The page that follows is copied to this server for the convenience of local users. As UC Davis is not a redistribution point for this software, outside users should seek other sources for the most up-to-date information about this software.

mkisofs executable for Silicon Graphics IRIX 5.3 is here (25kb zipped)


Sample usage (from UC Davis):

$AML/mkisofs -o output.iso -lTrv $CHINA/directorytobebackedup



 

 

 

MKISOFS

 

Section: Maintenance Commands (8)
Updated: 9 Apr 1997
Index

 


 

 

 

NAME

 

mkisofs - create a iso9660 filesystem with optional Rock Ridge attributes.

 

 

SYNOPSIS

 

mkisofs

[-a

]

[

-b

 

boot_image

 

]

[

-c

 

boot_catalog

 

]

[

-A

 

application_id

 

]

[

-f

 

]

[

-d

 

]

[

-D

 

]

[

-i

 

include-list

 

]

[

-l

 

]

[

-L

 

]

[

-L

 

]

[

-p

 

preparer

 

]

[

-P

 

publisher

 

]

[

-r

 

]

[

-R

 

]

[

-T

 

]

[

-v

 

]

[

-V

 

]

[

-V

 

volid

 

]

[

-x

 

path

 

]

[

-z

 

]

[

-m

 

glob

 

]

-o

 

filename

 

path

 

 

 

DESCRIPTION

 

 

mkisofs

 

is effectively a pre-mastering program to generate the iso9660 filesystem - it

takes a snapshot of a given directory tree, and generates a binary image which

will correspond to an iso9660 filesystem when written to a block device.

 

 

 

mkisofs

 

is also capable of generating the System Use Sharing Protocol records specified

by the Rock Ridge Interchange Protocol. This is used to further describe the

files in the iso9660 filesystem to a unix host, and provides information such

as longer filenames, uid/gid, posix permissions, and block and character

devices.

 

 

 

Each file written to the iso9660 filesystem must have a filename in the 8.3

format (8 characters, period, 3 characters, all upper case), even if Rock Ridge

is in use. This filename is used on systems that are not able to make use of

the Rock Ridge extensions (such as MS-DOS), and each filename in each directory

must be different from the other filenames in the same directory.

mkisofs

 

generally tries to form correct names by forcing the unix filename to upper

case and truncating as required, but often times this yields unsatisfactory

results when there are cases where the

truncated names are not all unique.

mkisofs

 

assigns weightings to each filename, and if two names that are otherwise the

same are found the name with the lower priority is renamed to have a 3 digit

number as an extension (where the number is guaranteed to be unique). An

example of this would be the files foo.bar and

foo.bar.~1~ - the file foo.bar.~1~ would be written as FOO.000;1 and the file

foo.bar would be written as FOO.BAR;1

 

 

 

Note that

mkisofs

 

is not designed to communicate with the writer directly. Most writers

have proprietary command sets which vary from one manufacturer to

another, and you need a specialized tool to actually burn the disk.

The

cdwrite

 

utility is one such tool that runs under Linux and performs this task.

The latest version of

cdwrite

 

is capable of communicating with Phillips/IMS/Kodak, HP and Yamaha drives.

Most writers come with some version of DOS software that allows a direct image

copy of an iso9660 image to the writer. The current version of

cdwrite

 

is available from sunsite.unc.edu: /utils/disk-management/cdwrite-2.0.tar.gz

 

 

 

Also you should know that most cd writers are very particular about timing.

Once you start to burn a disc, you cannot let their buffer empty before you

are done, or you will end up with a corrupt disc. Thus it is critical

that you be able to maintain an uninterrupted data stream to the writer

for the entire time that the disc is being written.

 

 

 

 

 

path

 

is the path of the directory tree to be copied into the iso9660 filesystem.

 

 

OPTIONS

 

 

 

 

-a

 

 

 

 

Include all files on the iso9660 filesystem. Normally files that contain the

characters '~' or '#' will not be included (these are typically backup files

for editors under unix).

 

 

-A application_id

 

 

 

 

Specifies a text string that will be written into the volume header.

This should describe the application that will be on the disc. There

is space on the disc for 128 characters of information. This parameter can

also be set in the file

.mkisofsrc

 

with APPI=id.

If specified in both places, the command line version is used.

 

 

-b boot_image

 

 

 

 

Specifies the path and filename of the boot image to be used when making

an "El Torito" bootable CD. The pathname must be relative to the source

path specified to

mkisofs.

 

This option is required to make a bootable CD.

The boot image must be exactly the size of either a 1.2, 1.44, or a 2.88

meg floppy, and

mkisofs

 

will use this size when creating the output iso9660

filesystem. It is assumed that the first 512 byte sector should be read

from the boot image (it is essentially emulating a normal floppy drive).

