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Hello everyone,

I am about to release the first version of an utility to build disk image files. I know that there are already many existant ones, but my approach is going to be different from what actually exists.
As a contrary to other utilities, it is going to use a file containing all the information about the disk image to write. Actually, that is the sector size, sector count, as well as a list of sectors whose contents always stay the same (such as the first sector, containing the bootsector), and other information.

The utility builds a disk image in 3 steps :

• Read the configuration file. Since it ressembles a disk map, I decided just to call it a Disk Map File (DMF for short). From the information in that file, it builds a map of the disk, listing the specified sectors.
• Then, it is possible to execute one or more agents that will change the disk map, taking parameters from extra information present in the DMF. This is useful if you want to put a filesystem on the disk image without need to call an external tool.
• Finally, it writes the sectors into the image file, possibly with some transformation, allowing it to support fimage file formats other than raw flat images, or simply compress the output.

The need for such an utility grew when I started to implement my Operating System, and wanted to make my build system runnable on any system, even on my own system in its early times. It was easier for me to integrate all those image options in the image building program rather than porting each single tool. I have been doing a relatively short time in research, and then started to implement it one month ago. I will release it open source, under GPL license.

I plan on releasing it in approximately 1 week. For the first version, there will only be support for writing a FAT(12/16/32) filesystem onto an image file, either by specifying each file and directory to create, or by simply replicating a directory already present in the host's file system. For the output, there won't initially be transformations available.
I will release it on sourceforge, under the name 'imagebuilder', in all simplicity.

If anyone is interested, please let me know ( abstractsky (at) ymail (dot) com )

Hi, I have similar project named "imagen". Scripts and interactive work with files/directories are supported. FAT12/16 and FAT32 are supported through different modules (they work as FS drivers). Now I use only flat disk images but I want to implement sparse images.

If you will wish to discuss your project in details post me here or through my mail box: phantomera [at] hotmail [dot] com.

@egos : OK, I'll send you mail

egos, spambots often frequent public forums...

I'll take that into account, thanks!

Oops, I didn't even notice the OP also provided his e-mail. The safest way to exchange e-mails would be via PM's. Anyway, you know best.

Due to technical issues, I'll need to reimplement the whole tool. Hence, I'll need more time.