indev, and -outdev. Mode "off" disables this.
-ban_stdio_write
Allow for writing only the usage of MMC optical drives. Disallow
to write the result into files of nearly arbitrary type. Once
set, this command cannot be revoked.
Inserting files into ISO image:
The following commands expect file addresses of two kinds:
disk_path is a path to an object in the local filesystem tree.
iso_rr_path is the Rock Ridge name of a file object in the ISO image.
(Do not confuse with the lowlevel ISO 9660 names visible if Rock Ridge
gets ignored.)
Note that in the ISO image you are as powerful as the superuser. Access
permissions of the existing files in the image do not apply to your
write operations. They are intended to be in effect with the read-only
mounted image.
If the iso_rr_path of a newly inserted file leads to an existing file
object in the ISO image, then the following collision handling happens:
If both objects are directories then they get merged by recursively
inserting the subobjects from filesystem into ISO image. If other file
types collide then the setting of command -overwrite decides.
Renaming of files has similar collision handling, but directories can
only be replaced, not merged. Note that -mv inserts the source objects
into an eventual existing target directory rather than attempting to
replace it.
The commands in this section alter the ISO image and not the local
filesystem.
-disk_pattern "on"|"ls"|"off"
Set the pattern expansion mode for the disk_path arguments of
several commands which support this feature.
Setting "off" disables this feature for all commands which are
marked in this man page by "disk_path [***]" or "disk_pattern
[***]".
Setting "on" enables it for all those commands.
Setting "ls" enables it only for those which are marked by
"disk_pattern [***]".
Default is "ls".
-add pathspec [...] | disk_path [***]
Insert the given files or directory trees from filesystem into
the ISO image.
If -pathspecs is set to "on" then pattern expansion is always
disabled and character '=' has a special meaning. It eventually
separates the ISO image path from the disk path:
iso_rr_path=disk_path
The separator '=' can be escaped by '\'. If iso_rr_path does
not begin with '/' then -cd is prepended. If disk_path does not
begin with '/' then -cdx is prepended.
If no '=' is given then the word is used as both, iso_rr_path
and disk path. If in this case the word does not begin with '/'
then -cdx is prepended to the disk_path and -cd is prepended to
the iso_rr_path.
If -pathspecs is set to "off" then eventual -disk_pattern
expansion applies. The resulting words are used as both,
iso_rr_path and disk path. Eventually -cdx gets prepended to
disk_path and -cd to iso_rr_path.
-add_plainly mode
If set to mode "unknown" then any command word that does not
begin with "-" and is not recognized as known command will be
subject to a virtual -add command. I.e. it will be used as
pathspec or as disk_path and added to the image. Eventually
-disk_pattern expansion applies to disk_paths.
Mode "dashed" is similar to "unknown" but also adds unrecognized
command words even if they begin with "-".
Mode "any" announces that all further words are to be added as
pathspecs or disk_paths. This does not work in dialog mode.
Mode "none" is the default. It prevents any words from being
understood as files to add, if they are not parameters to
appropriate commands.
-path_list disk_path
Like -add but read the parameter words from file disk_path or
standard input if disk_path is "-". The list must contain
exactly one pathspec resp. disk_path pattern per line.
-quoted_path_list disk_path
Like -path_list but with quoted input reading rules. Lines get
split into parameter words for -add. Whitespace outside quotes
is discarded.
-map disk_path iso_rr_path
Insert file object disk_path into the ISO image as iso_rr_path.
If disk_path is a directory then its whole sub tree is inserted
into the ISO image.
-map_single disk_path iso_rr_path
Like -map, but if disk_path is a directory then its sub tree is
not inserted.
-map_l disk_prefix iso_rr_prefix disk_path [***]
Perform -map with each of the disk_path arguments. iso_rr_path
will be composed from disk_path by replacing disk_prefix by
iso_rr_prefix.
-update disk_path iso_rr_path
Compare file object disk_path with file object iso_rr_path. If
they do not match, then perform the necessary image
manipulations to make iso_rr_path a matching copy of disk_path.
By default this comparison will imply lengthy content reading
before a decision is made. Options -disk_dev_ino or -md5 may
accelerate comparison if they were already in effect when the
loaded session was recorded.
If disk_path is a directory and iso_rr_path does not exist yet,
then the whole subtree will be inserted. Else only directory
attributes will be updated.
-update_r disk_path iso_rr_path
Like -update but working recursively. I.e. all file objects
below both addresses get compared whether they have counterparts
below the other address and whether both counterparts match. If
there is a mismatch then the necessary update manipulation is
done.
Note that the comparison result may depend on option -follow.
Its setting should always be the same as with the first adding
of disk_path as iso_rr_path.
If iso_rr_path does not exist yet, then it gets added. If
disk_path does not exist, then iso_rr_path gets deleted.
-update_l disk_prefix iso_rr_prefix disk_path [***]
Perform -update_r with each of the disk_path arguments.
iso_rr_path will be composed from disk_path by replacing
disk_prefix by iso_rr_prefix.
-cut_out disk_path byte_offset byte_count iso_rr_path
Map a byte interval of a regular disk file into a regular file
in the ISO image. This may be necessary if the disk file is
larger than a single media, or if it exceeds the traditional
limit of 2 GiB - 1 for old operating systems, or the limit of 4
GiB - 1 for newer ones. Only the newest Linux kernels seem to
read properly files >= 4 GiB - 1.
A clumsy remedy for this limit is to backup file pieces and to
concatenate them at restore time. A well tested chopping size is
2047m. It is permissible to request a higher byte_count than
available. The resulting file will be truncated to the correct
size of a final piece. To request a byte_offset higher than
available yields no file in the ISO image but a SORRY event.
E.g:
-cut_out /my/disk/file 0 2047m \
/file/part_1_of_3_at_0_with_2047m_of_5753194821 \
-cut_out /my/disk/file 2047m 2047m \
/file/part_2_of_3_at_2047m_with_2047m_of_5753194821 \
-cut_out /my/disk/file 4094m 2047m \
/file/part_3_of_3_at_4094m_with_2047m_of_5753194821
While option -split_size is set larger than 0, and if all pieces
of a file reside in the same ISO directory with no other files,
and if the names look like above, then their ISO directory will
be recognized and handled like a regular file. This affects
options -compare*, -update*, and overwrite situations. See
option -split_size for details.
-cpr disk_path [***] iso_rr_path
Insert the given files or directory trees from filesystem into
the ISO image.
The rules for generating the ISO addresses are similar as with
shell command cp -r. Nevertheless, directories of the
iso_rr_path are created if necessary. Especially a not yet
existing iso_rr_path will be handled as directory if multiple
disk_paths are present. The leafnames of the multiple
disk_paths will be grafted under that directory as would be done
with an existing directory.
If a single disk_path is present then a non-existing iso_rr_path
will get the same type as the disk_path.
If a disk_path does not begin with '/' then -cdx is prepended.
If the iso_rr_path does not begin with '/' then -cd is
prepended.
-mkdir iso_rr_path [...]
Create empty directories if they do not exist yet. Existence as
directory generates a WARNING event, existence as other file
causes a FAILURE event.
Settings for file insertion:
-file_size_limit value [value [...]] --
Set the maximum permissible size for a single data file. The
values get summed up for the actual limit. If the only value is
"off" then the file size is not limited by xorriso. Default is a
limit of 100 extents, 4g -2k each:
-file_size_limit 400g -200k --
When mounting ISO 9660 filesystems, old operating systems can
handle only files up to 2g -1 --. Newer ones are good up to 4g
-1 --. You need quite a new Linux kernel to read correctly the
final bytes of a file >= 4g if its size is not aligned to 2048
byte blocks.
xorriso's own data read capabilities are not affected by
eventual operating system size limits. They apply to mounting
only. Nevertheless, the target filesystem of an -extract must be
able to take the file size.
-not_mgt code[:code[...]]
Control the behavior of the exclusion lists.
Exclusion processing happens before disk_paths get mapped to the
ISO image and before disk files get compared with image files.
The absolute disk path of the source is matched against the
-not_paths list. The leafname of the disk path is matched
against the patterns in the -not_leaf list. If a match is
detected then the disk path will not be regarded as an existing
file and not be added to the ISO image.
Several codes are defined. The _on/_off settings persist until
they are revoked by their_off/_on counterparts.
"erase" empties the lists which were accumulated by -not_paths
and -not_leaf.
"reset" is like "erase" but also re-installs default behavior.
"off" disables exclusion processing temporarily without
invalidating the lists and settings.
"on" re-enables exclusion processing.
"param_off" applies exclusion processing only to paths below
disk_path parameter of commands. I.e. explicitly given
disk_paths are exempted from exclusion processing.
"param_on" applies exclusion processing to command parameters as
well as to files below such parameters.
"subtree_off" with "param_on" excludes parameter paths only if
they match a -not_paths item exactly.
"subtree_on" additionally excludes parameter paths which lead to
a file address below any -not_paths item.
"ignore_off" treats excluded disk files as if they were missing.
I.e. they get reported with -compare and deleted from the image
with -update.
"ignore_on" keeps excluded files out of -compare or -update
activities.
-not_paths disk_path [***]
Add the given paths to the list of excluded absolute disk paths.
If a given path is relative, then the current -cdx is prepended
to form an absolute path. Eventual pattern matching happens at
definition time and not when exclusion checks are made.
(Do not forget to end the list of disk_paths by "--")
-not_leaf pattern
Add a single shell parser style pattern to the list of
exclusions for disk leafnames. These patterns are evaluated when
the exclusion checks are made.
-not_list disk_path
Read lines from disk_path and use each of them either as
-not_paths argument, if they contain a / character, or as
-not_leaf pattern.
-quoted_not_list disk_path
Like -not_list but with quoted input reading rules. Each word is
handled as one argument for -not_paths resp. -not_leaf.
-follow occasion[:occasion[...]]
Enable or disable resolution of symbolic links and mountpoints
under disk_paths. This applies to actions -add, -du*x, -ls*x,
-findx, and to -disk_pattern expansion.
There are two kinds of follow decisison to be made:
"link" is the hop from a symbolic link to its target file
object. If enabled then symbolic links are handled as their
target file objects, else symbolic links are handled as
themselves.
"mount" is the hop from one filesystem to another subordinate
filesystem. If enabled then mountpoint directories are handled
as any other directory, else mountpoints are handled as empty
directories if they are encountered in directory tree
traversals.
Less general than above occasions:
"pattern" is mount and link hopping, but only during
-disk_pattern expansion.
"param" is link hopping for parameter words (after eventual
pattern expansion). If enabled then -ls*x will show the link
targets rather than the links themselves. -du*x, -findx, and
-add will process the link targets but not follow links in an
eventual directory tree below the targets (unless "link" is
enabled).
Occasions can be combined in a colon separated list. All
occasions mentioned in the list will then lead to a positive
follow decision.
"off" prevents any positive follow decision. Use it if no other
occasion applies.
Shortcuts:
"default" is equivalent to "pattern:mount:limit=100".
"on" always decides positive. Equivalent to "link:mount".
Not an occasion but an optional setting is:
"limit="<number> which sets the maximum number of link hops. A
link hop consists of a sequence of symbolic links and a final
target of different type. Nevertheless those hops can loop.
Example:
$ ln -s .. uploop
Link hopping has a built-in loop detection which stops hopping
at the first repetition of a link target. Then the repeated link
is handled as itself and not as its target. Regrettably one can
construct link networks which cause exponential workload before
their loops get detected. The number given with "limit=" can
curb this workload at the risk of truncating an intentional
sequence of link hops.
-pathspecs "on"|"off"
Control parameter interpretation with xorriso actions -add and
-path_list.
"on" enables pathspecs of the form target=source like with
program mkisofs -graft-points. It also disables -disk_pattern
expansion for command -add.
"off" disables pathspecs of the form target=source and
eventually enables -disk_pattern expansion.
-overwrite "on"|"nondir"|"off"
Allow or disallow to overwrite existing files in the ISO image
by files with the same name.
With setting "off", name collisions cause FAILURE events. With
setting "nondir", only directories are protected by such events,
other existing file types get treated with -rm before the new
file gets added. Setting "on" allows automatic -rm_r. I.e. a
non-directory can replace an existing directory and all its
subordinates.
If restoring of files is enabled, then the overwrite rule
applies to the target file objects on disk as well, but "on" is
downgraded to "nondir".
-split_size number["k"|"m"]
Set the threshold for automatic splitting of regular files. Such
splitting maps a large disk file onto a ISO directory with
several part files in it. This is necessary if the size of the
disk file exceeds -file_size_limit. Older operating systems can
handle files in mounted ISO 9660 filesystems only if they are
smaller than 2 GiB resp. 4 GiB.
Default is 0 which will exclude files larger than
-file_size_limit by a FAILURE event. A well tested -split_size
is 2047m. Sizes above -file_size_limit are not permissible.
