.TH WIMLIB-IMAGEX 1 "February 2024" "wimlib 1.14.4" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
wimlib-imagex \- Extract, create, modify, or mount a WIM archive
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBwimlib-imagex append\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimappend\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex apply\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimapply\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex capture\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimcapture\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex delete\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimdelete\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex dir\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimdir\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex export\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimexport\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex extract\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimextract\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex info\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwiminfo\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex join\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimjoin\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex mount\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimmount\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex mountrw\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimmountrw\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex optimize\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimoptimize\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex split\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimsplit\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex unmount\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimunmount\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex update\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimupdate\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.br
\fBwimlib-imagex verify\fR \fIarguments...\fR (or \fBwimverify\fR \fIarguments...\fR)
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBwimlib-imagex\fR deals with archive files in the Windows Imaging (WIM)
format.  Its interface is similar to Microsoft's ImageX, but \fBwimlib-imagex\fR
is cross-platform and has useful improvements and extensions.
.PP
To do its work, \fBwimlib-imagex\fR uses \fBwimlib\fR, an open source C
library that provides interfaces for manipulating WIM archives.  wimlib is
completely independent from the equivalent Microsoft implementation (WIMGAPI, or
wimgapi.dll).  You can use wimlib in your own programs, although for
command-line use \fBwimlib-imagex\fR already provides access to most of
wimlib's functionality.
.SH BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Windows Imaging (WIM) format was designed by Microsoft primarily for
archiving Windows filesystems, such as NTFS.  However, it can be used on other
platforms as well, with some limitations.  A WIM archive contains one or more
images, each of which is a logically independent directory tree.  Images are
indexed starting from 1, and each may also have a name.  File data is stored as
content-addressable "blobs" that are deduplicated across the entire archive.
Data may be compressed using one of several compression algorithms.
.PP
An update of the WIM format which Microsoft released with Windows 8 uses
solid-mode LZMS compression to achieve a better compression ratio.  Such files
are also called "ESD files" and may have the \.esd extension instead of .wim.
wimlib fully supports these files except when they are encrypted.
.SH COMMANDS
\fBwimlib-imagex\fR accepts one of a number of commands (listed above in
\fBSYNOPSYS\fR), and additional arguments depending on the specific command.
Although \fBwimlib-imagex\fR will print usage information with \fB--help\fR
or if you invoke it incorrectly, the full documentation for each
\fBwimlib-imagex\fR command can be found in the appropriate manual page.
.PP
Note: if appropriate hard links or batch files have been installed, a command
\fBwimlib-imagex \fICOMMAND\fR can also be accessed as simply
\fBwim\fICOMMAND\fR; for example, \fBwimapply\fR for \fBwimlib-imagex apply\fR.
For brevity the documentation uses the shorter names.
.SH GENERAL FEATURES
The following are some of the general features, or use cases, currently
supported by \fBwimlib-imagex\fR, and pointers to the relevant commands:
.IP \[bu] 4
Display information about a WIM file (\fBwiminfo\fR)
.IP \[bu]
List the files in a WIM image (\fBwimdir\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Extract, or "apply", a full WIM image (\fBwimapply\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Extract files or directories from a WIM image (\fBwimextract\fR)
.IP \[bu] 4
Capture a WIM image and save it to a new WIM file (\fBwimcapture\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Capture a WIM image and append it to an existing WIM file (\fBwimappend\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Modify a WIM image by adding, deleting, or renaming files (\fBwimupdate\fR)
.IP \[bu]
(Linux only) Mount a WIM image read-only (\fBwimmount\fR)
.IP \[bu]
(Linux only) Mount a WIM image read-write (\fBwimmountrw\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Delete an image from a WIM file (\fBwimdelete\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Export image(s) from a WIM file (\fBwimexport\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Change the name or description of a WIM image (\fBwiminfo\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Change the bootable image index of a WIM file (\fBwiminfo\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Rebuild, and optionally recompress, a WIM file (\fBwimoptimize\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Split a WIM file into multiple parts (\fBwimsplit\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Join a split WIM (\fBwimjoin\fR)
.IP \[bu]
Verify the validity and integrity of a WIM file (\fBwimverify\fR)
.SH DETAILED FEATURES
This section presents some of the interesting features of
\fBwimlib-imagex\fR in more detail.
.IP \[bu] 4
Multi-platform support.  \fBwimlib-imagex\fR is supported on both UNIX-like
systems (mainly Linux, but also FreeBSD, Mac OS X, etc.) and Windows.  Most code
is shared among all platforms, but platform-specific features are still
supported when possible.
.IP \[bu]
XPRESS, LZX, and LZMS compression and decompression.  wimlib contains advanced
implementations of all these compression algorithms.  These have been improved
over time and now usually outperform and outcompress their Microsoft
equivalents, while remaining fully compatible.
.IP \[bu]
Solid-mode compression, or "ESD file", support. "ESD files" are an updated WIM
format that uses solid LZMS compression to achieve a better compression ratio.
.IP \[bu]
Multithreaded compression.  By default, wimlib's data compression is
multithreaded and will use all available processors.
.IP \[bu]
On UNIX-like systems, integration with libntfs-3g allows capturing a WIM image
directly from an NTFS volume, or applying a WIM image directly to an NTFS
volume.  This allows saving and restoring NTFS-specific data and metadata, such
as security descriptors and named data streams, which would otherwise only be
supported on Windows.