This will work, for example, if the boot image is a LILO based boot floppy.

 

 

-c boot_catalog

 

 

 

 

Specifies the path and filename of the boot catalog to be used when making

an "El Torito" bootable CD. The pathname must be relative to the source

path specified to

mkisofs.

 

This option is required to make a bootable CD.

This file will be created by

mkisofs

 

in the source filesystem, so be

sure the specified filename does not conflict with an existing file, as

it will be quietly overwritten! Usually a name like "boot.catalog" is

chosen.

 

 

-d

 

 

 

 

Omit trailing period from files that do not have a period. This violates the

ISO9660 standard, but it happens to work on many systems. Use with caution.

 

 

-D

 

 

 

 

Do not use deep directory relocation, and instead just pack them in the

way we see them. This violates the ISO9660 standard, but it works on many

systems. Use with caution.

 

 

-f

 

 

 

 

Follow symbolic links when generating the filesystem. When this option is not

in use, symbolic links will be entered using Rock Ridge if enabled, otherwise

the file will be ignored.

 

 

-i include-list

 

 

 

 

Use the specified file as a list of files to add to the directory tree.

This is useful for quickly repacking a CD while adding files to it.

The format of this file is path1/file=path2 where path1 is the directory

in the ISO9660 file system where file should appear and path2 is the

where to find the file. NOTE: This option doesn't work well, and

needs to be compltely redone so that integration with the rest of mkisofs

is handled in a cleaner fashion.

 

 

-l

 

 

 

 

Allow full 32 character filenames. Normally the ISO9660 filename will be in an

8.3 format which is compatible with MS-DOS, even though the ISO9660 standard

allows filenames of up to 32 characters. If you use this option, the disc may

be difficult to use on a MS-DOS system, but this comes in handy on some other

systems (such as the Amiga). Use with caution.

 

 

-L

 

 

 

 

Allow filenames to begin with a period. Usually, a leading dot is

replaced with an underscore in order to maintain MS-DOS compatibility.

 

 

-m glob

 

 

 

 

Exclude

glob

 

from being written to CDROM.

glob

 

is a shell wild-card-style pattern that must match part of the filename (not

the path as with option

-x).

 

Technically

glob

 

is matched against the

d->d_name

 

part of the directory entry.

Multiple globs may be excluded (up to 1000).

Example:

 

 

mkisofs -o rom -m '*.o' -m core -m foobar

 

 

would exclude all files ending in ".o", called "core" or "foobar" to be

copied to CDROM. Note that if you had a directory called "foobar" it too (and

of course all its descendants) would be excluded.

 

 

-M path

 

 

 

 

Specifies path to existing iso9660 image to be merged. The output

of

mkisofs

 

will be a new session which should get written to the end of the

image specified in -M. Typically this requires multi-session capability

for the recorder and cdrom drive that you are attempting to write this

image to. Support for this is not yet 100% complete, because some handshaking

is required between mkisofs and cdwrite in order to determine the next

writable address on the cdrom.

 

 

-N

 

 

 

 

Omit version numbers from ISO9660 file names. This may violate the ISO9660

standard, but no one really uses the version numbers anyway. Use with caution.

 

 

-o filename

 

 

 

 

is the name of the file to which the iso9660 filesystem image should be

written. This can be a disk file, a tape drive, or it can correspond directly

to the device name of the optical disc writer. If not specified, stdout is

used. Note that the output can also be a block special device for a regular

disk drive, in which case the disk partition can be mounted and examined to

ensure that the premastering was done correctly.

 

 

-P publisher_id

 

 

 

 

Specifies a text string that will be written into the volume header.

This should describe the publisher of the CDROM, usually with a

mailing address and phone number. There is space on the disc for 128

characters of information. This parameter can also be set in the file

.mkisofsrc

 

with PUBL=.

If specified in both places, the command line version is used.

 

 

-p preparer_id

 

 

 

 

Specifies a text string that will be written into the volume header.

This should describe the preparer of the CDROM, usually with a mailing

address and phone number. There is space on the disc for 128

characters of information. This parameter can also be set in the file

.mkisofsrc

 

with PREP=.

If specified in both places, the command line version is used.

 

 

-R

 

 

 

 

Generate SUSP and RR records using the Rock Ridge protocol to further describe

the files on the iso9660 filesystem.

 

 

-r

 

 

 

 

This is like the -R option, but file ownership and modes are set to

more useful values. The uid and gid are set to zero, because they are

usually only useful on the author's system, and not useful to the

client. All the file read bits are set true, so that files and

directories are globally readable on the client. If any execute bit is

set for a file, set all of the execute bits, so that executables are

globally executable on the client. If any search bit is set for a

directory, set all of the search bits, so that directories are globally

searchable on the client. All write bits are cleared, because the

CD-Rom will be mounted read-only in any case. If any of the special

mode bits are set, clear them, because file locks are not useful on a

read-only file system, and set-id bits are not desirable for uid 0 or

gid 0.