While option -split_size is set larger than 0 such a directory
with split file pieces will be recognized and handled like a
regular file by options -compare* , -update*, and in overwrite
situations. There are -ossirox options "concat_split_on" and
"concat_split_off" which control the handling when files get
restored to disk.
In order to be recognizable, the names of the part files have to
describe the splitting by 5 numbers:
part_number,total_parts,byte_offset,byte_count,disk_file_size
which are embedded in the following text form:
part_#_of_#_at_#_with_#_of_#
Scaling characters like "m" or "k" are taken into respect. All
digits are interpreted as decimal, even if leading zeros are
present.
E.g: /file/part_1_of_3_at_0_with_2047m_of_5753194821
No other files are allowed in the directory. All parts have to
be present and their numbers have to be plausible. E.g.
byte_count must be valid as -cut_out argument and their contents
may not overlap.
File manipulations:
The following commands manipulate files in the ISO image, regardless
whether they stem from the loaded image or were newly inserted.
-iso_rr_pattern "on"|"ls"|"off"
Set the pattern expansion mode for the iso_rr_path arguments of
several commands which support this feature.
Setting "off" disables pattern expansion for all commands which
are marked in this man page by "iso_rr_path [***]" or
"iso_rr_pattern [***]".
Setting "on" enables it for all those commands.
Setting "ls" enables it only for those which are marked by
"iso_rr_pattern [***]".
Default is "on".
-rm iso_rr_path [***]
Delete the given files from the ISO image.
Note: This does not free any space on the -indev media, even if
the deletion is committed to that same media.
The image size will shrink if the image is written to a
different media in modification mode.
-rm_r iso_rr_path [***]
Delete the given files or directory trees from the ISO image.
See also the note with option -rm.
-rmdir iso_rr_path [***]
Delete empty directories.
-mv iso_rr_path [***] iso_rr_path
Rename the given file objects in the ISO tree to the last
argument in the list. Use the same rules as with shell command
mv.
If pattern expansion is enabled and if the last argument
contains wildcard characters then it must match exactly one
existing file address, or else the command fails with a FAILURE
event.
-chown uid iso_rr_path [***]
Set ownership of file objects in the ISO image. uid may either
be a decimal number or the name of a user known to the operating
system.
-chown_r uid iso_rr_path [***]
Like -chown but affecting all files below eventual directories.
-chgrp gid iso_rr_path [***]
Set group attribute of file objects in the ISO image. gid may
either be a decimal number or the name of a group known to the
operating system.
-chgrp_r gid iso_rr_path [***]
Like -chgrp but affecting all files below eventual directories.
-chmod mode iso_rr_path [***]
Equivalent to shell command chmod in the ISO image. mode is
either an octal number beginning with "0" or a comma separated
list of statements of the form [ugoa]*[+-=][rwxst]* .
Like: go-rwx,u+rwx .
Personalities: u=user, g=group, o=others, a=all
Operators: + adds given permissions, - revokes given
permissions, = revokes all old permissions and then adds the
given ones.
Permissions: r=read, w=write, x=execute|inspect,
s=setuid|setgid, t=sticky bit
For octal numbers see man 2 stat.
-chmod_r mode iso_rr_path [***]
Like -chmod but affecting all files below eventual directories.
-setfacl acl_text iso_rr_path [***]
Attach the given ACL to the given iso_rr_paths after deleting
their eventually existing ACLs. If acl_text is empty, or
contains the text "clear" or the text "--remove-all", then the
existing ACLs will be removed and no new ones will be attached.
Any other content of acl_text will be interpreted as a list of
ACL entries. It may be in the long multi-line format as put out
by -getfacl but may also be abbreviated as follows:
ACL entries are separated by comma or newline. If an entry is
empty text or begins with "#" then it will be ignored. A valid
entry has to begin by a letter out of {ugom} for "user",
"group", "other", "mask". It has to contain two colons ":". A
non-empty text between those ":" gives a user id resp. group id.
After the second ":" there may be letters out of {rwx- #}. The
first three give read, write resp. execute permission. Letters
"-", " " and TAB are ignored. "#" causes the rest of the entry
to be ignored. Letter "X" or any other letters are not
supported. Examples:
g:toolies:rw,u:lisa:rw,u:1001:rw,u::wr,g::r,o::r,m::rw
group:toolies:rw-,user::rw-,group::r--,other::r--,mask::rw-
A valid entry may be prefixed by "d", some following characters
and ":". This indicates that the entry goes to the "default"
ACL rather than to the "access" ACL. Example:
u::rwx,g::rx,o::,d:u::rwx,d:g::rx,d:o::,d:u:lisa:rwx,d:m::rwx
-setfacl_r acl_text iso_rr_path [***]
Like -setfacl but affecting all files below eventual
directories.
-setfacl_list disk_path
Read the output of -getfacl_r or shell command getfacl -R and
apply it to the iso_rr_paths as given in lines beginning with "#
file:". This will change ownership, group and ACL of the given
files. If disk_path is "-" then lines are read from standard
input. Line "@" ends the list, "@@@" aborts without changing the
pending iso_rr_path.
Since -getfacl and getfacl -R strip leading "/" from file paths,
the setting of -cd does always matter.
-setfattr [-]name value iso_rr_path [***]
Attach the given xattr pair of name and value to the given
iso_rr_paths. If the given name is prefixed by "-", then the
pair with that name gets removed from the xattr list. If name is
"--remove-all" then all user namespace xattr of the given
iso_rr_paths get deleted. In case of deletion, value must be an
empty text.
Only names from the user namespace are allowed. I.e. a name has
to begin with "user.", like "user.x" or "user.whatever".
Values and names undergo the normal input processing of xorriso.
See also option -backslash_codes. Other than with option
-setfattr_list, the byte value 0 cannot be expressed via
-setfattr.
-setfattr_r [-]name value iso_rr_path [***]
Like -setfattr but affecting all files below eventual
directories.
-setfattr_list disk_path
Read the output of -getfattr_r or shell command getfattr -Rd and
apply it to the iso_rr_paths as given in lines beginning with "#
file:". All previously existing user space xattr of the given
iso_rr_paths will be deleted. If disk_path is "-" then lines
are read from standard input.
Since -getfattr and getfattr -Rd strip leading "/" from file
paths, the setting of -cd does always matter.
Empty input lines and lines which begin by "#" will be ignored
(except "# file:"). Line "@" ends the list, "@@@" aborts without
changing the pending iso_rr_path. Other input lines must have
the form
name="value"
Name must be from user namespace. I.e. user.xyz where xyz should
consist of printable characters only. The separator "=" is not
allowed in names. Value may contain any kind of bytes. It must
be in quotes. Trailing whitespace after the end quote will be
ignored. Non-printables bytes and quotes must be represented as
\XYZ by their octal ASCII code XYZ. Use code \000 for 0-bytes.
-alter_date type timestring iso_rr_path [***]
Alter the date entries of a file in the ISO image. type is one
of "a", "m", "b" for access time, modification time, both times.
timestring may be in the following formats (see also section
EXAMPLES):
As expected by program date:
MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]
As produced by program date:
[Day] MMM DD hh:mm:ss [TZON] YYYY
Relative times counted from current clock time:
+|-Number["s"|"h"|"d"|"w"|"m"|"y"]
where "s" means seconds, "h" hours, "d" days, "w" weeks,
"m"=30d, "y"=365.25d plus 1d added to multiplication result.
Absolute seconds counted from Jan 1 1970:
=Number
xorriso's own timestamps:
YYYY.MM.DD[.hh[mm[ss]]]
scdbackup timestamps:
YYMMDD[.hhmm[ss]]
where "A0" is year 2000, "B0" is 2010, etc.
-alter_date_r type timestring iso_rr_path [***]
Like -alter_date but affecting all files below eventual
directories.
Tree traversal command -find:
-find iso_rr_path [test [op] [test ...]] [-exec action [params]] --
A restricted substitute for shell command find in the ISO image.
It performs an action on matching file objects at or below
iso_rr_path.
If not used as last command in the line then the argument list
needs to get terminated by "--".
Tests are optional. If they are omitted then action is applied
to all file objects. If tests are given then they form together
an expression. The action is applied only if the expression
matches the file object. Default expression operator between
tests is -and, i.e. the expression matches only if all its tests
match.
Available tests are:
-name pattern : Matches if pattern matches the file leaf name.
-wholename pattern : Matches if pattern matches the file path as
it would be printed by action "echo". Character '/' is not
special but can be matched by wildcards.
-type type_letter : Matches files of the given type: "block",
"char", "dir", "pipe", "file", "link", "socket", "eltorito",
"Xotic" which eventually matches what is not matched by the
other types.
Only the first letter is interpreted. E.g.: -find / -type d
-damaged : Matches files which use data blocks marked as damaged
by a previous run of -check_media. The damage info vanishes when
a new ISO image gets loaded.
-pending_data : Matches files which get their content from
outside the loaded ISO image.
-lba_range start_lba block_count : Matches files which use data
blocks within the range of start_lba and
start_lba+block_count-1.
-has_acl : Matches files which have a non-trivial ACL.
-has_xattr : Matches files which have xattr name-value pairs
from user namespace.
-has_aaip : Matches files which have ACL or any xattr.
-has_any_xattr : Matches files which have any xattr other than
ACL.
-has_md5 : Matches data files which have MD5 checksums.
-has_filter : Matches files which are filtered by -set_filter.
-prune : If this test is reached and the tested file is a
directory then -find will not dive into that directory. This
test itself does always match.
-decision "yes"|"no" : If this test is reached then the
evaluation ends immediately and action is performed if the
decision is "yes" or "true". See operator -if.
-true and -false : Always match resp. match not. Evaluation goes
on.
-sort_lba : Always match. This causes -find to perform its
action in a sequence sorted by the ISO image block addresses of
the files. It may improve throughput with actions which read
data from optical drives. Action will always get the absolute
path as parameter.
Available operators are:
-not : Matches if the next test or sub expression does not
match. Several tests do this specifically:
-undamaged, -lba_range with negative start_lba, -has_no_acl,
-has_no_xattr, -has_no_aaip, -has_no_filter .
-and : Matches if both neighboring tests or expressions match.
-or : Matches if at least one of both neighboring tests or
expressions matches.
-sub ... -subend or ( ... ) : Enclose a sub expression which
gets evaluated first before it is processed by neighboring
operators. Normal precedence is: -not, -or , -and.
-if ... -then ... -elseif ... -then ... -else ... -endif :
Enclose one or more sub expressions. If the -if expression
matches, then the -then expression is evaluated as the result of
the whole expression up to -endif. Else the next -elseif
expression is evaluated and eventually its -then expression.
Finally in case of no match, the -else expression is evaluated.
There may be more than one -elseif. Neither -else nor -elseif
are mandatory. If -else is missing and would be hit, then the
result is a non-match.
-if-expressions are the main use case for above test -decision.
Default action is echo, i.e. to print the address of the found
file. Other actions are certain xorriso commands which get
performed on the found files. These commands may have specific
parameters. See also their particular descriptions.
chown and chown_r change the ownership and get the user id as
parameter. E.g.: -exec chown thomas --
chgrp and chgrp_r change the group attribute and get the group
id as parameter. E.g.: -exec chgrp_r staff --
chmod and chmod_r change access permissions and get a mode
string as parameter. E.g.: -exec chmod a-w,a+r --
alter_date and alter_date_r change the timestamps. They get a
type character and a timestring as parameters.
E.g.: -exec alter_date "m" "Dec 30 19:34:12 2007" --
lsdl prints file information like shell command ls -dl.
compare performs command -compare with the found file address as
iso_rr_path and the corresponding file address below its
argument disk_path_start. For this the iso_rr_path of the -find
command gets replaced by the disk_path_start.
E.g.: -find /thomas -exec compare /home/thomas --
update performs command -update with the found file address as
iso_rr_path. The corresponding file address is determined like
with above action "compare".
rm removes the found iso_rr_path from the image if it is not a
directory with files in it. I.e. this "rm" includes "rmdir".
rm_r removes the found iso_rr_path from the image, including
whole directory trees.
report_damage classifies files whether they hit a data block
that is marked as damaged. The result is printed together with
the eventual address of the first damaged byte, the maximum span
of damages, file size, and the path of the file.
report_lba prints files which are associated to image data
blocks. It tells the logical block address, the block number,
the byte size, and the path of each file. There may be reported
more than one line per file if the file is very large. In this
case each line has a different extent number in column "xt".
getfacl prints access permissions in ACL text form to the result
channel.
setfacl attaches ACLs after removing eventually exiting ones.
The new ACL is given in text form as defined with option
-setfacl.
E.g.: -exec setfacl u:lisa:rw,u::rw,g::r,o::-,m::rw --
getfattr prints eventual xattr name-value pairs from user
namespace to the result channel.
get_any_xattr prints eventual xattr name-value pairs from any
namespace except ACL to the result channel. This is mostly for
debugging of namespace "isofs".
get_md5 prints eventual recorded MD5 sum together with file
path.
check_md5 compares eventual recorded MD5 sum with the file
content and reports if mismatch.
E.g.: -find / -not -pending_data -exec check_md5 FAILURE --
make_md5 equips a data file with an MD5 sum of its content.
Useful to upgrade the files in the loaded image to full MD5
coverage by the next commit with -md5 "on".
E.g.: -find / -type f -not -has_md5 -exec make_md5 --
setfattr sets or deletes xattr name value pairs.
E.g.: -find / -has_xattr -exec setfattr --remove-all '' --
set_filter applies or removes filters.
E.g.: -exec set_filter --zisofs --
mkisofs_r applies the rules of mkisofs -r to the file object:
user id and group id become 0, all r-permissions get granted,
all w denied. If there is any x-permission, then all three x
get granted. s- and t-bits get removed.
sort_weight attributes a LBA weight number to regular files.
The number may range from -2147483648 to 2147483647. The higher
it is, the lower will be the block address of the file data in
the emerging ISO image. Currently the boot catalog has a
hardcoded weight of 1 billion. Normally it should occupy the
block with the lowest possible address. Data files get added or
loaded with initial weight 0.
E.g.: -exec sort_weight 3 --
show_stream shows the content stream chain of a data file.
find performs another run of -find on the matching file address.
It accepts the same params as -find, except iso_rr_path.
E.g.:
-find / -name '???' -type d -exec find -name '[abc]*' -exec
chmod a-w,a+r --
Filters for data file content:
Filters may be installed between data files in the ISO image and their
content source outside the image. They may also be used vice versa
between data content in the image and target files on disk.
Built-in filters are "--zisofs" and "--zisofs-decode". The former is to
be applied via -set_filter, the latter is automatically applied if
zisofs compressed content is detected with a file when loading the ISO
image.
Another built-in filter pair is "--gzip" and "--gunzip" with suffix
".gz". They behave about like external gzip and gunzip but avoid
forking a process for each single file. So they are much faster if
there are many small files.
-external_filter name option[:option] program_path [arguments] --
Register a content filter by associating a name with a program
path, program arguments, and some behavioral options. Once
registered it can be applied to multiple data files in the ISO
image, regardless whether their content resides in the loaded
ISO image or in the local filesystem. External filter processes
may produce synthetic file content by reading the original
content from stdin and writing to stdout whatever they want.
They must deliver the same output on the same input in repeated
runs.
Options are:
"default" means that no other option is intended.
"suffix=..." sets a file name suffix. If it is not empty then
it will be appended to the file name or removed from it.
"remove_suffix" will remove an eventual file name suffix rather
than appending it.
"if_nonempty" will leave 0-sized files unfiltered.
"if_reduction" will try filtering and revoke it if the content
size does not shrink.
"if_block_reduction" will revoke if the number of 2 kB blocks
does not shrink.
"used=..." is ignored. Command -status shows it with the number
of files which currently have the filter applied.
Examples:
-external_filter bzip2 suffix=.bz2:if_block_reduction \
/usr/bin/bzip2 --
-external_filter bunzip2 suffix=.bz2:remove_suffix \
/usr/bin/bunzip2 --
-unregister_filter name
Remove an -external_filter registration. This is only possible
if the filter is not applied to any file in the ISO image.
-close_filter_list
Irrevocably ban commands -external_filter and
-unregister_filter, but not -set_filter. Use this to prevent
external filtering in general or when all intended filters are
registered. External filters may also be banned totally at
compile time of xorriso. By default they are banned if xorriso
runs under setuid permission.
-set_filter name iso_rr_path [***]
Apply an -external_filter or a built-in filter to the given data
files in the ISO image. If the filter suffix is not empty ,
then it will be applied to the file name. Renaming only happens
if the filter really gets attached and is not revoked by its
options. By default files which already bear the suffix will
not get filtered. The others will get the suffix appended to
their names. If the filter has option "remove_suffix", then the
filter will only be applied if the suffix is present and can be
removed. Name oversize or collision caused by suffix change
will prevent filtering.
With most filter types this command will immediately run the
filter once for each file in order to determine the output size.
Content reading operations like -extract , -compare and image
generation will perform further filter runs and deliver filtered
content.
At image generation time the filter output must still be the
same as the output from the first run. Filtering for image
generation does not happen with files from the loaded ISO image
if the write method of growing is in effect (i.e -indev and
-outdev are identical).
The reserved filter name "--remove-all-filters" revokes
filtering. This will revoke eventual suffix renamings as well.
Use "--remove-all-filters+" to prevent any suffix renaming.
-set_filter_r name iso_rr_path [***]
Like -set_filter but affecting all data files below eventual
directories.
Writing the result, drive control:
(see also paragraph about settings below)
-rollback
Discard the manipulated ISO image and reload it from -indev.
(Use -rollback_end if immediate program end is desired.)
-commit
Perform the write operation. Afterwards eventually make the
-outdev the new -dev and load the image from there. Switch to
growing mode. (A subsequent -outdev will activate modification
mode or blind growing.) -commit is performed automatically at
end of program if there are uncommitted manipulations pending.
So, to perform a final write operation with no new -dev and no
new loading of image, rather execute option -end. If you want
to go on without image loading, execute -commit_eject "none".
To eject after write without image loading, use -commit_eject
"all".
To suppress a final write, execute -rollback_end.
Writing can last quite a while. It is not unnormal with several
types of media that there is no progress visible for the first
few minutes or that the drive gnaws on the media for a few
minutes after all data have been transmitted. xorriso and the
drives are in a client-server relationship. The drives have
much freedom about what to do with the media. Some combinations
of drives and media simply do not work, despite the promises by
their vendors. If writing fails then try other media or another
drive. The reason for such failure is hardly ever in the code of
the various burn programs but you may well try some of those
listed below under SEE ALSO.
-eject "in"|"out"|"all"
Eject the media in -indev, resp. -outdev, resp. both drives.
Note: It is not possible yet to effectively eject disk files.
-commit_eject "in"|"out"|"all"|"none"
Combined -commit and -eject. When writing has finished do not
make -outdev the new -dev, and load no ISO image. Rather eject
-indev and/or -outdev. Eventually give up any non-ejected drive.
-blank mode
Make media ready for writing from scratch (if not -dummy is
activated).
This affects only the -outdev not the -indev. If both drives
are the same and if the ISO image was altered then this command
leads to a FAILURE event. Defined modes are:
as_needed, fast, all, deformat, deformat_quickest
"as_needed" cares for used CD-RW, DVD-RW and for used
overwriteable media by applying -blank "fast". It applies
-format "full" to yet unformatted DVD-RAM and BD-RE. Other
media in blank state are gracefully ignored. Media which cannot
be made ready for writing from scratch cause a FAILURE event.
"fast" makes CD-RW and unformatted DVD-RW re-usable, or
invalidates overwriteable ISO images. "all" might work more
thoroughly and need more time.
"deformat" converts overwriteable DVD-RW into unformatted ones.
"deformat_quickest" is a faster way to deformat or blank DVD-RW
but produces media which are only suitable for a single session.
xorriso will write onto them only if option -close is set to
"on".
The progress reports issued by some drives while blanking are
quite unrealistic. Do not conclude success or failure from the
reported percentages. Blanking was successful if no SORRY event
or worse occured.
-format mode
Convert unformatted DVD-RW into overwriteable ones, "de-ice"
DVD+RW, format newly purchased BD-RE or BD-R, re-format DVD-RAM
or BD-RE.
Defined modes are:
as_needed, full, fast, by_index_<num>, fast_by_index_<num>
"as_needed" formats yet unformatted DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, BD-RE, or
blank unformatted BD-R. Other media are left untouched.
"full" (re-)formats DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, BD-RE, or blank
unformatted BD-R.
"fast" does the same as "full" but tries to be quicker.
"by_index_" selects a format out of the descriptor list issued
by option -list_formats. The index number from that list is to
be appended to the mode word. E.g: "by_index_3".
"fast_by_index_" does the same as "by_index_" but tries to be
quicker.
"by_size_" selects a format out of the descriptor list which
provides at least the given size. That size is to be appended to
the mode word. E.g: "by_size_4100m". This applies to media with
Defect Management.
"fast_by_size_" does the same as "by_size_" but tries to be
quicker.
The formatting action has no effect on media if -dummy is
activated.
Formatting is normally needed only once during the lifetime of a
media, if ever. But it is a reason for re-formatting if:
DVD-RW was deformatted by -blank,
DVD+RW has read failures (re-format before next write),
DVD-RAM or BD-RE shall change their amount of defect reserve.
BD-R may be written unformatted or may be formatted before first
use. Formatting activates Defect Management which tries to
catch and repair bad spots on media during the write process at
the expense of half speed even with flawless media.
The progress reports issued by some drives while formatting are
quite unrealistic. Do not conclude success or failure from the
reported percentages. Formatting was successful if no SORRY
event or worse occured. Be patient with apparently frozen
progress.
-list_formats
Put out a list of format descriptors as reported by the output
drive for the current media. The list gives the index number
after "Format idx", a MMC format code, the announced size in
blocks (like "2236704s") and the same size in MiB.
MMC format codes are manifold. Most important are: "00h" general
formatting, "01h" increases reserve space for DVD-RAM, "26h" for
DVD+RW, "30h" for BD-RE with reserve space, "31h" for BD-RE
without reserve space, "32h" for BD-R.
Smaller format size with DVD-RAM, BD-RE, or BD-R means more
reserve space.
-list_profiles "in"|"out"|"all"
Put out a list of media types supported by -indev, resp.
-outdev, resp. both. The currently recognized type is marked by
text "(current)".
Settings for result writing:
Rock Ridge info will be generated by the program unconditionally. ACLs
will be written according to the setting of option -acl.
-joliet "on"|"off"
If enabled by "on", generate Joliet tree additional to ISO 9660
+ Rock Ridge tree.
-compliance rule[:rule...]
Adjust the compliance to specifications of ISO 9660 and its
contemporary extensions. In some cases it is worth to deviate a
bit in order to circumvent bugs of the intended reader system or
to get unofficial extra features.
There are several adjustable rules which have a keyword each. If
they are mentioned with this option then their rule gets added
to the relaxation list. This list can be erased by rules
"strict" or "clear". It can be reset to its start setting by
"default". All of the following relaxation rules can be revoked
individually by appending "_off". Like "deep_paths_off".
Rule keywords are:
"omit_version" do not add versions (";1") to ISO and Joliet file
names.
"only_iso_version" do not add versions (";1") to Joliet file
names.
"deep_paths" allow ISO file paths deeper than 8 levels.
"long_paths" allow ISO file paths longer than 255 characters.
"long_names" allow up to 37 characters with ISO file names.
"no_force_dots" do not add a dot to ISO file names which have
none.
"no_j_force_dots" do not add a dot to Joliet file names which
have none.
"lowercase" allow lowercase characters in ISO file names.
"full_ascii" allow all ASCII characters in ISO file names.
"joliet_long_paths" allow Joliet paths longer than 240
characters.
"always_gmt" store timestamps in GMT representation with
timezone 0.
"rec_mtime" record with ISO files the disk file's mtime and not
the creation time of the image.
"new_rr" use Rock Ridge version 1.12 (suitable for GNU/Linux but
not for older FreeBSD or for Solaris). This implies
"aaip_susp_1_10_off" which may be changed by subsequent
"aaip_susp_1_10".
Default is "old_rr" which uses Rock Ridge version 1.10. This
implies also "aaip_susp_1_10" which may be changed by subsequent
"aaip_susp_1_10_off".
"aaip_susp_1_10" allows AAIP to be written as unofficial
extension of RRIP rather than as official extension under
SUSP-1.12.
Default setting is
"clear:only_iso_version:deep_paths:long_paths:no_j_force_dots:
always_gmt:old_rr".
Note: The term "ISO file" means the plain ISO 9660 names and
attributes which get visible if the reader ignores Rock Ridge.
-volid text
Specify the volume ID. xorriso accepts any text up to 32
characters, but according to rarely obeyed specs stricter rules
apply:
ECMA 119 demands ASCII characters out of [A-Z0-9_]. Like:
"IMAGE_23"
Joliet allows 16 UCS-2 characters. Like: "Windows name"
Be aware that the volume id might get used automatically as name
of the mount point when the media is inserted into a playful
computer system.
If an ISO image gets loaded while the volume ID is set to
default "ISOIMAGE" or to "", then the volume ID of the loaded
image will become the effective volume id for the next write
run. But as soon as command -volid is performed afterwards, this
pending id is overridden by the new setting.
