NAME
create_compressed_fs, extract_compressed_fs - convert and extract a
filesystem to/from a cloop volume
SYNOPSIS
create_compressed_fs [ OPTIONS ] image outfile
extract_compressed_fs filename
DESCRIPTION
create_compressed_fs compresses a filesystem image to a compressed
image suitable for mounting with the cloop driver.
extract_compressed_fs uncompresses a filesystem image created by
create_compressed_fs.
OPTIONS
Run the create_compressed_fs command with "-h" to get a list of
available options and description of data storages modes and advanced
usage (eg. with a network cluster). Blocksize must be a multiple of 512
bytes.
There is an alternative set of options which is supported for
compatibility with the original version of create_compressed_fs. When
it’s called with a pure number as output, it assumes the old syntax and
maps the default options to memory mode and the block size to the
number. -b for best mode is recognized as well.
EXAMPLES
create_compressed_fs image.ext2 image.ext2.cloop
extract_compressed_fs image.ext2.cloop | cmp image.ext2 -
mkcmd="genisoimage -joliet-long -D -r data"
$mkcmd | create_compressed_fs -s $($mkcmd --print-size)i - file.cloop
create_compressed_fs image.iso -S image.cloop.a0 - | split -b 1024m -
image.cloop.
cat image.cloop.* | cdrecord -
NOTES
For optimal performance, create_compressed_fs should be used with real
input and output files.
Operation with STDIN or STDOUT is complicated. create_compressed_fs
cannot operate as a simple pipe filter because it needs to know some
things in advance: a) the data length, b) the block lengths calculated
during the compression. This meta data needs to be stored in the header
AFTER the compression is trough, therefore it is not possible to push
all generated data to STDOUT on-the-fly.
And so compromises need to be made. The simpliest method (used by the
ancient create_compressed_fs) is a big temporary memory buffer (option
-m) to keep compressed data in RAM. However, the overall system
performance suffers from such usage and this may drive other
applications into OOM conditions.
The next alternative to this is storing the temprorary data in an extra
file aside (the -f option). This improves the overall system
performance but create_compressed_fs operation is slower because it
needs to copy data back when it’s finished. Plus, double disk space for
the output is required. If disk space is limited, the -r option could
be used (reusing output file for temporary data), however the speed of
the copy-back step may decrease significantly.
There are strategies to avoid the temporary data storage completely.
First, only files should be used. If that is not possible, then the
output should be a (seekable) file and the input data length should be
known (either specified with the -s option or detected from the input
file size).
Second, it is possible to store the header of the cloop volume in a
separate file. After the work, header can be merged together with the
compressed data with the cat command. The output data can be written to
stdout. Since the header is stored too late, this method is not very
usefull for immediate data transfer. However, it allows to do some
tricks like piping to the split utility (to store DVD images in smaller
files on VFAT) or piping data trough ssh if the local system has no
disk space (and copying the header separately).
MOUNTING
You can pass an option to the cloop module on loading, or use losetup
or losetup functionality of the mount command. Examples:
insmod cloop.o file=/path/to/compressed/image
losetup /dev/cloop1 /path/to/compressed/image
mount -o ro -t whatever /dev/cloop /mnt/compressed
mount cl /mnt/misc -oloop=/dev/cloop0
SEE ALSO
/usr/share/doc/cloop-utils/*, /usr/share/doc/cloop-src/*
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Eduard Bloch <blade@debian.org> for the
Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). Permission is
granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms
of the GNU GPLv2.
04 Dezember 2006 CREATE_COMPRESSED_FS(1)