.IP \[bu]
On UNIX-like systems, optional support for saving and restoring standard UNIX
file permissions (owner/group/mode), UNIX special files, and extended
attributes.  (This is a wimlib extension; Microsoft's WIM software ignores this
extra information.)
.IP \[bu]
On Linux, support for mounting WIM images with FUSE (Filesystem in UserSpacE),
both readonly and read-write.
.IP \[bu]
Split WIMs.  A split WIM is a WIM archive split into multiple parts.
\fBwimsplit\fR can create a split WIM from a standalone WIM, and \fBwimjoin\fR
can create a standalone WIM from a split WIM.
.IP \[bu]
Delta WIMs.  A delta WIM contains image metadata but excludes file data already
present in another WIM file.  A delta WIM can be created using \fBwimcapture\fR
with the \fB--delta-from\fR option.
.IP \[bu]
"Pipable" WIMs.  As a wimlib extension (not compatible with the Microsoft
implementation), \fBwimcapture\fR supports capturing a WIM file to standard
output in a special "pipable" format which can later be applied by sending it to
\fBwimapply\fR on standard input.  Among other things, this can be used to pipe
images to or from a server over the network to implement fast filesystem imaging
and restore.
.IP \[bu]
Support for WIM integrity tables.  Although file data in WIM archives is always
checksummed, there can also be an extra set of checksums (an "integrity table")
associated with the WIM file itself to provide extra integrity assurance.  The
\fB--check\fR option to several \fBwimlib-imagex\fR commands can be used to
verify or add these extra checksums.
.IP \[bu]
Fast incremental backups.  Because WIM archives use content-addressible file
data, the contents of files are automatically deduplicated.  In addition, using
the \fB--update-of\fR option of \fBwimcapture\fR or \fBwimappend\fR, you can
optimize an image capture so that files that are unmodified based on timestamps
are not even read from disk.
.IP \[bu]
Windows-specific image metadata support.  When capturing an image of a Windows
operating system, wimlib will automatically populate XML metadata fields such as
the Windows OS version details by scanning well-known system files.
.IP \[bu]
WIMBoot support.  On Windows 8.1 and later, files can be "externally backed" by
a WIM archive with the help of Microsoft's Windows Overlay Filesystem (WOF)
filter driver.  With the \fB--wimboot\fR option, \fBwimapply\fR will extract
"pointer files" to the WIM archive rather than the files themselves.
.IP \[bu]
VSS snapshot support.  On Windows, \fBwimcapture\fR or \fBwimappend\fR with the
\fB--snapshot\fR option will automatically create a temporary VSS snapshot and
capture the image from it.  This can be used to image a "live" Windows system.
.IP \[bu]
Long path support on Windows.  \fBwimlib-imagex\fR can capture and apply files
with paths exceeding the MAX_PATH (260 character) limitation of the Win32
subsystem.
.IP \[bu]
Non-Administrator support on Windows.  You can run \fBwimlib-imagex\fR without
Administrator rights, subject to some limitations.
.SH COMMON OPTIONS
The following options work for all \fBwimlib-imagex\fR commands:
.TP 6
\fB--help\fR
Display the help, then exit.
.TP
\fB--version\fR
Display the version and legal information, then exit.
.TP
\fB--quiet\fR
Suppress informational and progress messages.
.SH CASE SENSITIVITY
By default, the case sensitivity of \fBwimlib-imagex\fR differs somewhat between
UNIX-like systems and Windows.  WIM images may (but usually do not) have
multiple files with the same case-insensitive name.  Internally, wimlib stores
filenames as case-sensitive, but on Windows paths actually provided by the user
for use in a WIM image (e.g. for extracting, adding, renaming, or deleting
files) will by default be treated as case-insensitive in order to get the
"expected" behavior. This differs from the default behavior on UNIX-like
systems, where such paths will be treated as case-sensitive.
.PP
Note that with case insensitivity, a path component may in general be ambiguous
due to multiple files or directories having the same case-insensitive name.  In
such cases, if there is a file or directory with an exactly matching name, it is
chosen; otherwise, one of the case-insensitively matching file or directories is
chosen arbitrarily.
.PP
The default case sensitivity of \fBwimlib-imagex\fR can be overridden by
explicitly setting the environmental variable \fBWIMLIB_IMAGEX_IGNORE_CASE\fR to
1, in which case such paths will be treated case insensitively, or 0, in which
such paths will be treated case sensitively.
.PP
Regardless of these settings, options and non-path arguments must be specified
in lower case.
.SH LICENSE
wimlib-imagex may be redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the GNU
General Public License; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any
later version.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.SH REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to \fIhttps://wimlib.net/forums/\fR.
Feedback and suggestions are also welcome.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR wimappend (1),
.BR wimapply (1),
.BR wimcapture (1),
.BR wimdelete (1),
.BR wimdir (1),
.BR wimexport (1),
.BR wimextract (1),
.BR wiminfo (1),
.BR wimjoin (1),
.BR wimmount (1),
.BR wimmountrw (1),
.BR wimoptimize (1),
.BR wimsplit (1),
.BR wimunmount (1),
.BR wimupdate (1),
.BR wimverify (1),