Consider this when setting -volid "ISOIMAGE" before executing
-dev, -indev, or -rollback. If you insist in -volid "ISOIMAGE",
set it again after those commands.
-volset_id text
Set the volume set id string to be written with the next
-commit. Permissible are up to 128 characters. This setting
gets overridden by image loading.
-publisher text
Set the publisher id string to be written with the next -commit.
This may identify the person or organisation who specified what
shall be recorded. Permissible are up to 128 characters. This
setting gets overridden by image loading.
-application_id text
Set the application id string to be written with the next
-commit. This may identify the specification of how the data are
recorded. Permissible are up to 128 characters. This setting
gets overridden by image loading.
-system_id text
Set the system id string to be written with the next -commit.
This may identify the system which can recognize and act upon
the content of the System Area in image blocks 0 to 15.
Permissible are up to 32 characters. This setting gets
overridden by image loading.
-volume_date type timestring
Set one of the four overall timestamps for subsequent image
writing. Available types are:
"c" time when the volume was created.
"m" time when volume was last modified.
"x" time when the information in the volume expires.
"f" time since when the volume is effectively valid.
"uuid" sets a timestring that overrides "c" and "m" times
literally. It must consist of 16 decimal digits which form
YYYYMMDDhhmmsscc, with YYYY between 1970 and 2999. Time zone is
GMT. It is supposed to match this GRUB line:
search --fs-uuid --set YYYY-MM-DD-hh-mm-ss-cc
E.g. 2010040711405800 is 7 Apr 2010 11:40:58 (+0 centiseconds).
Timestrings for the other types may be given as with option
-alter_date. They are prone to timezone computations. The
timestrings "default" or "overridden" cause default settings:
"c" and "m" will show the current time of image creation. "x"
and "f" will be marked as insignificant. "uuid" will be
deactivated.
-out_charset character_set_name
Set the character set to which file names get converted when
writing an image. See paragraph "Character sets" for more
explanations. When loading the written image after -commit the
setting of -out_charset will be copied to -in_charset.
-uid uid
User id to be used for all files when the new ISO tree gets
written to media.
-gid gid
Group id to be used for all files when the new ISO tree gets
written to media.
-zisofs option[:options]
Set global parameters for zisofs compression. This data format
is recognized and transparently uncompressed by some Linux
kernels. It is to be applied via option -set_filter with built-
in filter "--zisofs". Parameters are:
"level="[0-9] zlib compression: 0=none, 1=fast,..., 9=slow
"block_size="32k|64k|128k size of compression blocks
"by_magic=on" enables an expensive test at image generation
time which checks files from disk whether they already are
zisofs compressed, e.g. by program mkzftree.
"default" same as "level=6:block_size=32k:by_magic=off"
-speed number[k|m|c|d|b]
Set the burn speed. Default is 0 = maximum speed. Speed can be
given in media dependent numbers or as a desired throughput per
second in MMC compliant kB (= 1000) or MB (= 1000 kB). Media x-
speed factor can be set explicity by "c" for CD, "d" for DVD,
"b" for BD, "x" is optional.
Example speeds:
706k = 706kB/s = 4c = 4xCD
5540k = 5540kB/s = 4d = 4xDVD
If there is no hint about the speed unit attached, then the
media in the -outdev will decide. Default unit is CD = 176.4k.
MMC drives usually activate their own idea of speed and take the
speed value given by the burn program only as upper limit for
their own decision.
-stream_recording "on"|"off"|"full"|"data"|number
Setting "on" tries to circumvent the management of defects on
DVD-RAM, BD-RE, or BD-R. Defect management keeps partly damaged
media usable. But it reduces write speed to half nominal speed
even if the media is in perfect shape. For the case of flawless
media, one may use -stream_recording "on" to get full speed.
"full" tries full speed with all write operations, whereas "on"
does this only above byte address 32s. One may give a number of
at least 16s in order to set an own address limit.
"data" causes full speed to start when superblock and directory
entries are written and writing of file content blocks begins.
-dvd_obs "default"|"32k"|"64k"
GNU/Linux specific: Set the number of bytes to be transmitted
with each write operation to DVD or BD media. A number of 64 KB
may improve throughput with bus systems which show latency
problems. The default depends on media type, on option
-stream_recording , and on compile time options.
-stdio_sync "on"|"off"|number
Set the number of bytes after which to force output to stdio:
pseudo drives. This forcing keeps the memory from being clogged
with lots of pending data for slow devices. Default "on" is the
same as "16m". Forced output can be disabled by "off".
-dummy "on"|"off"
If "on" then simulate burning or refuse with FAILURE event if no
simulation is possible, do neither blank nor format.
-fs number["k"|"m"]
Set the size of the fifo buffer which smoothens the data stream
from ISO image generation to media burning. Default is 4 MiB,
minimum 64 kiB, maximum 1 GiB. The number may be followed by
letter "k" or "m" which means unit is kiB (= 1024) or MiB (=
1024 kiB).
-close "on"|"off"
If "on" then mark the written media as not appendable any more
(if possible at all with the given type of target media).
This is the contrary of cdrecord, wodim, cdrskin option -multi,
and is one aspect of growisofs option -dvd-compat.
-padding number["k"|"m"]
Append the given number of extra bytes to the image stream.
This is a traditional remedy for a traditional bug in block
device read drivers. Needed only for CD recordings in TAO mode.
Since one can hardly predict on what media an image might end
up, xorriso adds the traditional 300k of padding by default to
all images.
For images which will never get to a CD it is safe to use
-padding 0 .
El Torito bootable ISO images:
Contrary to published specifications many BIOSes will load an El Torito
record from the first session on media and not from the last one, which
gets mounted by default. This makes no problems with overwriteable
media, because they appear to inadverted readers as one single session.
But with multi-session media CD-R[W], DVD-R[W], DVD+R, it implies that
the whole bootable system has to reside already in the first session
and that the last session still has to bear all files which the booted
system expects after eventually mounting the ISO image.
If a boot image from ISOLINUX or GRUB is known to be present on media
then it is advised to patch it when a follow-up session gets written.
But one should not rely on the capability to influence the bootability
of the existing sessions, unless one can assume overwriteable media.
-boot_image "any"|"isolinux"|"grub"
"discard"|"keep"|"patch"|"show_status"|bootspec|"next"
Define the handling of an eventual set of El Torito boot images
which has been read from an existing ISO image or define how to
make a prepared boot image file set bootable. Such file sets get
produced by ISOLINUX or GRUB.
Each -boot_image command has two arguments: type and setting.
More than one -boot_image command may be used to define the
handling of one or more boot images. Sequence matters.
Types isolinux and grub care for known peculiarities. Type any
makes no assumptions about the origin of the boot images.
El Torito boot images of any type can be newly inserted, or
discarded, or patched, or kept unaltered. Whether to patch or
to keep depends on whether the boot images contain boot info
tables.
A boot info table needs to be patched when the boot image gets
newly introduced into the ISO image or if an existing image gets
relocated. This is automatically done if type "isolinux" or
"grub" is given, but not with "any".
If patching is enabled, then boot images from previous sessions
will be checked whether they seem to bear a boot info table. If
not, then they stay unpatched. This check is not infallible. So
if you do know that the images need no patching, use "any"
"keep". "grub" "patch" will not patch EFI images
(platform_id=0xef).
Most safe is the default: -boot_image "any" "discard".
Advised for GRUB : -boot_image "grub" "patch"
For ISOLINUX : -boot_image "isolinux" "patch"
show_status will print what is known about the loaded boot
images and their designated fate.
A bootspec is a word of the form name=value and is used to
describe the parameters of a boot image by an El Torito record
and eventually a MBR. The names "dir", "bin_path", "efi_path"
lead to El Torito bootable images. Name "system_area" activates
a given file as MBR.
On all media types this is possible within the first session. In
further sessions an existing boot image can get replaced by a
new one, but depending on the media type this may have few
effect at boot time. See above.
The boot image and its supporting files have to be added to the
ISO image by normal means (image loading, -map, -add, ...). In
case of ISOLINUX the files should reside either in ISO image
directory /isolinux or in /boot/isolinux . In that case it
suffices to use as bootspec the text "dir=/isolinux" or
"dir=/boot/isolinux". E.g.:
-boot_image isolinux dir=/boot/isolinux
which bundles these individual settings:
-boot_image isolinux bin_path=/boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin
-boot_image isolinux cat_path=/boot/isolinux/boot.cat
-boot_image isolinux load_size=2048
-boot_image any boot_info_table=on
bin_path= depicts the boot image file, a binary program which is
to be started by the hardware boot facility (e.g. the BIOS) at
boot time.
efi_path= depicts a boot image file that is ready for EFI
booting. Its load_size is determined automatically, no boot
info table gets written, platform_id is 0xef.
An El Torito boot catalog file gets inserted into the ISO image
with address cat_path= at -commit time. It is subject to normal
-overwrite and -reassure processing if there is already a file
with the same name. The catalog lists the boot images and is
read by the boot facility to choose one of the boot images.
load_size= is a value which depends on the boot image. Default
2048 should be overridden only if a better value is known.
boot_info_table=on may be used to apply patching to a boot image
which is given by "any" "bin_path=". "boot_info_table=off"
disables patching.
platform_id= defines by two hex digits the Platform ID of the
boot image. "00" is 80x86 PC-BIOS, "01" is PowerPC, "02" is Mac,
"ef" is EFI.
id_string=text|56_hexdigits defines the ID string of the boot
catalog section where the boot image will be listed. If the
value consists of 56 characters [0-9A-Fa-f] then it is converted
into 28 bytes, else the first 28 characters become the ID
string. The ID string of the first boot image becomes the
overall catalog ID. It is limited to 24 characters. Other
id_strings become section IDs.
sel_crit=hexdigits defines the Selection Criteria of the boot
image. Up to 20 bytes get read from the given characters [0-9A-
Fa-f]. They get attributed to the boot image entry in the
catalog.
next ends the definition of a boot image and starts a new one.
Any following -bootimage bootspecs will affect the new image.
The first "next" discards eventually loaded boot images and
their catalog.
discard gives up an existing boot catalog and its boot images.
keep keeps or copies boot images unaltered and writes a new
catalog.
patch applies patching to existing boot images if they seem to
bear a boot info table.
system_area=disk_path copies at most 32768 bytes from the given
disk file to the very start of the ISO image. This System Area
is reserved for system dependent boot software, e.g. an MBR
which can be used to boot from USB stick or hard disk.
Other than a El Torito boot image, the file disk_path needs not
to be added to the ISO image.
-boot_image isolinux system_area= implies "partition_table=on".
partition_table=on causes a simple partition table to be written
into bytes 446 to 511 of the System Area.
With type "isolinux" it shows a partition that begins at byte 0
and it causes the LBA of the first boot image to be written into
the MBR. For the first session this works only if also
"system_area=" and "bin_path=" or "dir=" is given.
With types "any" and "grub" it shows a single partiton which
starts at byte 512 and ends where the ISO image ends. This
works with or without system_area= or boot image.
In follow-up sessions the existing System Area is preserved by
default. If types "isolinux" or "grub" are set to "patch", then
"partition_table=on" is activated without new boot image. In
this case the existing System Area gets checked whether it bears
addresses and sizes as if it had been processed by
"partition_table=on". If so, then those parameters get updated
when the new System Area is written.
Special "system_area=/dev/zero" causes 32k of NUL-bytes. Use
this to discard an MBR which eventually was loaded with the ISO
image.
Character sets:
File names are strings of non-zero bytes with 8 bit each. Unfortunately
the same byte string may appear as different peculiar national
characters on differently nationalized terminals. The meanings of byte
codes are defined in character sets which have names. Shell command
iconv -l lists them.
Character sets should not matter as long as only english alphanumeric
characters are used for file names or as long as all writers and
readers of the media use the same character set. Outside these
constraints it may be necessary to let xorriso convert byte codes.
There is an input conversion from input character set to the local
character set which applies when an ISO image gets loaded. A conversion
from local character set to the output character set is performed when
an image tree gets written. The sets can be defined independently by
options -in_charset and -out_charset. Normally one will have both
identical, if ever.
If conversions are desired then xorriso needs to know the name of the
local character set. xorriso can inquire the same info as shell command
"locale" with argument "charmap". This may be influenced by environment
variables LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG and should match the expectations
of the terminal.
The default output charset is the local character set of the terminal
where xorriso runs. So by default no conversion happens between local
filesystem names and emerging names in the image. The situation stays
ambigous and the reader has to riddle what character set was used.
By option -auto_charset it is possible to attribute the output charset
name to the image. This makes the situation unambigous. But if your
terminal character set does not match the character set of the local
file names, then this attribute can become plainly wrong and cause
problems at read time. To prevent this it is necessary to check
whether the terminal properly displays all intended filenames. Check
especially the exotic national characters.
