Re: New tool for packing files into an ISO image

["Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net>]

Hi,

Tom Horsley wrote:
> > > http://home.comcast.net/~tomhorsley/software/isopack/isopack.html
> BitBucket wrote:
> > What would be an 'old' tool for packing files into an ISO image that
> > you were improving upon?  Looking for Windows GUI-based tools here,
> >  to pack offloads onto DVDs.
> As far as I know, there is no old tool for doing this.

Meanwhile 12 years old is my scdbackup. It puts a given set of file trees
onto one or more media. The emphasis is more on safety with moving
targets than on optimum usage of the media capacity, though.
If it would squeeze out the last few sectors, then it would be
very prone to changes of file tree sizes.

isopack got more packing algorithms than scdbackup. But it seems that
you are planning only for a single medium. I understand you plan
for leaving out those file groups which do not belong to the chosen
packing.
This leaves me with the question, how the user learns about those
groups which did not make it yet and would be candidates for the
next ISO image in the next medium.

In scdbackup i have an algorithm similar to your ffd. Once it was
default. But i dropped it in favor of a more wasteful alphabetic
packing, which leads to a set of backup volumes that can be labeled
like an encyclopedia.

Another question i have, is how you predict the exact size of an
ISO 9660 image with Rock Ridge. It is not impossible but depends
on the internals of the ISO 9660 generator program.
So in principle one can only trust the -print-size result with the
whole tree of files which would be candidates for the image.


> I haven't yet tried writing a disc packed
> via isopack to see if it really does fit :-)

The sizes on the web page look ok.
Maybe you could add some re-usable ones:
   2295104     12 cm DVD+RW 
   2297888     12 cm DVD-RW formatted (profile 0x13)
   2298496     12 cm DVD-RW not formatted (profile 0x14)
  11826176     12 cm BD-RE single layer, default format
  12219392     12 cm BD-RE single layer, formatted to 0 spare blocks

Further, consider to mention that BD-R may be formatted and thus may
have less sectors of payload than the maximum values on your web page.
Default formatted size is 11826176.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas