mksquashfs (1) - Linux Manuals

mksquashfs: tool to create and append to squashfs filesystems

NAME

mksquashfs - tool to create and append to squashfs filesystems

SYNOPSIS

mksquashfs SOURCE [SOURCE2 ...] DESTINATION [OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION

Squashfs is a highly compressed read-only filesystem for Linux. It uses zlib compression to compress both files, inodes and directories. Inodes in the system are very small and all blocks are packed to minimize data overhead. Block sizes greater than 4K are supported up to a maximum of 64K.

Squashfs is intended for general read-only filesystem use, for archival use (i.e. in cases where a .tar.gz file may be used), and in constrained block device/memory systems (e.g. embedded systems) where low overhead is needed.

OPTIONS

Filesystem build options

-comp COMPRESSION
select COMPRESSION compression. Compressors available: gzip (default), lzo, xz.
-b BLOCK_SIZE
set data block to BLOCK_SIZE. Default 131072 bytes.
-no-exports
don't make the filesystem exportable via NFS.
-no-sparse
don't detect sparse files.
-no-xattrs
don't store extended attributes.
-xattrs
store extended attributes (default).
-noI
do not compress inode table.
-noD
do not compress data blocks.
-noF
do not compress fragment blocks.
-noX
do not compress extended attributes.
-no-fragments
do not use fragments.
-always-use-fragments
use fragment blocks for files larger than block size.
-no-duplicates
do not perform duplicate checking.
-all-root
make all files owned by root.
-force-uid uid
set all file uids to uid.
-force-gid gid
set all file gids to gid.
-nopad
do not pad filesystem to a multiple of 4K.
-keep-as-directory
if one source directory is specified, create a root directory containing that directory, rather than the contents of the directory.

Filesystem filter options

-p PSEUDO_DEFINITION
Add pseudo file definition.
-pf PSEUDO_FILE
Add list of pseudo file definitions.
-sort SORT_FILE
sort files according to priorities in SORT_FILE. One file or dir with priority per line. Priority -32768 to 32767, default priority 0.
-ef EXCLUDE_FILE
list of exclude dirs/files. One per line.
-wildcards
Allow extended shell wildcards (globbing) to be used in exclude dirs/files
-regex
Allow POSIX regular expressions to be used in exclude dirs/files.

Filesystem append options

-noappend
do not append to existing filesystem.
-root-becomes NAME
when appending source files/directories, make the original root become a subdirectory in the new root called NAME, rather than adding the new source items to the original root.

Mksquashfs runtime options:

-version
print version, licence and copyright message.
-recover NAME
recover filesystem data using recovery file NAME.
-no-recovery
don't generate a recovery file.
-info
print files written to filesystem.
-no-progress
don't display the progress bar.
-processors NUMBER
Use NUMBER processors. By default will use number of processors available.
-read-queue SIZE
Set input queue to SIZE Mbytes. Default 64 Mbytes.
-write-queue SIZE
Set output queue to SIZE Mbytes. Default 512 Mbytes.
-fragment-queue SIZE
Set fragment queue to SIZE Mbytes. Default 64 Mbytes.

Miscellaneous options

-root-owned
alternative name for -all-root.
-noInodeCompression
alternative name for -noI.
-noDataCompression
alternative name for -noD.
-noFragmentCompression
alternative name for -noF.
-noXattrCompression
alternative name for -noX.

Compressors available and compressor specific options

gzip (no options) (default)
lzo (no options)
xz
-Xbcj filter1,filter2,...,filterN
Compress using filter1,filter2,...,filterN in turn (in addition to no filter), and choose the best compression. Available filters: x86, arm, armthumb, powerpc, sparc, ia64.
-Xdict-size DICT_SIZE
Use DICT_SIZE as the XZ dictionary size. The dictionary size can be specified as a percentage of the block size, or as an absolute value. The dictionary size must be less than or equal to the block size and 8192 bytes or larger. It must also be storable in the xz header as either 2^n or as 2^n+2^(n+1). Example dict-sizes are 75%, 50%, 37.5%, 25%, or 32K, 16K, 8K etc.

HOMEPAGE

More information about mksquashfs and the squashfs filesystem can be found at <http://squashfs.sourceforge.net/>.

AUTHOR

squashfs was written by Phillip Lougher <phillip [at] squashfs.org.uk>.

This manual page was written by Daniel Baumann <mail [at] daniel-baumann.ch>.

SEE ALSO

unsquashfs(1)