SQUASHFS 1.3r3 - A squashed read-only filesystem for Linux
Copyright 2004 Phillip Lougher (phillip@lougher.demon.co.uk)
Released under the GPL licence (version 2 or later).
Squashfs is currently at version 1.3 release 3. Please see the CHANGES file
for recent changes to squashfs.
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 minimise
data overhead. Block sizes greater than 4K are supported up to a maximum
of 32K.
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.
The section 'mksquashfs' gives information on using the mksquashfs tool to
create and append to squashfs filesystems. The 'using squashfs' section
gives information on mounting and using squashfs filesystems stored on block
devices and as normal files using the loopback device.
1. Squashfs overview
--------------------
1. Data, inodes and directories are compressed.
2. Squashfs stores full uid/gids (32 bits), and file creation time.
3. Files up to 2^32 bytes are supported. Filesystems can be up to
2^32 bytes.
4. Inode and directory data are highly compacted, and packed on byte
boundaries. Each compressed inode is on average 8 bytes in length
(the exact length varies on file type, i.e. regular file, directory,
symbolic link, and block/char device inodes have different sizes).
5. Squashfs can use block sizes up to 32K (the default size is 32K).
Using 32K blocks achieves greater compression ratios than the normal
4K block size.
6. File duplicates are detected and removed.
7. Both big and little endian architectures are supported. Squashfs can
mount filesystems created on different byte order machines.
2. mksquashfs
-------------
As squashfs is a read-only filesystem, the mksquashfs program must be used to
create populated squashfs filesystems. Beginning with Squashfs 1.2, mksquashfs
will also append directories and files to pre-existing squashfs filesystems, see
the following 'appending to squashfs filesystems' subsection.
SYNTAX:mksquashfs source1 source2 ... dest [options] [-e list of exclude dirs/files]
Options are
-info print files written to filesystem
-b block size size of blocks in filesystem, default 32768
-noappend Do not append to existing filesystem on dest, write a new filesystem
This is the default action if dest does not exist, or if no filesystem is on it
-keep-as-directory If one source directory is specified, create a root directory
containing that directory, rather than the contents of the directory
-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
-noI -noInodeCompression do not compress inode table
-noD -noDataCompression do not compress data blocks
-nopad do not pad filesystem to a multiple of 4K
-check_data add checkdata for greater filesystem checks
-le create a little endian filesystem
-be create a big endian filesystem
-ef exclude file file is a list of exclude dirs/files - one per line
-version print version, licence and copyright message
Source1 source2 ... are the source directories/files containing the
files/directories that will form the squashfs filesystem. If a single
directory is specified (i.e. mksquashfs source output_fs) the squashfs
filesystem will consist of that directory, with the top-level root
directory corresponding to the source directory.
If multiple source directories or files are specified, mksquashfs will merge
the specified sources into a single filesystem, with the root directory
containing each of the source files/directories. The name of each directory
entry will be the basename of the source path. If more than one source
entry maps to the same name, the conflicts are named xxx_1, xxx_2, etc. where
xxx is the original name.
To make this clear, take two example directories. Source directory
"/home/phillip/test" contains "file1", "file2" and "dir1".
Source directory "goodies" contains "goodies1", "goodies2" and "goodies3".
usage example 1:
%mksquashfs /home/phillip/test output_fs
This will generate a squashfs filesystem with root entries
"file1", "file2" and "dir1".
example 2:
%mksquashfs /home/phillip/test goodies output_fs
This will create a squashfs filesystem with the root containing
entries "test" and "goodies" corresponding to the source
directories "/home/phillip/test" and "goodies".
example 3:
%mksquashfs /home/phillip/test goodies test output_fs
This is the same as the previous example, except a third
source directory "test" has been specified. This conflicts
with the first directory named "test" and will be renamed "test_1".
Multiple sources allow filesystems to be generated without needing to
copy all source files into a common directory. This simplifies creating
filesystems.
The -keep-as-directory option can be used when only one source directory
is specified, and you wish the root to contain that directory, rather than
the contents of the directory. For example:
example 4:
%mksquashfs /home/phillip/test output_fs -keep-as-directory
This is the same as example 1, except for -keep-as-directory.
This will generate a root directory containing directory "test",
rather than the "test" directory contents "file1", "file2" and "dir1".
The Dest argument is the destination where the squashfs filesystem will be
written. This can either be a conventional file or a block device. If the file
doesn't exist it will be created, if it does exist and a squashfs
filesystem exists on it, mksquashfs will append. The -noappend option will
write a new filesystem irrespective of whether an existing filesystem is present.
The -e and -ef options allow files/directories to be specified which are
excluded from the output filesystem. The -e option takes the exclude
files/directories from the command line, the -ef option takes the
exlude files/directories from the specified exclude file, one file/directory
per line. If an exclude file/directory is absolute (i.e. prefixed with /, ../,
or ./) the entry is treated as absolute, however, if an exclude file/directory
is relative, it is treated as being relative to each of the sources in turn,
i.e.
%mksquashfs /tmp/source1 source2 output_fs -e ex1 /tmp/source1/ex2 out/ex3
Will generate exclude files /tmp/source1/ex2, /tmp/source1/ex1, source2/ex1,
/tmp/source1/out/ex3 and source2/out/ex3.
The -e and -ef exclude options are usefully used in archiving the entire
filesystem, where it is wished to avoid archiving /proc, and the filesystem
being generated, i.e.
%mksquashfs / /tmp/root.sqsh -e proc /tmp/root.sqsh
Multiple -ef options can be specified on the command line, and the -ef
option can be used in conjuction with the -e option.
The -info option displays the files/directories as they are compressed and
added to the filesystem. The compression percentage achieved is printed, with
the original uncompressed size. If the compression percentage is listed as
0% it means the file is a duplicate.
The -b option allows the block size to be selected, this can be either
512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, or 32768 bytes.
The -noI and -noD options (also -noInodeCompression and -noDataCompression)
can be used to force mksquashfs to not compress inodes/directories and data
respectively. Giving both options generates an uncompressed filesystem.
The -le and -be options can be used to force mksquashfs to generate a little
endian or big endian filesystem. Normally mksquashfs will generate a
filesystem in the host byte order. Squashfs, for portability, will
mount different ordered filesystems (i.e. it can mount big endian filesystems
running on a little endian machine), but these options can be used for
greater optimisation.
The -nopad option informs mksquashfs to not pad the filesystem to a 4K multiple.
This is performed by default to enable the output filesystem file to be mounted
by loopback, which requires files to be a 4K multiple. If the filesystem is
being written to a block device, or is to be stored in a bootimage, the extra
pad bytes are not needed.
2.1 appending to squashfs filesystems
-------------------------------------
Beginning with squashfs1.2, mksquashfs can append to existing squashfs
filesystems. Three extra options "-noappend", "-keep-as-directory",
and "root-becomes" have been added.
Running squashfs with the destination directory containing an existing
filesystem, will add the source items to the existing filesystem. By default,
the source items are added to the existing root directory.
To make this clear... An existing filesystem "image" contains root entries
"old1", and "old2". Source directory "/home/phillip/test" contains "file1",
"file2" and "dir1".
example 1:
%mksquashfs /home/phillip/test image
Will create a new "image" with root entries "old1", "old2", "file1", "file2" and
"dir1"
example 2:
%mksquashfs /home/phillip/test image -keep-as-directory
Will create a new "image" with root entries "old1", "old2", and "test".
As shown in the previous section, for single source directories
'-keep-as-directory' adds the source directory rather than the
contents of the directory.
example 3:
%mksquashfs /home/phillip/test image -keep-as-directory -root-becomes original-root
Will create a new "image" with root entries "original-root", and "test". The
'-root-becomes' option specifies that the original root becomes a subdirectory
in the new root, with the specified name.
The append option with file duplicate detection, means squashfs can be
used as a simple versioning archiving filesystem. A squashfs filesystem can
be created with for example the linux-2.4.19 source. Appending the linux-2.4.20
source will create a filesystem with the two source trees, but only the
changed files will take extra room, the unchanged files will be detected as
duplicates.
3. Using squashfs
-----------------
Squashfs filesystems should be mounted with 'mount' with the filesystem type
'squashfs'. If the filesystem is on a block device, the filesystem can be
mounted directly, e.g.
%mount -t squashfs /dev/sda1 /mnt
Will mount the squashfs filesystem on "/dev/sda1" under the directory "/mnt".
If the squashfs filesystem has been written to a file, the loopback device
can be used to mount it (loopback support must be in the kernel), e.g.
%mount -t squashfs image /mnt -o loop
Will mount the squashfs filesystem in the file "image" under
the directory "/mnt".
4. Filesystem layout
--------------------
Brief filesystem design notes follow.
A squashfs filesystem consists of five parts, packed together on a byte alignment:
---------------
| superblock |
|---------------|
| data |
| blocks |
|---------------|
| inodes |
|---------------|
| directories |
|---------------|
| uid/gid |
| lookup table |
---------------
Compressed data blocks are written to the filesystem as files are read from
the source directory, and checked for duplicates. Once all file data has been
written the completed inode, directory and uid/gid lookup tables are written.
4.1 Metadata
------------
Metadata (inodes and directories) are compressed in 8Kbyte blocks. Each
compressed block is prefixed by a two byte length, the top bit is set if the
block is uncompressed. A block will be uncompressed if the -noI option is set,
or if the compressed block was larger than the uncompressed block.
Inodes are packed into the metadata blocks, and are not aligned to block
boundaries, therefore inodes overlap compressed blocks. An inode is
identified by a two field tuple <start address of compressed block : offset
into de-compressed block>.
Inode contents vary depending on the file type. The base inode consists of:
base inode:
Inode type
Mode
uid index
gid index
The inode type is 4 bits in size, and the mode is 12 bits.
The uid and gid indexes are 4 bits in length. Ordinarily, this will allow 16
unique indexes into the uid table. To minimise overhead, the uid index is
used in conjunction with the spare bit in the file type to form a 48 entry
index as follows:
inode type 1 - 5: uid index = uid
inode type 5 -10: uid index = 16 + uid
inode type 11 - 15: uid index = 32 + uid
In this way 48 unique uids are supported using 4 bits, minimising data inode
overhead. The 4 bit gid index is used to index into a 15 entry gid table.
Gid index 15 is used to indicate that the gid is the same as the uid.
This prevents the 15 entry gid table filling up with the common case where
the uid/gid is the same.
The data contents of symbolic links are stored immediately after the symbolic
link inode, inside the inode table. This allows the normally small symbolic
link to be compressed as part of the inode table, achieving much greater
compression than if the symbolic link was compressed individually.
Similarly, the block index for regular files is stored immediately after the
regular file inode. The block index is a list of block lengths (two bytes
each), rather than block addresses, saving two bytes per block. The block
address for a given block is computed by the summation of the previous
block lengths. This takes advantage of the fact that the blocks making up a
file are stored contiguously in the filesystem. The top bit of each block
length is set if the block is uncompressed, either because the -noD option is
set, or if the compressed block was larger than the uncompressed block.
4.2 Directories
---------------
Like inodes, directories are packed into the metadata blocks, and are not
aligned on block boundaries, therefore directories can overlap compressed
blocks. A directory is, again, identified by a two field tuple
<start address of compressed block containing directory start : offset
into de-compressed block>.
Directories are organised in a slightly complex way, and are not simply
a list of file names and inode tuples. The organisation takes advantage of the
observation that in most cases, the inodes of the files in the directory
will be in the same compressed metadata block, and therefore, the
inode tuples will have the same start block.
Directories are therefore organised in a two level list, a directory
header containing the shared start block value, and a sequence of
directory entries, each of which share the shared start block. A
new directory header is written once/if the inode start block
changes. The directory header/directory entry list is repeated as many times
as necessary. The organisation is as follows:
directory_header:
count (8 bits)
inode start block (24 bits)
directory entry: * count
inode offset (13 bits)
inode type (3 bits)
filename size (8 bits)
filename
This organisation saves on average 3 bytes per filename.
4.3 File data
-------------
File data is compressed on a block by block basis and written to the
filesystem. The filesystem supports up to 32K blocks, which achieves
greater compression ratios than the Linux 4K page size.
The disadvantage with using greater than 4K blocks (and the reason why
most filesystems do not), is that the VFS reads data in 4K pages.
The filesystem reads and decompresses a larger block containing that page
(e.g. 32K). However, only 4K can be returned to the VFS, resulting in a
very inefficient filesystem, as 28K must be thrown away. Squashfs,
solves this problem by explicitly pushing the extra pages into the page
cache.
5. Author info
--------------
Squashfs was written by Phillip Lougher, email phillip@lougher.demon.co.uk,
in Chepstow, Wales, UK. If you like the program, or have any problems,
then please email me, as it's nice to get feedback!
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