To enforce recording of a particular character set name without any
conversion at image generation time, set -charset and -local_charset to
the desired name, and enable -backslash_codes to avoid evil character
display on your terminal.
-charset character_set_name
Set the character set from which to convert file names when
loading an image and to which to convert when writing an image.
-local_charset character_set_name
Override the system assumption of the local character set name.
If this appears necessary, one should consider to set
-backslash_codes to "on" in order to avoid dangerous binary
codes being sent to the terminal.
Exception processing:
Since the tasks of xorriso are manifold and prone to external
influence, there may arise the need for xorriso to report and handle
problem events.
Those events get classified when they are detected by one of the
software modules and forwarded to reporting and evaluation modules
which decide about reactions. Event classes are sorted by severity:
"NEVER" The upper end of the severity spectrum.
"ABORT" The program is being aborted and on its way to end.
"FATAL" The main purpose of the run failed or an important resource
failed unexpectedly.
"FAILURE" An important part of the job could not be performed.
"MISHAP" A FAILURE which can be tolerated during ISO image generation.
"SORRY" A less important part of the job could not be performed.
"WARNING" A situation is suspicious of being not intended by the user.
"HINT" A proposal to the user how to achieve better results.
"NOTE" A harmless information about noteworthy circumstances.
"UPDATE" A pacifier message during long running operations.
"DEBUG" A message which would only interest the program developers.
"ALL" The lower end of the severity spectrum.
-abort_on severity
Set the severity threshold for events to abort the program.
Useful: "NEVER", "ABORT", "FATAL", "FAILURE" , "MISHAP", "SORRY"
It may become necessary to abort the program anyway, despite the
setting by this option. Expect not many "ABORT" events to be
ignorable.
A special property of this option is that it works preemptive if
given as program start argument. I.e. the first -abort_on
setting among the start arguments is in effect already when the
first operations of xorriso begin. Only "-abort_on" with dash
"-" is recognized that way.
-return_with severity exit_value
Set the threshold and exit_value to be returned at program end
if no abort has happened. This is to allow xorriso to go on
after problems but to get a failure indicating exit value from
the program, nevertheless. Useful is a value lower than the
-abort_on threshold, down to "WARNING".
exit_value may be either 0 (indicating success to the starter of
the program) or a number between 32 and 63. Some other
exit_values are used by xorriso if it decides to abort the
program run:
1=abort due to external signal
2=no program arguments given
3=creation of xorriso main object failed
4=failure to start libburnia-project.org libraries
5=program abort during argument processing
6=program abort during dialog processing
-report_about severity
Set the threshold for events to be reported.
Useful: "SORRY", "WARNING", "HINT", "NOTE", "UPDATE", "DEBUG",
"ALL"
Regardless what is set by -report_about, messages get always
reported if they reach the severity threshold of -abort_on .
Event messages are sent to the info channel "I" which is usually
stderr but may be influenced by command -pkt_output. Info
messages which belong to no event get attributed severity
"NOTE".
A special property of this option is that the first
-report_about setting among the start arguments is in effect
already when the first operations of xorriso begin. Only
"-report_about" with dash "-" is recognized that way.
-error_behavior occasion behavior
Control the program behavior at problem event occasions. For
now this applies to occasions "image_loading" which is given
while an image tree is read from the input device, and to
"file_extraction" which is given with osirrox options like
-extract.
With "image_loading" there are three behaviors available:
"best_effort" goes on with reading after events with severity
below FAILURE if the threshold of option -abort_on allows this.
"failure" aborts image tree reading on first event of at least
SORRY. It issues an own FAILURE event.
"fatal" acts like "failure" but issues the own event as FATAL.
This is the default.
With occasion "file_extraction" there are three behaviors:
"keep" maintains incompletely extracted files on disk. This is
the default.
"delete" removes files which encountered errors during content
extraction.
"best_effort" starts a revovery attempt by means of -extract_cut
if the file content stems from the loaded ISO image and is not
filtered.
Dialog mode control:
-dialog "on"|"off"|"single_line"
Enable or disable to enter dialog mode after all arguments are
processed. In dialog mode input lines get prompted via readline
or from stdin.
Mode "on" supports input of newline characters within quotation
marks and line continuation by trailing backslash outside
quotation marks. Mode "single_line" does not.
-page length width
Describe terminal to the text pager. See also above, paragraph
Result pager.
If parameter length is nonzero then the user gets prompted after
that number of terminal lines. Zero length disables paging.
Parameter width is the number of characters per terminal line.
It is used to compute the number of terminal lines which get
occupied by an output line. A usual terminal width is 80.
-use_readline "on"|"off"
If "on" then use readline for dialog. Else use plain stdin.
See also above, paragraph Dialog, Readline, Result pager.
-reassure "on"|"tree"|"off"
If "on" then ask the user for "y" or "n":
before deleting or overwriting any file in the ISO image,
before overwriting any disk file during restore operations,
before rolling back pending image changes,
before committing image changes to media,
before changing the input drive,
before blanking or formatting media,
before ending the program.
With setting "tree" the reassuring prompt will appear for an
eventual directory only once and not for each file in its whole
subtree.
Setting "off" silently kills any kind of image file object resp.
performs above irrevocable actions.
To really produce user prompts, option -dialog needs to be set
to "on". Note that the prompt does not appear in situations
where file removal is forbidden by option -overwrite. -reassure
only imposes an additional curb for removing existing file
objects.
Be aware that file objects get deleted from the ISO image
immediately after confirmation. They are gone even if the
running command gets aborted and its desired effect gets
revoked. In case of severe mess-up, consider to use -rollback to
revoke the whole session.
Drive and media related inquiry actions:
-devices
Show list of available MMC drives with the addresses of their
libburn standard device files.
This is only possible when no ISO image changes are pending.
After this option was executed, there is no drive current and no
image loaded. Eventually one has to aquire a drive again.
In order to be visible, a device has to offer rw-permissions
with its libburn standard device file. Thus it might be only the
superuser who is able to see all drives.
Drives which are occupied by other processes get not shown.
-toc
Show media specific table of content. This is the media session
history, not the ISO image directory tree.
In case of overwriteable media holding a valid ISO image, it may
happen that only a single session gets shown. But if the first
session on the overwriteable media was written by xorriso then a
complete session history can be emulated.
A drive which is incapable of writing may show any media as CD-
ROM or DVD-ROM with only one or two sessions on it. The last of
these sessions is supposed to be the most recent real session
then.
Some read-only drives and media show no usable session history
at all. Eventually option -rom_toc_scan might help.
-mount_cmd drive entity id path
Emit an appropriate command line for mounting the ISO session
indicated by drive, entity and id. The result will be different
on GNU/Linux and on FreeBSD.
drive can be "indev" or "outdev" to indicate already acquired
drives, or it can be the path of a not yet acquired drive.
Prefix "stdio:" for non-MMC drives is not mandatory.
entity must be either "sbsector" with the superblock sector
address as id, or "track" with a track number as id, or
"session" with a session number, or "volid" with a search
pattern for the volume id, or "auto" with any text as id.
path will be used as mount point and must already exist as a
directory on disk.
The command gets printed to the result channel. See option
-mount for direct execution of this command.
-mount_opts option[:option...]
Set options which influence -mount and -mount_cmd. Currently
there is only option "exclusive" which is default and its
counterpart "shared". The latter causes xorriso not to give up
the affected drive with command -mount. On GNU/Linux it adds
mount option "loop" which may allow to mount several sessions of
the same block device at the same time. One should not write to
a mounted optical media, of course. Take care to umount all
sessions before ejecting.
-session_string drive entity id format
Print to the result channel a text which gets composed according
to format and the parameters of the addressed session.
Formats "linux:"path or "freebsd:"path produce the output of
-mount_cmd for the given operating systems.
In other texts xorriso will substitute the following parameter
names. An optional prefix "string:" will be removed.
"%device%" will be substituted by the mountable device path of
the drive address.
"%sbsector%" will be substituted by the session start sector.
"%track%", "%session%", "%volid%" will be substituted by track
number, session number, resp. volume id of the depicted session.
-print_size
Print the foreseeable consumption of 2048 byte blocks by next
-commit. This can last a while as a -commit gets prepared and
only in last moment is revoked by this option.
-tell_media_space
Print available space on output media and the free space after
subtracting already foreseeable consumption by next -commit.
-pvd_info
Print various id strings which can be found in loaded ISO
images. Some of them may be changed by options -volid,
-publisher, -application_id. For these ids -pvd_info reports
what would be written with the next -commit.
Navigation in ISO image and disk filesystem:
-cd iso_rr_path
Change the current working directory in the ISO image. This is
prepended to iso_rr_paths which do not begin with '/'.
It is possible to set the working directory to a path which does
not exist yet in the ISO image. The necessary parent directories
will be created when the first file object is inserted into that
virtual directory. Use -mkdir if you want to enforce the
existence of the directory already at first insertion.
-cdx disk_path
Change the current working directory in the local filesystem.
To be prepended to disk_paths which do not begin with '/'.
-pwd
Tell the current working directory in the ISO image.
-pwdx
Tell the current working directory in the local filesystem.
-ls iso_rr_pattern [***]
List files in the ISO image which match shell patterns (i.e.
with wildcards '*' '?' '[a-z]'). If a pattern does not begin
with '/' then it is compared with addresses relative to -cd.
Directories are listed by their content rather than as single
file item.
Pattern expansion may be disabled by command -iso_rr_pattern.
-lsd iso_rr_pattern [***]
Like -ls but listing directories as themselves and not by their
content. This resembles shell command ls -d.
-lsl iso_rr_pattern [***]
Like -ls but also list some of the file attributes. The output
format resembles shell command ls -ln.
-lsdl iso_rr_pattern [***]
Like -lsd but also list some of the file attributes. The output
format resembles shell command ls -dln.
-lsx disk_pattern [***]
List files in the local filesystem which match shell patterns.
Patterns which do not begin with '/' are used relative to -cdx.
Directories are listed by their content rather than as single
file item.
Pattern expansion may be disabled by command -disk_pattern.
-lsdx disk_pattern [***]
Like -lsx but listing directories as themselves and not by their
content. This resembles shell command ls -d.
-lslx disk_pattern [***]
Like -lsx but also listing some of the file attributes. Output
format resembles shell command ls -ln.
-lsdlx disk_pattern [***]
Like -lsdx but also listing some of the file attributes. Output
format resembles shell command ls -dln.
-getfacl iso_rr_pattern [***]
Print the access permissions of the given files in the ISO image
using the format of shell command getfacl. If a file has no ACL
then it gets fabricated from the -chmod settings. A file may
have a real ACL if it was introduced into the ISO image while
option -acl was set to "on".
-getfacl_r iso_rr_pattern [***]
Like -gefacl but listing recursively the whole file trees
underneath eventual directories.
-getfattr iso_rr_pattern [***]
Print the xattr of the given files in the ISO image. If a file
has no such xattr then noting is printed for it.
-getfattr_r iso_rr_pattern [***]
Like -gefattr but listing recursively the whole file trees
underneath eventual directories.
-du iso_rr_pattern [***]
Recursively list size of directories and files in the ISO image
which match one of the patterns. similar to shell command du
-k.
-dus iso_rr_pattern [***]
List size of directories and files in the ISO image which match
one of the patterns. Similar to shell command du -sk.
-dux disk_pattern [***]
Recursively list size of directories and files in the local
filesystem which match one of the patterns. Similar to shell
command du -k.
-dusx disk_pattern [***]
List size of directories and files in the local filesystem which
match one of the patterns. Similar to shell command du -sk.
-findx disk_path [-name pattern] [-type t] [-exec action [params]] --
Like -find but operating on local filesystem and not on the ISO
image. This is subject to the settings of -follow.
-findx accepts the same -type arguments as -find. Additionally
it recognizes type "mountpoint" (or "m") which matches
subdirectories which reside on a different device than their
parent. It never matches the disk_path given as start address
for -findx.
-findx accepts the -exec actions as does -find. But except the
following few actions it will always perform action "echo".
in_iso reports the path if its counterpart exist in the ISO
image. For this the disk_path of the -findx command gets
replaced by the iso_rr_path given as parameter.
E.g.: -findx /home/thomas -exec in_iso /thomas_on_cd --
not_in_iso reports the path if its counterpart does not exist in
the ISO image. The report format is the same as with command
-compare.
add_missing iso_rr_path_start adds the counterpart if it does
not yet exist in the ISO image.
E.g.: -findx /home/thomas -exec add_missing /thomas_on_cd --
is_full_in_iso reports if the counterpart in the ISO image
contains files. To be used with -type "m" to report mount
points.
empty_iso_dir deletes all files from the counterpart in the ISO
image. To be used with -type "m" to truncate mount points.
