Re: bootcd, xorrisso, debian-cd, making an iso of a current system and backing up
Hi,
Semih Ozlem wrote:
> Can someone familiar with bootcd, xorriso, debian-cd explain how and for
> what purpose those commands are used?
xorriso produces and manipulates ISO 9660 filesystems, which may be
bootable from optical media and disk-like media.
debian-cd is the tool by which the Debian installation ISO 9660 filesystems
are made. In its final step it uses xorriso to pack up the prepared files
and to advertise some of them to the boot firmware of computers.
bootcd promises to create a bootable ISO 9660 filesystem from an installed
Debian system. (I write "promises" because i did not try it and did not see
reports about its usage and success.)
Like debian-cd it uses xorriso to pack up the resulting filesystem.
> Is it possible to make an iso of one's current working system (installed or
> from a live version) or a backup with these commands,
That's the goal of bootcd.
> and what is the correct usage of the commands?
Your intended use case is probably addressed by
https://manpages.debian.org/buster/bootcd/bootcdbackup.1.en.html
(A few usage examples would have been nice.)
The man pages of bootcd talk of CD and sometimes of DVD. Given their age
(2007) it is no wonder that they do not mention BD media which offer
25 GB of storage (even 100 GB if you are willing to pay).
Its xorriso related code indicates that the results will work from USB
stick too.
debian-cd is not intended as backup tool but rather for making installation
ISOs. (Again, "CD" means also DVD, BD, USB sticks, memory cards, etc.)
There is also debian-live for creating ISOs which are intended as Live
systems with no need for a writable hard disk.
Both tools have mailing lists, where you may ask for usage instructions:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-cd/
https://lists.debian.org/debian-live/
which t
xorriso has several use cases and a long list of commands. See
https://www.gnu.org/software/xorriso/man_1_xorriso.html#EXAMPLES
or "COMMAND EXAMPLES" in
https://www.gnu.org/software/xorriso/
With the use case of creating bootable ISOs it is often used via its
emulation of program mkisofs, which served debian-cd in the past (and got
cloned as "genisoimage").
https://www.gnu.org/software/xorriso/man_1_xorrisofs.html#EXAMPLES
Boot related xorriso commands or xorrisofs options are many. Their usage
needs substantial background knowledge about boot loader files.
I made a wiki page for the purpose of repacking Debian's ISOs:
https://wiki.debian.org/RepackBootableISO
If it's only about data backup without the capability to boot, then
xorriso can be used to make those, too. See "Incremental backup of a
few directory trees " in
https://www.gnu.org/software/xorriso/man_1_xorriso.html#EXAMPLES
and/or ask me for advise.
Have a nice day :)
Thomas
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