SQUASHFS/squashfs-tools-4.4/RELEASE-READMEs/README-3.3

   1         SQUASHFS 3.3 - A squashed read-only filesystem for Linux
   2
   3         Copyright 2002-2007 Phillip Lougher <phillip@lougher.demon.co.uk>
   4
   5         Released under the GPL licence (version 2 or later).
   6
   7 Welcome to another release of Squashfs.  This is the 22nd release in just
   8 over five years of work.  Squashfs 3.3 has lots of nice improvements,
   9 both to the filesystem itself (bigger blocks, and sparse files), but
  10 also to the Squashfs-tools Mksquashfs and Unsquashfs.  As usual the
  11 CHANGES file has a detailed list of all the improvements.
  12
  13 Following is a description of the changes to  the Squashfs tools, usage
  14 guides to the new options, and a summary of the new options.
  15
  16 1. MKSQUASHFS - EXTENDED EXCLUDE FILE HANDLING
  17 ----------------------------------------------
  18
  19 1. Extended wildcard pattern matching now supported in exclude files
  20
  21   Enabled by specifying -wildcards option
  22
  23   Supports both anchored and non-anchored exclude files.
  24
  25 1.1 Anchored excludes
  26
  27   Similar to existing exclude files except with wildcards.  Exclude
  28   file matches from root of source directories.
  29
  30   Examples:
  31
  32   1. mksquashfs example image.sqsh -wildcards -e 'test/*.gz'
  33
  34      Exclude all files matching "*.gz" in the top level directory "test".
  35
  36   2. mksquashfs example image.sqsh -wildcards -e '*/[Tt]est/example*'
  37
  38      Exclude all files beginning with "example" inside directories called
  39      "Test" or "test", that occur inside any top level directory.
  40
  41   Using extended wildcards, negative matching is also possible.
  42
  43   3. mksquashfs example image.sqsh -wildcards -e 'test/!(*data*).gz'
  44
  45      Exclude all files matching "*.gz" in top level directory "test",
  46      except those with "data" in the name.
  47
  48 1.2 Non-anchored excludes
  49
  50   By default excludes match from the top level directory, but it is
  51   often useful to exclude a file matching anywhere in the source directories.
  52   For this non-anchored excludes can be used, specified by pre-fixing the
  53   exclude with "...".
  54
  55   Examples:
  56
  57   1. mksquashfs example image.sqsh -wildcards -e '... *.gz'
  58
  59      Exclude files matching "*.gz" anywhere in the source directories.
  60      For example this will match "example.gz", "test/example.gz", and
  61      "test/test/example.gz".
  62
  63   2. mksquashfs example image.sqsh -wildcards -e '... [Tt]est/*.gz'
  64
  65      Exclude files matching "*.gz" inside directories called "Test" or
  66      "test" that occur anywhere in the source directories.
  67
  68   Again, using extended wildcards, negative matching is also possible.
  69
  70   3. mksquashfs example image.sqsh -wildcards -e '... !(*data*).gz'
  71
  72      Exclude all files matching "*.gz" anywhere in the source directories,
  73      except those with "data" in the name.
  74
  75 2. Regular expression pattern matching now supported in exclude files
  76
  77   Enabled by specifying -regex option.  Identical behaviour to wild
  78 card pattern matching, except patterns are considered to be regular
  79 expressions.
  80
  81   Supports both anchored and non-anchored exclude files.
  82
  83
  84 2. MKSQUASHFS - NEW RECOVERY FILE FEATURE
  85 -----------------------------------------
  86
  87 Recovery files are now created when appending to existing Squashfs
  88 filesystems.  This allows the original filesystem to be recovered
  89 if Mksquashfs aborts unexpectedly (i.e. power failure).
  90
  91 The recovery files are called squashfs_recovery_xxx_yyy, where
  92 "xxx" is the name of the filesystem being appended to, and "yyy" is a
  93 number to guarantee filename uniqueness (the PID of the parent Mksquashfs
  94 process).
  95
  96 Normally if Mksquashfs exits correctly the recovery file is deleted to
  97 avoid cluttering the filesystem.  If Mksquashfs aborts, the "-recover"
  98 option can be used to recover the filesystem, giving the previously
  99 created recovery file as a parameter, i.e.
 100
 101 mksquashfs dummy image.sqsh -recover squashfs_recovery_image.sqsh_1234
 102
 103 The writing of the recovery file can be disabled by specifying the
 104 "-no-recovery" option.
 105
 106
 107 3. UNSQUASHFS - EXTENDED EXTRACT FILE HANDLING
 108 ----------------------------------------------
 109
 110 1. Multiple extract files can now be specified on the command line, and the
 111 files/directories to be extracted can now also be given in a file.
 112
 113 To specify a file containing the extract files use the "-e[f]" option.
 114
 115 2. Extended wildcard pattern matching now supported in extract files
 116
 117   Enabled by default.  Similar to existing extract files except with
 118 wildcards.
 119
 120   Examples:
 121
 122   1. unsquashfs image.sqsh 'test/*.gz'
 123
 124      Extract all files matching "*.gz" in the top level directory "test".
 125
 126   2. unsquashfs image.sqsh '[Tt]est/example*'
 127
 128      Extract all files beginning with "example" inside top level directories
 129      called "Test" or "test".
 130
 131   Using extended wildcards, negative matching is also possible.
 132
 133   3. unsquashfs image.sqsh 'test/!(*data*).gz'
 134
 135      Extract all files matching "*.gz" in top level directory "test",
 136      except those with "data" in the name.
 137
 138 3. Regular expression pattern matching now supported in extract files
 139
 140   Enabled by specifying -r[egex] option.  Identical behaviour to wild
 141 card pattern matching, except patterns are considered to be regular
 142 expressions.
 143
 144 4. UNSQUASHFS - EXTENDED FILENAME PRINTING
 145 ------------------------------------------
 146
 147 Filename printing has been enhanced and Unquashfs can now display filenames
 148 with file attributes ('ls -l' style output).
 149
 150 New options:
 151
 152   -ll[s]
 153
 154    list filesystem with file attributes, but don't unsquash
 155
 156   -li[nfo]
 157
 158    print files as they are unsquashed with file attributes
 159
 160
 161 5. UNSQUASHFS - MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS
 162 -------------------------------------
 163
 164    -s[tat]
 165
 166    Display the filesystem superblock information.  This is useful to
 167    discover the filesystem version, byte ordering, whether it has an
 168    NFS export table, and what options were used to compress
 169    the filesystem.