-compare disk_path iso_rr_path
Compare attributes and eventual data file content of a
fileobject in the local filesystem with a file object in the ISO
image. The iso_rr_path may well point to an image file object
which is not yet committed, i.e. of which the data content still
resides in the local filesystem. Such data content is prone to
externally caused changes.
If iso_rr_path is empty then disk_path is used as path in the
ISO image too.
Differing attributes are reported in detail, differing content
is summarized. Both to the result channel. In case of no
differences no result lines are emitted.
-compare_r disk_path iso_rr_path
Like -compare but working recursively. I.e. all file objects
below both addresses get compared whether they have counterparts
below the other address and whether both counterparts match.
-compare_l disk_prefix iso_rr_prefix disk_path [***]
Perform -compare_r with each of the disk_path arguments.
iso_rr_path will be composed from disk_path by replacing
disk_prefix by iso_rr_prefix.
-show_stream iso_rr_path [***]
Display the content stream chain of data files in the ISO image.
The chain consists of the iso_rr_name and one or more streams,
separated by " < " marks. A stream consists of one or more
texts eventually in ''-quotation marks, eventually separated by
":" characters. The first text describes the stream type, the
following ones describe its individual properties. Frequently
used types are:
disk:'disk_path' for local filesystem objects.
image:'iso_rr_path' for ISO image file objects.
cout:'disk_path offset count' for -cut_out files.
extf:'filter_name' for external filters.
Example:
'/abc/xyz.gz' < extf:'gzip' < disk:'/home/me/x'
-show_stream_r iso_rr_path [***]
Like -show_stream but working recursively.
Evaluation of readability and recovery:
It is not uncommon that optical media produce read errors. The reasons
may be various and get obscured by error correction which is performed
by the drives and based on extra data on the media. If a drive returns
data then one can quite trust that they are valid. But at some degree
of read problems the correction will fail and the drive is supposed to
indicate error.
xorriso can scan the media for readable data blocks, classify them
according to their read speed, save them to a file, and keep track of
successfuly saved blocks for further tries on the same media.
By option -md5 checksums may get recorded with data files and whole
sessions. These checksums are reachable only via indev and a loaded
image. They work independently of the media type and can detect
transmission errors.
-check_media [option [option ...]] --
Try to read data blocks from the indev drive, eventually copy
them to a disk file, and finally report about the encountered
quality. Several options may be used to modify the default
behavior.
The options given with this command override the default
settings which may have been changed by option
-check_media_defaults. See there for a description of options.
The result list tells intervals of 2 KiB blocks with start
address, number of blocks and quality. Qualities which begin
with "+" are supposed to be valid readable data. Qualities with
"-" are unreadable or corrupted data. "0" indicates qualities
which are not covered by the check run or are regularly allowed
to be unreadable (e.g. gaps between tracks).
Alternatively it is possible to report damaged files rather than
blocks.
If -md5 is "on" then the default mode what=tracks looks out for
libisofs checksum tags for the ISO session data and eventually
checks them against the checksums computed from the data stream.
-check_media_defaults [option [option ...]] --
Preset options for runs of -check_media, -extract_cut and
best_effort file extraction. Eventual options given with
-check_media will override the preset options. -extract_cut will
override some options automatically.
An option consists of a keyword, a "=" character, and a value.
Options may override each other. So their sequence matters.
The default setting at program start is:
use=indev what=tracks min_lba=-1 max_lba=-1 retry=default
time_limit=28800 item_limit=100000 data_to='' event=ALL
abort_file=/var/opt/xorriso/do_abort_check_media
sector_map='' map_with_volid=off patch_lba0=off report=blocks
bad_limit=valid slow_limit=1.0 chunk_size=0s
Option "reset=now" restores these startup defaults.
Non-default options are:
report="files" lists the files which use damaged blocks (not
with use=outdev). The format is like with find -exec
report_damage.
report="blocks_files" first lists damaged blocks and then
affected files.
use="outdev" reads from the output drive instead of the input
drive. This avoids loading the ISO image tree from media.
use="sector_map" does not read any media but loads the file
given by option sector_map= and processes this virtual outcome.
what="disc" scans the payload range of a media without
respecting track gaps.
min_lba=limit omits all blocks with addresses lower than limit.
max_lba=limit switches to what=disc and omits all blocks above
limit.
retry="on" forces read retries with single blocks when the
normal read chunk produces a read error. By default, retries are
only enabled with CD media. "retry=off" forbits retries for all
media types.
abort_file=disk_path gives the path of the file which may abort
a scan run. Abort happens if the file exists and its mtime is
not older than the start time of the run. Use shell command
"touch" to trigger this. Other than an aborted program run,
this will report the tested and untested blocks and go on with
running xorriso.
time_limit=seconds gives the number of seconds after which the
scan shall be aborted. This is useful for unattended scanning of
media which may else overwork the drive in its effort to squeeze
out some readable blocks. Abort may be delayed by the drive
gnawing on the last single read operation. Value -1 means
unlimited time.
item_limit=number gives the number of report list items after
which to abort. Value -1 means unlimited item number.
data_to=disk_path copies the valid blocks to the given file.
event=severity sets the given severity for a problem event which
shall be issued at the end of a check run if data blocks were
unreadable or failed to match recorded MD5 checksums. Severity
"ALL" disables this event.
sector_map=disk_path tries to read the file given by disk_path
as sector bitmap and to store such a map file after the scan
run. The bitmap tells which blocks have been read successfully
in previous runs. It allows to do several scans on the same
media, eventually with intermediate eject, in order to collect
readable blocks whenever the drive is lucky enough to produce
them. The stored file contains a human readable TOC of tracks
and their start block addresses, followed by binary bitmap data.
map_with_volid="on" examines tracks whether they are ISO images
and eventually prints their volume ids into the human readable
TOC of sector_map=.
patch_lba0="on" transfers within the data_to= file a copy of the
currently loaded session head to the start of that file and
patches it to be valid at that position. This makes the loaded
session the default session of the image file when it gets
mounted or loaded as stdio: drive. But it usually makes the
original session 1 inaccessible.
patch_lba0="force" performs patch_lba0="on" even if xorriso
believes that the copied data are not valid.
patch_lba0= may also bear a number. If it is 32 or higher it is
taken as start address of the session to be copied. In this case
it is not necessary to have an -indev and a loaded image.
":force" may be appended after the number.
bad_limit=threshold sets the highest quality which shall be
considered as damage. Choose one of "good", "md5_match",
"slow", "partial", "valid", "untested", "invalid", "tao_end",
"off_track", "md5_mismatch", "unreadable".
slow_limit=threshold sets the time threshold for a single read
chunk to be considered slow. This may be a fractional number
like 0.1 or 1.5.
chunk_size=size sets the number of bytes to be read in one read
operation. This gets rounded down to full blocks of 2048 bytes.
0 means automatic size.
-check_md5 severity iso_rr_path [***]
Compare the data content of the given files in the loaded image
with their recorded MD5 checksums, if there are any. In case of
any mismatch an event of the given severity is issued. It may
then be handled by appropriate settings of options -abort_on or
-return_with which both can cause non-zero exit values of the
program run. Severity ALL suppresses that event.
This option reports match and mismatch of data files to the
result channel. Non-data files cause NOTE events. There will
also be UPDATE events from data reading.
If no iso_rr_path is given then the whole loaded session is
compared with its MD5 sum. Be aware that this covers only one
session and not the whole image if there are older sessions.
-check_md5_r severity iso_rr_path [***]
Like -check_md5 but checking all data files underneath the given
paths. Only mismatching data files will be reported.
osirrox ISO-to-disk restore options:
Normally xorriso only writes to disk files which were given as stdio:
pseudo-drives or as log files. But its alter ego osirrox is able to
extract file objects from ISO images and to create, overwrite, or
delete file objects on disk.
Disk file exclusions by -not_mgt, -not_leaf, -not_paths apply. If disk
file objects already exist then the settings of -overwrite and
-reassure apply. But -overwrite "on" only triggers the behavior of
-overwrite "nondir". I.e. directories cannot be deleted.
Access permissions of files in the ISO image do not restrict restoring.
The directory permissions on disk have to allow rwx.
-osirrox "on"|"device_files"|"off"|"banned"|[:option:...]
Setting "off" disables disk filesystem manipulations. This is
the default unless the program was started with leafname
"osirrox". Elsewise the capability to restore files can be
enabled explicitly by -osirrox "on". It can be irrevocably
disabled by -osirrox "banned".
To enable restoring of special files by "device_files" is
potentially dangerous. The meaning of the number st_rdev (see
man 2 stat) depends much on the operating system. Best is to
restore device files only to the same system from where they
were copied. If not enabled, device files in the ISO image are
ignored during restore operations.
Due to a bug of previous versions, device files from previous
sessions might have been altered to major=0, minor=1. So this
combination does not get restored.
Option "concat_split_on" is default. It enables restoring of
split file directories as data files if the directory contains a
complete collection of -cut_out part files. With option
"concat_split_off" such directories are handled like any other
ISO image directory.
Option "auto_chmod_off" is default. If "auto_chmod_on" is set
then access restrictions for disk directories get circumvented
if those directories are owned by the effective user who runs
xorriso. This happens by temporarily granting rwx permission to
the owner.
Option "sort_lba_on" may improve read performance with optical
drives. It allows to restore large numbers of hard links without
exhausting -temp_mem_limit. It does not preserve directory mtime
and it needs -osirrox option auto_chmod_on in order to extract
directories which offer no write permission. Default is
"sort_lba_off".
Option "o_excl_on" is the default unless the program was started
with leafname "osirrox". On GNU/Linux it tries to avoid using
drives which are mounted or in use by other libburn programs.
Option "o_excl_off" allows on GNU/Linux to access such drives.
Drives which get acquired while "o_excl_off" will refuse to get
blanked, formatted, written, or ejected. But be aware that even
harmless inquiries can spoil ongoing burns of CD-R[W] and DVD-
R[W].
-extract iso_rr_path disk_path
Copy the file objects at and underneath iso_rr_path to their
corresponding addresses at and underneath disk_path. This is
the inverse of -map or -update_r.
If iso_rr_path is a directory and disk_path is an existing
directory then both trees will be merged. Directory attributes
get extracted only if the disk directory is newly created by the
copy operation. Disk files get removed only if they are to be
replaced by file objects from the ISO image.
As many attributes as possible are copied together with restored
file objects.
-extract_single iso_rr_path disk_path
Like -extract, but if iso_rr_path is a directory then its sub
tree gets not restored.
-extract_l iso_rr_prefix disk_prefix iso_rr_path [***]
Perform -extract with each of the iso_rr_path arguments.
disk_path will be composed from iso_rr_path by replacing
iso_rr_prefix by disk_prefix.
-extract_cut iso_rr_path byte_offset byte_count disk_path
Copy a byte interval from a data file out of an ISO image into a
newly created disk file. The main purpose for this is to allow
handling of large files if they are not supported by mount -t
iso9660 and if the reading system is unable to buffer them as a
whole.
If the data bytes of iso_rr_path are stored in the loaded ISO
image, and no filter is applied, and byte_offset is a multiple
of 2048, then a special run of -check_media is performed. It may
be quicker and more rugged than the general reading method.
-cpx iso_rr_path [***] disk_path
Copy single leaf file objects from the ISO image to the address
given by disk_path. If more then one iso_rr_path is given then
disk_path must be a directory or non-existent. In the latter
case it gets created and the extracted files get installed in it
with the same leafnames.
Missing directory components in disk_path will get created, if
possible.
Directories are allowed as iso_rr_path only with -osirrox
"concat_split_on" and only if they actually represent a complete
collection of -cut_out split file parts.
-cpax iso_rr_path [***] disk_path
Like -cpx but restoring mtime, atime as in ISO image and trying
to set ownership and group as in ISO image.
-cp_rx iso_rr_path [***] disk_path
Like -cpx but also extracting whole directory trees from the ISO
image.
The resulting disk paths are determined as with shell command cp
-r : If disk_path is an existing directory then the trees will
be inserted or merged underneath this directory and will keep
their leaf names. The ISO directory "/" has no leaf name and
thus gets mapped directly to disk_path.
-cp_rax iso_rr_path [***] disk_path
Like -cp_rx but restoring mtime, atime as in ISO image and
trying to set ownership and group as in ISO image.
-paste_in iso_rr_path disk_path byte_offset byte_count
Read the content of a ISO data file and write it into a data
file on disk beginning at the byte_offset. Write at most
byte_count bytes. This is the inverse of option -cut_out.
-mount drive entity id path
Produce the same line as -mount_cmd and then execute it as
external program run after giving up the depicted drive. See
also -mount_opts. This demands -osirrox to be enabled and
normally will succeed only for the superuser. For safety reasons
the mount program is only executed if it is reachable as
/bin/mount or /sbin/mount.