 

 

-T

 

 

 

 

Generate a file TRANS.TBL in each directory on the CDROM, which can be used

on non-Rock Ridge capable systems to help establish the correct file names.

There is also information present in the file that indicates the major and

minor numbers for block and character devices, and each symlink has the name of

the link file given.

 

 

-V volid

 

 

 

 

Specifies the volume ID to be written into the master block. This

parameter can also be set in the file

.mkisofsrc

 

with VOLI=id.

If specified in both places, the command line version is used.

 

 

-v

 

 

 

 

Verbose execution.

 

 

-x path

 

 

 

 

Exclude

path

 

from being written to CDROM.

path

 

must be the complete pathname that results from concatenating the pathname

given as command line argument and the path relative to this directory.

Multiple paths may be excluded (up to 1000).

Example:

 

 

mkisofs -o cd -x /local/dir1 -x /local/dir2 /local

 

 

-z

 

 

 

 

Generate special SUSP records for transparently compressed files. This is

only of use and interest for hosts that support transparent decompression.

This is an experimental feature, and no hosts yet support this, but there

are ALPHA patches for Linux that can make use of this feature.

 

 

 

 

CONFIGURATION

 

 

mkisofs

 

looks for the

.mkisofsrc

 

file,

first in the current working directory,

then in the user's home directory,

and then in the directory in which the

mkisofs

 

binary is stored. This file is assumed to contain a series of lines

of the form "TAG=value", and in this way you can specify certain

options.

The case of the tag is not significant.

Some fields in the volume header

are not settable on the command line, but can be altered through this

facility.

Comments may be placed in this file,

using lines which start with a hash (#) character.

 

 

APPI

 

 

The application identifier

should describe the application that will be on the disc.

There is space on the disc for 128 characters of information.

May be overridden using the -A command line option.

 

 

COPY

 

 

The copyright information,

often the name of a file on the disc containing the copyright notice.

There is space in the disc for 37 characters of information.

 

 

ABST

 

 

The abstract information,

often the name of a file on the disc containing an abstract.

There is space in the disc for 37 characters of information.

 

 

BIBL

 

 

The bibliographic information,

often the name of a file on the disc containing a bibliography.

There is space in the disc for 37 characters of information.

 

 

PREP

 

 

This should describe the preparer of the CDROM,

usually with a mailing address and phone number.

There is space on the disc for 128 characters of information.

May be overridden using the -p command line option.

 

 

PUBL

 

 

This should describe the publisher of the CDROM,

usually with a mailing address and phone number.

There is space on the disc for 128 characters of information.

May be overridden using the -P command line option.

 

 

SYSI

 

 

The System Identifier.

There is space on the disc for 32 characters of information.

 

 

VOLI

 

 

The Volume Identifier.

There is space on the disc for 32 characters of information.

May be overridden using the -V command line option.

 

 

VOLS

 

 

The Volume Set Name.

There is space on the disc for 278 characters of information.

 

 

 

 

 

mkisofs

 

can also be configured at compile time with defaults for many of these fields.

See the file defaults.h.

 

 

AUTHOR

 

 

mkisofs

 

is not based on the standard mk*fs tools for unix, because we must generate

a complete copy of an existing filesystem on a disk in the iso9660

filesystem. The name mkisofs is probably a bit of a misnomer, since it

not only creates the filesystem, but it also populates it as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Eric Youngdale <ericy@gnu.ai.mit.edu> or <eric@andante.jic.com> wrote both the

Linux isofs9660 filesystem and the mkisofs utility, and is currently

maintaining them. The copyright for the mkisofs utility is held by

Yggdrasil Computing, Incorporated.

 

 

BUGS

 

 

Any files that have hard links to files not in the tree being copied to the

iso9660 filessytem will have an incorrect file reference count.

 

 

 

There may be some other ones. Please, report them to the author.

 

 

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS

 

 

Allow specification of multiple paths on the command line to be included in

iso9660 filesystem. Can be tricky - directory entries in the root directory

need to be properly sorted.

 

 

AVAILABILITY

 

 

mkisofs

 

is available for anonymous ftp from tsx-11.mit.edu in

/pub/linux/packages/mkisofs and many other mirror sites.

 


 

 

Index

 

 

 

NAME

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

 

 

 

 

DESCRIPTION

 

 

 

 

OPTIONS

 

 

 

 

CONFIGURATION

 

 

 

 

AUTHOR

 

 

 

 

BUGS

 

 

 

 

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS

 

 

 

 

AVAILABILITY

 

 

 

 


 

This document was created by

man2html,

using the manual pages.

Time: 07:11:21 GMT, July 08, 1997