Overhauled description of media types, states and expansion methods

This commit is contained in:
Thomas Schmitt 2007-12-05 14:39:13 +00:00
parent 71ca7e0eb3
commit de06347f6f

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@ -61,6 +61,8 @@ Provides navigation commands for interactive ISO image manipulation.
.br
Session model
.br
Media types and states
.br
Creating, Growing, Modifying
.br
Libburn drives
@ -97,26 +99,25 @@ This session usually contains an updated directory tree for the whole media
which governs the data contents in all recorded sessions.
So in the view of the mount program all sessions of a particular media
together form a single filesystem image.
.br
Adding a session to an existing ISO image is in this text referred as
\fBgrowing\fR.
.br
The multi-session model of the MMC standard does not apply to all all media
types. But program growisofs by Andy Polyakov showed how to extend this
functionality to overwriteable media or disk files which carry valid ISO 9660
filesystems. This expansion method is referred as as emulated growing.
.PP
The multi-session model of the MMC standard applies to CD-R[W], to DVD-R, to
certain states of DVD-RW, and to DVD+R. But it does not apply to overwriteable
MMC media like DVD-RAM, DVD+RW, formatted DVD-RW, and of course not to disk
files or non-CD/DVD block devices.
.br
Program growisofs by Andy Polyakov showed how to extend this functionality
to overwriteable media or disk files which carry valid ISO 9660 filesystems.
These two expansion methods are referred as \fBgrowing\fR in this text.
.br
xorriso provides both ways of growing as well as an own method named
\fBmodifying\fR which produces a completely new ISO image from the old
one and the modifications. See next paragraph for details.
one and the modifications. See paragraph Creating, Growing, Modifying below.
.PP
xorriso adopts the concept of multi-session by loading an eventual image
directory tree, allowing to manipulate it by several actions, and to write
the new image to the target media.
.br
The first session of a xorriso run begins by the definition of the input
drive with the eventual ISO image or by the definition of an output file.
drive with the eventual ISO image or by the definition of an output drive.
The session ends by command -commit which triggers writing. A -commit is
done automatically when the program ends regularly.
.PP
@ -132,14 +133,58 @@ session.
In some special situations (e.g. in a file-to-file situation) it can be
useful to store intermediate states and to continue with image manipulations.
.SS
.B Creating, Growing, Modifying
.B Media types and states:
There are two families of media in the MMC standard:
.br
\fBMulti-session\fR media are CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, and
unformatted DVD-RW. These media provide a table of content which
describes their existing sessions.
.br
\fBOverwriteable\fR media are DVD-RAM, DVD+RW, and formatted DVD-RW.
They allow random write access but do not provide information about their
session history.
.br
DVD-RW media can be formatted by -format full.
They can be made unformatted by -blank deformat.
.br
Emulated drives are handled as overwriteable media if they are random
read-write accessible. If they are only sequentially writeable then
they are handled as blank multi-session media.
.PP
These media can assume several states in which they offer different
capabilities.
.br
\fBBlank\fR media can be written from scratch. They contain no ISO image
suitable for xorriso.
.br
Blank is the state of newly purchased optical media.
With used CD-RW and DVD-RW it can be achieved by action -blank fast.
Overwriteable media are considered blank unless they contain an ISO image
suitable for xorriso.
.br
\fBAppendable\fR media accept further sessions. Either they are MMC
multi-session media in appendable state, or they are overwriteable media
which contain an ISO image suitable for xorriso.
.br
Appendable is the state after writing a session with option -close off.
.br
\fBClosed\fR media cannot be written. They may contain an ISO image suitable
for xorriso.
.br
Closed is the state of DVD-ROM media and of multi-session media which were
written with option -close on. If the drive is incapable of writing it will
probably show any media as closed CD-ROM resp. DVD-ROM.
.br
Overwriteable media assume this state only in such read-only drives.
.SS
.B Creating, Growing, Modifying:
.br
A new empty ISO image gets created if there is no input drive with a valid
ISO 9660 image plus Rock Ridge extensions when the first time an output drive
is defined. This is achieved by option -dev on blank media or by option -outdev
on media in any state.
.br
The new image can be populated with directories and files.
The new empty image can be populated with directories and files.
Before it can be written, the media in the output drive must get into
blank state if it was not blank already.
.PP
@ -171,9 +216,9 @@ filesystem objects as source and/or target media.
.SS
.B Libburn drives:
.br
Input drive, i.e. source of an existing ISO image, can be any random access
readable libburn drive: optical media with readable data, regular files,
block devices.
Input drive, i.e. source of an existing or empty ISO image, can be any random
access readable libburn drive: optical media with readable data or blank,
regular files, block devices.
.br
Rock Ridge info must be present in existing ISO images and it will be generated
by the program unconditionally.
@ -259,7 +304,8 @@ Be aware that the interaction of quotation marks and pattern symbols like "*"
differs from the usual shell parsers. In xorriso, a quotation mark does not
make a pattern symbol literal.
.PP
When the program begins then it first looks for its startup files and
When the program begins then it first looks for argument -no_rc. If this is
not present then it looks for its startup files and
eventually reads their content as command input lines. Then it interprets
the program arguments as commands and parameters and finally it enters
dialog mode if command -dialog "on" was executed up to then.
@ -273,6 +319,11 @@ event which triggers the threshold of command -abort_on.
Options marked with prefix '>' are not implemented yet.
.br
Options with prefix '?' are not tested yet.
.br
All command words are shown with a leading dash although this dash is not
mandatory for the option to be recognized. There may be future emulation
modes, where dashes may become mandatory in order to distinguish options
from file addresses.
.TP
.B Aquiring source and target drive:
.TP
@ -290,7 +341,7 @@ without aquiring a new one.
.TP
\fB\-indev\fR address
Set input drive and load eventual ISO image. If the new input drive differs
from outdev then switch from growing to modifying. The same rules and
from -outdev then switch from growing to modifying. The same rules and
restrictions apply as with -dev.
.TP
\fB\-outdev\fR address
@ -307,7 +358,7 @@ An empty address string gives up the current output drive
without aquiring a new one. No writing is possible without an output drive.
.TP
\fB\-ban_stdio_write\fR
Allow for writing only the usage of optical drives. Disallow
Allow for writing only the usage of MMC optical drives. Disallow
to write the result into files of nearly arbitrary type.
Once set, this command cannot be revoked.
.TP
@ -930,7 +981,7 @@ made ready for being overwritten and the loaded ISO image is made empty.
In order to be able to eject the media, the session needs to be committed
explicitely.
.br
\fB$\fR xorriso -graft-points -dialog on -page 20 80
.B $ xorriso -graft-points -dialog on -page 20 80
.br
enter option and arguments :
.br
@ -966,7 +1017,7 @@ Load image from drive.
Remove (i.e. hide) directory /sounds and its subordinates.
Rename directory /pictures/confidential to /pictures/restricted.
Change access permissions of directory /pictures/restricted.
Add new directory trees /sounds and /movies. Burn to the same DVD and eject.
Add new directory trees /sounds and /movies. Burn to the same media and eject.
.br
\fB$\fR xorriso -dev /dev/sr2 \\
-rm_r /sounds -- \\