Command compatibility emulations:
Writing of ISO 9660 on CD is traditionally done by program mkisofs as
ISO 9660 image producer and cdrecord as burn program. xorriso does not
strive for their comprehensive emulation. Nevertheless it is ready to
perform some of its core tasks under control of commands which in said
programs trigger comparable actions.
-as personality option [options] --
Perform the variable length option list as sparse emulation of
the program depicted by the personality word.
Personality "mkisofs" accepts the options listed with:
-as mkisofs -help --
Among them: -R (always on), -r, -J, -o, -M, -C, -path-list, -m,
-exclude-list, -f, -print-size, -pad, -no-pad, -V, -v, -version,
-graft-points, -z, -no-emul-boot, -b, -c, -boot-info-table,
-boot-load-size, -input-charset, -G, -output-charset, pathspecs
as with xorriso -add. A lot of options are not supported and
lead to failure of the mkisofs emulation. Some are ignored, but
better do not rely on this tolerance.
-graft-points is equivalent to -pathspecs on. Note that
pathspecs without "=" are interpreted differently than with
xorriso option -add. Directories get merged with the root
directory of the ISO image, other filetypes get mapped into that
root directory.
Other than with the "cdrecord" personality there is no automatic
-commit at the end of a "mkisofs" option list. Verbosity
settings -v (= "UPDATE") and -quiet (= "SORRY") persist. The
output file, eventually chosen with -o, persists until things
happen like -commit, -rollback, -dev, or end of xorriso.
-pacifier gets set to "mkisofs" if files are added to the image.
If pathspecs are given and if no output file was chosen before
or during the "mkisofs" option list, then standard output
(-outdev "-") will get into effect. If -o points to a regular
file, then it will be truncated to 0 bytes when finally writing
begins. This truncation does not happen if the drive is chosen
by xorriso options before -as mkisofs or after its list
delimiter. Directories and symbolic links are no valid -o
targets.
Writing to stdout is possible only if -as "mkisofs" was among
the start arguments or if other start arguments pointed the
output drive to standard output.
Not original mkisofs options are --quoted_path_list ,
--hardlinks , --acl , --xattr , --md5 , --stdio_sync . They
work like the xorriso options with the same name and hardcoded
argument "on", e.g. -acl "on". Explicit arguments are expected
by --stdio_sync and --scdbackup_tag.
--sort-weight gets as arguments a number and an iso_rr_path.
The number becomes the LBA sorting weight of regular file
iso_rr_path or of all regular files underneath directory
iso_rr_path. (See -find -exec sort_weight).
Adopted from grub-mkisofs are --protective-msdos-label (see
-boot_image grub partition_table=on) and --modification-
date=YYYYMMDDhhmmsscc (see -volume_date uuid). For EFI bootable
GRUB boot images use --efi-boot. It performs -boot_image grub
efi_path= surrounded by two -boot_image any next.
For MBR bootable ISOLINUX images there is -isohybrid-mbr FILE,
where FILE is one of the Syslinux files mbr/isohdp[fp]x*.bin .
Use this instead of -G to apply the effect of -boot_image
isolinux partition_table=on.
Personalites "xorrisofs", "genisoimage", and "genisofs" are
aliases for "mkisofs".
If xorriso is started with one of the leafnames "xorrisofs",
"genisofs", "mkisofs", or "genisoimage", then it automatically
prepends -as "genisofs" to the command line arguments. I.e. all
arguments will be interpreted mkisofs style until "--" is
encountered. From then on, options are interpreted as xorriso
options.
Personality "cdrecord" accepts the options listed with:
-as cdrecord -help --
Among them: -v, dev=, speed=, blank=, fs=, -eject, -atip,
padsize=, tsize=, -isosize, -multi, -msinfo,
--grow_overwriteable_iso, write_start_address=, track source
file path or "-" for standard input as track source.
It ignores most other options of cdrecord and cdrskin but
refuses on -audio, -scanbus, and on blanking modes unknown to
xorriso.
The scope is only a single data track per session to be written
to blank, overwriteable, or appendable media. The media gets
closed if closing is applicable and not option -multi is
present.
An eventually acquired input drive is given up. This is only
allowed if no image changes are pending.
dev= must be given as xorriso device address. Addresses like
0,0,0 or ATA:1,1,0 are not supported.
If a track source is given, then an automatic -commit happens at
the end of the "cdrecord" option list.
--grow_overwriteable_iso enables emulation of multi-session on
overwriteable media. To enable emulation of a TOC, the first
session needs -C 0,32 with -as mkisofs (but no -M) and
--grow_overwriteable_iso write_start_address=32s with -as
cdrecord.
A much more elaborate libburn based cdrecord emulator is the
program cdrskin.
Personalites "xorrecord", "wodim", and "cdrskin" are aliases for
"cdrecord".
If xorriso is started with one of the leafnames "xorrecord",
"cdrskin", "cdrecord", or "wodim", then it automatically
prepends -as "cdrskin" to the command line arguments. I.e. all
arguments will be interpreted cdrecord style until "--" is
encountered and an eventual commit happens. From then on,
options are interpreted as xorriso options.
-pacifier behavior_code
Control behavior of UPDATE pacifiers during write operations.
The following behavior codes are defined:
"xorriso" is the default format:
Writing: sector XXXXX of YYYYYY [fifo active, nn% fill]
"cdrecord" looks like:
X of Y MB written (fifo nn%) [buf mmm%]
"mkisofs"
nn% done, estimate finish Tue Jul 15 20:13:28 2008
-scdbackup_tag list_path record_name
Set the parameter "name" for a scdbackup checksum record. It
will be appended in an scdbackup checksum tag to the -md5
session tag if the image starts at LBA 0. This is the case if it
gets written as first session onto a sequential media, or piped
into a program, named pipe or character device.
If list_path is not empty then the record will also be appended
to the data file given by this path.
Program scdbackup_verify will recognize and verify tag resp.
record.
Scripting, dialog and program control features:
-no_rc
Only if used as first command line argument this option prevents
reading and interpretation of eventual startup files. See
section FILES below.
-options_from_file fileaddress
Read quoted input from fileaddress and executes it like dialog
lines.
-help
Print helptext.
-version
Print program name and version, component versions, license.
-history textline
Copy textline into libreadline history.
-status mode|filter
Print the current settings of xorriso. Modes:
short... print only important or altered settings
long ... print all settings including defaults
long_history like long plus history lines
Filters begin with '-' and are compared literally against the
output lines of -status:long_history. A line is put out only if
its start matches the filter text. No wildcards.
-status_history_max number
Set maximum number of history lines to be reported with -status
"long_history".
-list_delimiter word
Set the list delimiter to be used instead of "--". It has to be
a single word, must not be empty, not longer than 80 characters,
and must not contain quotation marks.
For brevity the list delimiter is referred as "--" throughout
this text.
-backslash_codes "on"|"off"|mode[:mode]
Enable or disable the interpretation of symbolic representations
of special characters with quoted input, or with program
arguments, or with program text output. If enabled the following
translations apply:
\a=bell(007) \b=backspace(010) \e=Escape(033) \f=formfeed(014)
\n=linefeed(012) \r=carriage_return(015) \t=tab(011)
\v=vtab(013) \\=backslash(134) \[0-7][0-7][0-7]=octal_code
\x[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]=hex_code \cC=control-C
Translations can occur with quoted input in 3 modes:
"in_double_quotes" translates only inside " quotation.
"in_quotes" translates inside " and ' quotation.
"with_quoted_input" translates inside and outside quotes.
With the start program arguments there is mode:
"with_program_arguments" translates all program arguments.
Mode "encode_output" encodes output characters. It combines
"encode_results" with "encode_infos". Inside single or double
quotation marks encoding applies to ASCII characters octal 001
to 037 , 177 to 377 and to backslash(134). Outside quotation
marks some harmless control characters stay unencoded:
bell(007), backspace(010), tab(011), linefeed(012),
formfeed(014), carriage_return(015).
Mode "off" is default and disables any translation. Mode "on"
is "with_quoted_input:with_program_arguments:encode_output".
-temp_mem_limit number["k"|"m"]
Set the maximum size of temporary memory to be used for image
dependent buffering. Currently this applies to pattern
expansion, LBA sorting, restoring of hard links.
Default is 16m = 16 MiB, minimum 64k = 64 kiB, maximum 1024m = 1
GiB.
-print text
Print a text to result channel.
-prompt text
Show text at beginning of output line and wait for the user to
hit the Enter key resp. to send a line via stdin.
-errfile_log mode path|channel
If problem events are related to input files from the
filesystem, then their disk_paths can be logged to a file or to
output channels R or I.
Mode can either be "plain" or "marked". The latter causes marker
lines which give the time of log start, burn session start, burn
session end, log end or program end. In mode "plain", only the
file paths are logged.
If path is "-" or "-R" then the log is directed to the result
channel. Path "-I" directs it to the info message channel. Any
text that does not begin with "-" is used as path for a file to
append the log lines.
Problematic files can be recorded multiple times during one
program run. If the program run aborts then the list might not
be complete because some input file arguments might not have
been processed at all.
The errfile paths are transported as messages of very low
severity "ERRFILE". This transport becomes visible with
-report_about "ALL".
-session_log path
If path is not empty it gives the address of a plain text file
where a log record gets appended after each session. This log
can be used to determine the start_lba of a session for mount
options -o sbsector= resp. -s from date or volume id.
Record format is: timestamp start_lba size volume-id
The first three items are single words, the rest of the line is
the volume id.
-scsi_log "on"|"off"
Mode "on" enables very verbous logging of SCSI commands and
drive replies. Logging messages get printed to stderr, not to
any of the xorriso output channels.
A special property of this option is that the first -scsi_log
setting among the start arguments is in effect already when the
first operations of xorriso begin. Only "-scsi_log" with dash
"-" is recognized that way.
-end
End program after writing eventually pending changes.
-rollback_end
Discard pending changes. End program immediately.
# any text
Only in dialog or file execution mode, and only as first non-
whitespace in line: Do not execute the line but eventually store
it in history.
Support for frontend programs via stdin and stdout:
-pkt_output "on"|"off"
Consolidate text output on stdout and classify each line by a
channel indicator:
'R:' for result lines,
'I:' for notes and error messages,
'M:' for -mark texts.
Next is a decimal number of which only bit 0 has a meaning for
now. 0 means no newline at end of payload, 1 means that the
newline character at the end of the output line belongs to the
payload. After another colon follows the payload text.
Example:
I:1: enter option and arguments :
-logfile channel fileaddress
Copy output of a channel to the given file. Channel may be one
of: "." for all channels, "I" for info messages, "R" for result
lines, "M" for -mark texts.
-mark text
If text is not empty it will get put out on "M" channel each
time after a dialog line has been processed.
-prog text
Use text as name of this program in subsequent messages
-prog_help text
Use text as name of this program and perform -help.
EXAMPLES
Overview of examples:
As superuser learn about available drives
Blank media and compose a new ISO image as batch run
A dialog session doing about the same
Manipulate an existing ISO image on the same media
Copy modified ISO image from one media to another
Bring a prepared ISOLINUX tree onto media and make it bootable
Change existing file name tree from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8
Operate on storage facilities other than optical drives
Burn an existing ISO image file to media
Perform multi-session runs as of cdrtools traditions
Let xorriso work underneath growisofs
Adjust thresholds for verbosity, exit value and program abort
Examples of input timestrings
Incremental backup of a few directory trees
Restore directory trees from a particular ISO session to disk
Try to retrieve blocks from a damaged media
As superuser learn about available drives
Consider to give rw permissions to those users or groups which shall be
able to use the drives with xorriso.
$ xorriso -devices
0 -dev '/dev/sr0' rwrw-- : '_NEC ' 'DVD_RW ND-4570A'
1 -dev '/dev/sr1' rwrw-- : 'HL-DT-ST' 'DVDRAM GSA-4082B'
2 -dev '/dev/sr2' rwrw-- : 'PHILIPS ' 'SPD3300L'
Blank media and compose a new ISO image as batch run
Aquire drive /dev/sr2, make media ready for writing a new image, fill
the image with the files from hard disk directories /home/me/sounds and
/home/me/pictures.
Because no -dialog "on" is given, the program will then end by writing
the session to media.
$ xorriso -outdev /dev/sr2 \
-blank as_needed \
-map /home/me/sounds /sounds \
-map /home/me/pictures /pictures
The ISO image may be shaped in a more elaborate way like the following:
Omit some unwanted stuff by removing it from the image directory tree.
Reintroduce some wanted stuff.
