NAME
mkisofs - create a iso9660 filesystem with optional Rock
Ridge attributes.
SYNOPSIS
mkisofs [ -a ] [ -abstract FILE ] [ -biblio FILE ] [ - b
boot_image ] [ -c boot_catalog ] [ -copyright FILE ] [ -A
application_id ] [ -f ] [ -d ] [ -D ] [ -hide glob ] [ -
hide-joliet glob ] [ -J ] [ -l ] [ -L ] [ -log-file log_file
] [ -no-split-symlink-components ] [ -no-split-symlink-
fields ] [ -p preparer ] [ -print-size ] [ -P publisher ] [
-quiet ] [ -r ] [ -R ] [ -sysid ID ] [ -T ] [ -v ] [ - V
volid ] [ -volset ID ] [ -volset-size # ] [ -volset-seqno #
] [ -x path ] [ -z ] [ -m glob ] -o filename pathspec [path-
spec]
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 charac-
ters, 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 trun-
cated 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 com-
municating with the Phillips/IMS/Kodak, HP and Yamaha drives
that have been manufactured before 1997. 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 Note that cdwrite has not been
actively maintained since 1995.
The cdrecord utility is another utility capable of burning
an actual disc. The latest version of cdrecord is available
from ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord Cdrecord is
under constant development.
Also you should know that most cd writers are very particu-
lar 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. Multiple paths can be specified, and
mkisofs will merge the files found in all of the specified
path components to form the cdrom image.
It is possible to graft the paths at points other than the
root directory, and it is possible to graft files or direc-
tories onto the cdrom image with names different than what
they have in the source filesystem. This is easiest to
illustrate with a couple of examples. Let's start by
assuming that a local file ../old.lis exists, and you wish
to include it in the cdrom image.
foo/bar/=../old.lis
will include the file old.lis in the cdrom image at
/foo/bar/old.lis, while
foo/bar/xxx=../old.lis
will include the file old.lis in the cdrom image at
/foo/bar/xxx. The same sort of syntax can be used with
directories as well. mkisofs will create any directories
required such that the graft points exist on the cdrom image
- the directories do not need to appear in one of the paths.
Any directories that are created on the fly like this will
have permissions 0555 and appear to be owned by the person
running mkisofs. If you wish other permissions or owners of
the intermediate directories, the easiest solution is to
create real directories in the path such that mkisofs
doesn't have to invent them.
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 edi-
tors under unix).
-abstract FILE
Specifies the abstract file name. This parameter can
also be set in the file .mkisofsrc with ABST=filename.
If specified in both places, the command line version
is used.
-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.
-biblio FILE
Specifies the bibliographic file name. This parameter
can also be set in the file .mkisofsrc with
BIBLO=filename. If specified in both places, the com-
mand 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 path-
name 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 last_sess_start,next_sess_start
This option is needed when mkisofs is used to create
the image of a second session or a higher level session
for a multi session disk. The option -C takes a pair
of two numbers separated by a comma. The first number
is the sector number of the first sector in the last
session of the disk that should be appended to. The
second number is the starting sector number of the new
session. The expected pair of numbers may be retrieved
by calling cdrecord -msinfo ... the -C option may only
be uses in conjunction with the -M option.
-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.
-copyright FILE
Specifies the Copyright file name. This parameter can
also be set in the file .mkisofsrc with COPY=filename.
If specified in both places, the command line version
is used.
-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.
-hide glob
Hide glob from being seen on the ISO9660 or Rock Ridge
directory. glob is a shell wild-card-style pattern
that must match any part of the filename or path. Mul-
tiple globs may be hidden (up to 1000). If glob
matches a directory, then the contents of that direc-
tory will be hidden. All the hidden files will still
be written to the output CD image file. Should be used
with the -hide-joliet option.
-hide-joliet glob
Hide glob from being seen on the Joliet directory.
glob is a shell wild-card-style pattern that must match
any part of the filename or path. Multiple globs may
be hidden (up to 1000). If glob matches a directory,
then the contents of that directory will be hidden.
All the hidden files will still be written to the out-
put CD image file. Should be used with the - hide
option.
-l Allow full 32 character filenames. Normally the
ISO9660 filename will be in an 8.3 format which is com-
patible 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 sys-
tems (such as the Amiga). Use with caution.
-J Generate Joliet directory records in addition to regu-
lar iso9660 file names. This is primarily useful when
the discs are to be used on Windows-NT or Windows-95
machines. The Joliet filenames are specified in
Unicode and each path component can be up to 64 Unicode
characters long.
-L Allow filenames to begin with a period. Usually, a
leading dot is replaced with an underscore in order to
maintain MS-DOS compatibility.
-log-file log_file
Redirect all error, warning and informational messages
to log_file instead of the standard error.
-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). Techni-
cally 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.
NOTE: The -m and -x option description should both be
updated, they are wrong. Both now work identical and
use filename globbing. A file is exluded if either the
last component matches or the whole path matches.
-M path
or
-M device
Specifies path to existing iso9660 image to be merged.
The alternate form takes a SCSI device specifier that
uses the same syntax as the dev= parameter of cdrecord.
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 attempt-
ing to write this image to. This option may only be
used in conjunction with the -C option.
-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.
-no-split-symlink-components
Don't split the SL components, but begin a new Con-
tinuation Area (CE) instead. This may waste some space,
but the SunOS 4.1.4 cdrom driver has a bug in reading
split SL components (link_size = component_size instead
of link_size += component_size).
-no-split-symlink-fields
Don't split the SL fields, but begin a new Continuation
Area (CE) instead. This may waste some space, but the
SunOS 4.1.4 and Solaris 2.5.1 cdrom driver have a bug
in reading split SL fields (a `/' can be dropped).
-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.
-print-size
Print estimated filesystem size and exit. This option
is needed for Disk At Once mode and with some CD-R
drives when piping directly into cdrecord. In this case
it is needed to know the size of the filesustem before
the actual CD-creation is done. The option -print-size
allows to get this size from a "dry-run" before the CD
is actually written.
-R Generate SUSP and RR records using the Rock Ridge pro-
tocol 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 exe-
cute bits, so that executables are globally executable
on the client. If any search bit is set for a direc-
tory, 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 desir-
able for uid 0 or gid 0.
-sysid ID
Specifies the system ID. This parameter can also be
set in the file .mkisofsrc with SYSI=system_id. If
specified in both places, the command line version is
used.
-T Generate a file TRANS.TBL in each directory on the
CDROM, which can be used on non-Rock Ridge capable sys-
tems 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. Note that if you
assign a volume ID, this is the name that will be used
as the mount point used by the Solaris volume manage-
ment system and the name that is assigned to the disc
on a Windows or Mac platform.
-volset ID
Specifies the volset ID. This parameter can also be
set in the file .mkisofsrc with VOLS=volset_id. If
specified in both places, the command line version is
used.
-volset-size #
Sets the volume set size to #. The volume set size is
the number of CD's that are in a CD set. The -volset-
size option may be used to create CD's that are part of
e.g. a Operation System installation set of CD's. The
option -volset-size must be specified before - volset-
seqno on each command line.
-volset-seqno #
Sets the volume set sequence number to #. The volume
set sequence number is the index number of the current
CD in a CD set. The option -volset-size must be speci-
fied before -volset-seqno on each command line.
-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
NOTE: The -m and -x option description should both be
updated, they are wrong. Both now work identical and
use filename globbing. A file is exluded if either the
last component matches or the whole path matches.
- 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 applica-
tion that will be on the disc. There is space on the
disc for 128 characters of information. May be over-
ridden 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.
May be overridden using the -copyright command line
option.
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. May be overrid-
den using the -abstract command line option.
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. May be
overridden using the -bilio command line option.
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, usu-
ally 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. May be overridden using
the -sysid command line option.
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
128 characters of information. May be overridden using
the -volset command line option.
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 main-
taining 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
Some sort of gui interface.
AVAILABILITY
mkisofs is available for anonymous ftp from tsx-11.mit.edu
in /pub/linux/packages/mkisofs and many other mirror sites.
Man(1) output converted with
man2html
GMD Homepage
FOKUS Homepage
Schily's Homepage
