1:growisofs
From Linux Man Pages
growisofs - combined mkisofs frontend/DVD recording program.
growisofs [-dry-run] [-dvd-compat] [-overburn] [-speed=1] -[Z|M] /dev/dvd <mkisofs-options>
Contents |
DESCRIPTION
growisofs was originally designed as a frontend to mkisofs to facilitate appending of data to ISO9660 volumes
residing on random-access media such as DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, plain files, hard disk partitions. In the course of
development general purpose DVD recording support was implemented, and as of now growisofs supports not only ran-
dom-access media, but even mastering of multi-session DVD media such as DVD+R and DVD-R/-RW. In addition grow-
isofs supports first-/single-session recording of arbitrary pre-mastered image (formatted as UDF, ISO9660 or any
other file system, if formatted at all) to all supported DVD media types.
OPTIONS
-Z /dev/dvd
Burn an initial session to the selected device. A special form of this option is recognized to support
burning of pre-mastered images. See EXAMPLES section for further details.
-M /dev/dvd
Merge a new session to an existing one.
-version
Print version information and invoke mkisofs, also with -version option.
-dvd-compat
Provide maximum media compatibility with DVD-ROM/-Video. In write-once context (DVD+R and DVD-R) this
results in unappendable recording (closed disk). In DVD+RW context it instructs the logical unit to
explicitly burn [otherwise optional] lead-out.
-dry-run
At dry-run growisofs performs all the steps till, but not including the first write operation. Most
notably check for "overburn" condition is performed, which implies that mkisofs is invoked and terminated
prematurely.
-overburn
Normally DVD media can accommodate up to approximately 4.700.000.000 bytes (in marketing speech 4.7GB). In
other words a DVD can contain about 4.377 GiB or 4482 MiB. Growisofs won't start without this option, if
"overburn" condition appears to be unavoidable.
-speed=N
An option to control recording velocity. Most commonly you'll use -speed=1 with "no-name" media, if
default speed settings messes up the media. Keep in mind that N essentially denotes speed closest to
N*1385KBps among those offered by unit for currently mounted media. The list can be found in dvd+rw-medi-
ainfo output.
<mkisofs-options>
More options can be found in the manpage for mkisofs.
There are several undocumented options commonly denoted with -use-the-force-luke prefix. Some of them serve
debugging purposes. Some require certain knowledge about recording process or even OS kernel internals and as
being such can induce confusing behaviour. Some are to be used in very specific situations better recognized by
front-ends or automated scripts. Rationale behind leaving these options undocumented is that those few users who
would actually need to use them directly can as well consult the source code or obtain specific instructions
elsewhere.
DIFFERENCES WITH RUNNING MKISOFS DIRECTLY
When using growisofs you may not use the -o option for an output file. growisofs dumps the image directly to the
media;
You don't have to specify the -C option to create a higher level session on a multi session disk, growisofs will
construct one for you;
Otherwise everything that applies to [multi-session] mastering with mkisofs applies to growisofs as well. grow-
isofs needs at least mkisofs version 1.14, version 2.0 is required for multi-session write-once recordings.
EXAMPLES
Actual device names vary from one operating system to another. We use /dev/dvd as a collective name or as sym-
bolic link to the actual device if you wish. Under Linux it will most likely be an ide-scsi device such as
"/dev/scd0." Under NetBSD/OpenBSD it has to be a character SCSI CD-ROM device such as "/dev/rcd0c." Under Solaris
it also has to be a character SCSI/ATAPI CD-ROM device, e.g. "/dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s2" or "/vol/dev/aliases/cdrom0."
And likewise in HP-UX and IRIX...
To master and burn an ISO9660 volume with Joliet and Rock-Ridge extensions on a DVD:
growisofs -Z /dev/dvd -R -J /some/files
To append more data to same DVD:
growisofs -M /dev/dvd -R -J /more/files
Make sure to use the same options for both initial burning and when appending data.
To finalize the multi-session DVD maintaining maximum compatibility:
growisofs -M /dev/dvd=/dev/zero
To use growisofs to write a pre-mastered ISO-image to a DVD:
growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=image.iso
where image.iso represents an arbitrary object in the filesystem, such as file, named pipe or device entry. Noth-
ing is growing here and command name is not intuitive in this context.
NOTES
If executed under sudo(8) growisofs refuses to start. This is done for the following reason. Naturally growisofs has to access the data set to be recorded to DVD media, either indirectly by letting mkisofs generate ISO9660 layout on-the-fly or directly if a pre-mastered image is to be recorded. Being executed under sudo(8), growisofs effectively grants sudoers read access to any file in the file system. The situation is intensified by the fact that growisofs parses MKISOFS environment variable in order to determine alternative path to mkisofs executable image. This means that being executed under sudo(8), growisofs effectively grants sudoers right to execute pro- gram of their choice with elevated privileges. If you for any reason still find the above acceptable and are willing to take the consequences, then consider running following wrapper script under sudo(8) in place for real growisofs binary. #!/bin/ksh unset SUDO_COMMAND export MKISOFS=/path/to/trusted/mkisofs exec growisofs "$@" But note that the recommended alternative to the above "workaround" is actually to install growisofs set-root-uid, in which case it will drop privileges prior accessing data or executing mkisofs in order to pre- clude unauthorized access to the data. If the media already carries isofs and growisofs is invoked with -Z option non-interactively, e.g. through cron, it shall fail with "FATAL: /dev/dvd already carries isofs!" Note that only ISO9660 is recognized, you can per- fectly zap e.g. an UDF filesystem non-interactively. Recommendation is to prepare media for unattended usage by re-formatting or nullifying first 64KB in advance. "Overburn" protection in pre-mastered image context works only with plain files and ISO9660 formatted volumes. E.g. [given that /dev/root is an ext2 formatted file system larger than 4.7GB] /dev/dvd=/dev/root is bound to produce corrupted recording. Note that DVD+RW re-formatting procedure does not substitute for blanking. If you want to nullify the media, e.g. for privacy reasons, do it explicitly with 'growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=/dev/zero'. Playback of re-writable DVD media, both DVD+RW and DVD-RW, might be limited in legacy DVD-ROM/-Video units. In most cases this is due to lower reflectivity of such media. Even though growisofs supports it, playback of multi-session write-once DVD might be limited to the first session for two reasons: � not all DVD-ROM players are capable of multi-border DVD-R playback, even less are aware of DVD+R multi- sessioning, burner unit therefore might be the only one in your vicinity capable of accessing files writ- ten at different occasions; � OS might fail to mount multi-session DVD for various reasons; The above is not applicable to DVD+RW, DVD-RW Restricted Overwrite or DVD-RAM, as volumes are grown within a sin- gle session.
RELATED
Most up-to-date information on dvd+rw-tools is available at http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/. The manpage for mkisofs.
LICENSE
growisofs is distributed under GNU GPL.
growisofs 6.0 13 Dec 2005 GROWISOFS(1m)