$ cd /home/me
$ xorriso -outdev /dev/sr2 \
-blank as_needed \
-map /home/me/sounds /sounds \
-map /home/me/pictures /pictures \
-rm_r \
/sounds/indecent \
'/pictures/*private*' \
/pictures/confidential \
-- \
-cd / \
-add pictures/confidential/work* --
Note that '/pictures/*private*' is a pattern for iso_rr_paths while
pictures/confidential/work* gets expanded by the shell with addresses
from the hard disk. Options -add and -map have different argument rules
but finally the same effect: they put files into the image.
A dialog session doing about the same
Some settings are already given as start argument. The other activities
are done as dialog input. The pager gets set to 20 lines of 80
characters.
The drive is acquired by option -dev rather than -outdev in order to
see the message about its current content. By option -blank this
content is made ready for being overwritten and the loaded ISO image is
made empty.
In order to be able to eject the media, the session needs to be
committed explicitly.
$ xorriso -dialog on -page 20 80 -disk_pattern on
enter option and arguments :
-dev /dev/sr2
enter option and arguments :
-blank as_needed
enter option and arguments :
-map /home/me/sounds /sounds -map /home/me/pictures /pictures
enter option and arguments :
-rm_r /sounds/indecent /pictures/*private* /pictures/confidential
enter option and arguments :
-cdx /home/me/pictures -cd /pictures
enter option and arguments :
-add confidential/office confidential/factory
enter option and arguments :
-du /
enter option and arguments :
-commit_eject all -end
Manipulate an existing ISO image on the same media
Load image from drive. Remove (i.e. hide) directory /sounds and its
subordinates. Rename directory /pictures/confidential to
/pictures/restricted. Change access permissions of directory
/pictures/restricted. Add new directory trees /sounds and /movies.
Burn to the same media, check whether the tree can be loaded, and
eject.
$ xorriso -dev /dev/sr2 \
-rm_r /sounds -- \
-mv \
/pictures/confidential \
/pictures/restricted \
-- \
-chmod go-rwx /pictures/restricted -- \
-map /home/me/prepared_for_dvd/sounds_dummy /sounds \
-map /home/me/prepared_for_dvd/movies /movies \
-commit -eject all
Copy modified ISO image from one media to another
Load image from input drive. Do the same manipulations as in the
previous example. Aquire output drive and blank it. Burn the modified
image as first and only session to the output drive.
$ xorriso -indev /dev/sr2 \
-rm_r /sounds -- \
...
-outdev /dev/sr0 -blank as_needed \
-commit -eject all
Bring a prepared ISOLINUX tree onto media and make it bootable
The user has already created a suitable file tree on disk and copied
the ISOLINUX files into subdirectory ./boot/isolinux of that tree. Now
xorriso can burn an El Torito bootable media:
$ xorriso -outdev /dev/sr0 -blank as_needed \
-map /home/me/ISOLINUX_prepared_tree / \
-boot_image isolinux dir=/boot/isolinux
Change existing file name tree from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8
This example assumes that the existing ISO image was written with
character set ISO-8859-1 but that the readers expected UTF-8. Now a new
session with the same files gets added with converted file names. In
order to avoid any weaknesses of the local character set, this command
pretends that it uses already the final target set UTF-8. Therefore
strange file names may appear in eventual messages which will be made
terminal-safe by option -backslash_codes.
$ xorriso -in_charset ISO-8859-1 -local_charset UTF-8 \
-out_charset UTF-8 -backslash_codes on -dev /dev/sr0 \
-alter_date m +0 / -- -commit -eject all
Operate on storage facilities other than optical drives
Full read-write operation is possible with regular files and block
devices:
$ xorriso -dev /tmp/regular_file ...
Paths underneath /dev normally need prefix "stdio:"
$ xorriso -dev stdio:/dev/sdb ...
If /dev/sdb is to be used frequently and /dev/sda is the system disk,
then consider to place the following lines in a xorriso Startup File.
They allow to use /dev/sdb without prefix and protect disk /dev/sda
from xorriso:
-drive_class banned /dev/sda*
-drive_class harmless /dev/sdb
Other writeable file types are supported write-only:
$ xorriso -outdev /tmp/named_pipe ...
Among the write-only drives is standard output:
$ xorriso -outdev - \
...
| gzip >image.iso.gz
Burn an existing ISO image file to media
Actually this works with any kind of data, not only ISO images:
$ xorriso -as cdrecord -v dev=/dev/sr0 blank=as_needed image.iso
Perform multi-session runs as of cdrtools traditions
Between both processes there can be performed arbitrary transportation
or filtering.
The first session is written like this:
$ xorriso -as mkisofs prepared_for_iso/tree1 | \
xorriso -as cdrecord -v dev=/dev/sr0 blank=fast -multi -eject -
Follow-up sessions are written like this:
$ m=$(xorriso -as cdrecord dev=/dev/sr0 -msinfo)
$ xorriso -as mkisofs -M /dev/sr0 -C $m prepared_for_iso/tree2 | \
xorriso -as cdrecord -v dev=/dev/sr0 -waiti -multi -eject -
Always eject the drive tray between sessions. The old sessions get read
via stdio:/dev/sr0 and thus are prone to device driver peculiarities.
This example works for multi-session media only. Add cdrskin option
--grow_overwriteable_iso to all -as cdrecord runs in order to enable
multi-session emulation on overwriteable media.
Let xorriso work underneath growisofs
growisofs expects an ISO formatter program which understands options -C
and -M. If xorriso gets started by name "xorrisofs" then it is suitable
for that.
$ export MKISOFS="xorrisofs"
$ growisofs -Z /dev/dvd /some/files
$ growisofs -M /dev/dvd /more/files
If no "xorrisofs" is available on your system, then you will have to
create a link pointing to the xorriso binary and tell growisofs to use
it. E.g. by:
$ ln -s $(which xorriso) "$HOME/xorrisofs"
$ export MKISOFS="$HOME/xorrisofs"
One may quit mkisofs emulation by argument "--" and make use of all
xorriso commands. growisofs dislikes options which start with "-o" but
-outdev must be set to "-". So use "outdev" instead:
$ growisofs -Z /dev/dvd -- outdev - -update_r /my/files /files
$ growisofs -M /dev/dvd -- outdev - -update_r /my/files /files
growisofs has excellent burn capabilities with DVD and BD. It does not
emulate session history on overwriteable media, though.
Adjust thresholds for verbosity, exit value and program abort
Be quite verbous, exit 32 if severity "FAILURE" was encountered, do not
abort prematurely but forcibly go on until the end of commands.
$ xorriso ... \
-report_about UPDATE \
-return_with FAILURE 32 \
-abort_on NEVER \
...
Examples of input timestrings
As printed by program date: 'Thu Nov 8 14:51:13 CET 2007'
The same without ignored parts: 'Nov 8 14:51:13 2007'
The same as expected by date: 110814512007.13
Four weeks in the future: +4w
The current time: +0
Three hours ago: -3h
Seconds since Jan 1 1970: =1194531416
Incremental backup of a few directory trees
This changes the directory trees /open_source_project and
/personal_mail in the ISO image so that they become exact copies of
their disk counterparts. ISO file objects get created, deleted or get
their attributes adjusted accordingly.
ACL, xattr, hard links and MD5 checksums will be recorded. Accelerated
comparison is enabled at the expense of potentially larger backup size.
Only media with the expected volume id or blank media are accepted.
Files with names matching *.o or *.swp get excluded explicitly.
When done with writing the new session gets checked by its recorded
MD5.
$ xorriso \
-for_backup -disk_dev_ino on \
-assert_volid 'PROJECTS_MAIL_*' FATAL \
-dev /dev/sr0 \
-volid PROJECTS_MAIL_"$(date '+%Y_%m_%d_%H%M%S')" \
-not_leaf '*.o' -not_leaf '*.swp' \
-update_r /home/thomas/open_source_projects /open_source_projects \
-update_r /home/thomas/personal_mail /personal_mail \
-commit -toc -check_md5 FAILURE -- -eject all
To be used several times on the same media, whenever an update of the
two disk trees to the media is desired. Begin with blank media and
start a new blank media when the run fails due to lack of remaining
space on the old one.
This makes sense if the full backup leaves substantial remaining
capacity on media and if the expected changes are much smaller than the
full backup. To apply zisofs compression to those data files which get
newly copied from the local filesystem, insert these options
immediately before -commit :
-hardlinks perform_update \
-find / -type f -pending_data -exec set_filter --zisofs -- \
Options -disk_dev_ino and -for_backup depend on stable device and inode
numbers on disk. Without them, an update run may use -md5 "on" to match
recorded MD5 sums against the current file content on hard disk. This
is usually much faster than the default which compares both contents
directly.
With mount option -o "sbsector=" on GNU/Linux resp. -s on FreeBSD it is
possible to access the session trees which represent the older backup
versions. With CD media, GNU/Linux mount accepts session numbers
directly by its option "session=".
Multi-session media and most overwriteable media written by xorriso can
tell the sbsectors of their sessions by xorriso option -toc. Used
after -commit the following option prints the matching mount command
for the newly written session (here for mount point /mnt):
-mount_cmd "indev" "auto" "auto" /mnt
Options -mount_cmd and -mount are also able to produce the mount
commands for older sessions in the table-of-content. E.g. as superuser:
# osirrox -mount /dev/sr0 "volid" '*2008_12_05*' /mnt
Sessions on multi-session media are separated by several MB of unused
blocks. So with small sessions the payload capacity can become
substantially lower than the overall media capacity. If the remaining
space on media does not suffice for the next gap, the drive is supposed
to close the media automatically.
Better do not use your youngest backup for -update_r. Have at least
two media which you use alternatingly. So only older backups get
endangered by the new write operation, while the newest backup is
stored safely on a different media. Always have a blank media ready to
perform a full backup in case the update attempt fails due to
insufficient remaining capacity.
Restore directory trees from a particular ISO session to disk
This is an alternative to mounting the media and using normal file
operations.
First check which backup sessions are on the media:
$ xorriso -outdev /dev/sr0 -toc
Then load the desired session and copy the file trees to disk. Enable
restoring of ACL, xattr and hard links. Avoid to eventually create
/home/thomas/restored without rwx-permission.
$ xorriso -for_backup \
-load volid 'PROJECTS_MAIL_2008_06_19*' \
-indev /dev/sr0 \
-osirrox on:auto_chmod_on \
-chmod u+rwx / -- \
-extract /open_source_projects \
/home/thomas/restored/open_source_projects \
-extract /personal_mail /home/thomas/restored/personal_mail \
-rollback_end
The final command -rollback_end prevents an error message about the
altered image being discarded.
Try to retrieve blocks from a damaged media
$ xorriso -abort_on NEVER -indev /dev/sr0 \
-check_media time_limit=1800 report=blocks_files \
data_to="$HOME"/dvd_copy sector_map="$HOME"/dvd_copy.map --
This can be repeated several times, eventually with -eject or with
other -indev drives. See the human readable part of
"$HOME"/dvd_copy.map for addresses which can be used on
"$HOME"/dvd_copy with mount option -o sbsector= resp. -s.
FILES
Program alias names:
Normal installation of xorriso creates three links or copies which by
their program name pre-select certain settings:
xorrisofs starts xorriso with -as mkisofs emulation.
xorrecord starts xorriso with -as cdrecord emulation.
osirrox starts with -osirrox "on:o_excl_off" which allows to copy files
from ISO image to disk and to apply option -mount to one or more of the
existing ISO sessions.
Startup files:
If not -no_rc is given as the first argument then xorriso attempts on
startup to read and execute lines from the following files:
/etc/default/xorriso
/etc/opt/xorriso/rc
/etc/xorriso/xorriso.conf
$HOME/.xorrisorc
The files are read in the sequence given above, but none of them is
required to exist.
Runtime control files:
The default setting of -check_media abort_file= is:
/var/opt/xorriso/do_abort_check_media
SEE ALSO
For mounting xorriso generated ISO 9660 images (-t iso9660)
mount(8)
Libreadline, a comfortable input line facility
readline(3)
Other programs which produce ISO 9660 images
mkisofs(8), genisoimage(8)
Other programs which burn sessions to optical media
growisofs(1), cdrecord(1), wodim(1), cdrskin(1)
ACL and xattr
getfacl(1), setfacl(1), getfattr(1), setfattr(1)
MD5 checksums
md5sum(1)
AUTHOR
Thomas Schmitt <scdbackup@gmx.net>
for libburnia-project.org
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2007 - 2010 Thomas Schmitt
Permission is granted to distrubute this text freely. It shall only be
modified in sync with the technical properties of xorriso. If you make
use of the license to derive modified versions of xorriso then you are
entitled to modify this text under that same license.
CREDITS
xorriso is in part based on work by Vreixo Formoso who provides
libisofs together with Mario Danic who also leads the libburnia team.
Thanks to Andy Polyakov who invented emulated growing, to Derek Foreman
and Ben Jansens who once founded libburn.
Compliments towards Joerg Schilling whose cdrtools served me for ten
years.
Apr 28, 2010