Genimage - The Image Creation Tool

genimage is a tool to generate multiple filesystem and flash/disk images from a given root filesystem tree. genimage is intended to be run in a fakeroot environment. It also supports creating flash/disk images out of different file-system images and files.

Configuration is done in a config file parsed by libconfuse. Options like the path to tools can be given via environment variables, the config file or from commandline switches.

The Configuration File

The config file of genimage uses a simple configuration language, provided by libconfuse. This supports nested sections, as well as simple key-value pairs.

Single-line comments can be introduced with # or //, multi-line comments look like /* … */ (as in C).

The config file is separated into the main sections image, flash and config, and provides an include primitive.

The image section

An image section describes a single filesystem or disk image to be built. It can be given multiple times to generate multiple images. An image can also have multiple partitions which refer to images themselves. Each image must have a type which can have different suboptions depending on the type.

Let's have a look at an example:

image nand-pcm038.img {
    flash {
    }
    flashtype = "nand-64M-512"
    partition barebox {
        image = "barebox-pcm038.bin"
        size = 512K
    }
    partition root {
        image = "root-nand.jffs2"
        size = 24M
    }
}

This would generate a nand-pcm038.img which is a flash of type "nand-64M-512" The image contains two partitions, "barebox-pcm038.bin" and "root-nand.jffs2" which must refer to images described elsewhere in the config file. For example "root-nand.jffs2" partition could be described like this:

image root-nand.jffs2 {
    name = "root"
    jffs2 {}
    size = 24M
    mountpoint = "/"
}

In this case a single jffs2 image is generated from the root mountpoint.

Here are all options for images:

name: The name of this image. This is used for some image types to set the name of the image.
size: Size of this image in bytes. 'k', 'M' or 'G' can be used as suffix to specify the size in multiple of 1024 etc. If the image if filled from a mountpoint then '%' as suffix indicates a percentage. '200%' means the resulting filesystem should be about 50% filled. Note that is is only a rough estimate based on the original size of the content.
mountpoint: mountpoint if image refers to a filesystem image. The default is "/". The content of "${rootpath}${mountpoint}" will be used used fill the filesystem.
empty: If this is set to true, then the specified rootpath and mountpoint are ignored for this image and an empty filesystem is created. This option is only used for writeable filesystem types, such as extX, vfat, ubifs and jffs2. This defaults to false.
exec-pre: Custom command to run before generating the image.
exec-post: Custom command to run after generating the image.
flashtype: refers to a flash section. Optional for non flash like images like hd images
partition: can be given multiple times and refers to a partition described below

Additionally each image can have one of the following sections describing the type of the image:

cpio, cramfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, file, flash, hdimage, iso, jffs2, qemu, squashfs, tar, ubi, ubifs, vfat.

Partition options:

offset: The offset of this partition as a total offset to the beginning of the device.
size: The size of this partition in bytes. If the size and autoresize are both not set then the size of the partition image is used.
partition-type: Used by dos partition tables to specify the partition type.
image: The image file this partition shall be filled with
autoresize: Boolean specifying that the partition should be resized automatically. For UBI volumes this means that the autoresize flag is set. Only one volume can have this flag. For hd images this can be used for the last partition. If set the partition will fill the remaining space of the image.
bootable: Boolean specifying whether to set the bootable flag.
in-partition-table: Boolean specifying whether to include this partition in the partition table.
partition-uuid: UUID string used by GPT partition tables to specify the partition id. Defaults to a random value.
partition-type-uuid: String used by GPT partition tables to specify the partition type. Either a UUID or a shortcut: * L: Linux filesystem (0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4) * S: Swap (0657fd6d-a4ab-43c4-84e5-0933c84b4f4f) * H: Home (933ac7e1-2eb4-4f13-b844-0e14e2aef915) * U: EFI System (c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b) * R: Linux RAID (a19d880f-05fc-4d3b-a006-743f0f84911e) * V: Linux LVM (e6d6d379-f507-44c2-a23c-238f2a3df928) * F: FAT32 / Basic Data Partition (ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7) Defaults to L.

The image configuration options

cpio

Generates cpio images.

Options:

format: archive format. Passed to the -H option to the cpio command. Valid options are bin, odc, newc, crc, tar, ustar, hpbin and hpodc
extraargs: Extra arguments passed to the cpio tool
compress: If given, pipe image through compression tool. Valid options are for example gzip, lzop or any other tool that compresses from stdin to stdout.

cramfs

Generates cramfs images.

Options:

extraargs: Extra arguments passed to mkcramfs

ext2, ext3, ext4

Generates ext* images.

Options:

use-mke2fs: If set to true, then mke2fs is used to create the image. Otherwise, genext2fs is used. Defaults to false.
mke2fs-conf: mke2fs.conf that should be used. If unspecified, the system default is used.
extraargs: Extra arguments passed to genext2fs or mke2fs.
features: Filesystem features. Passed to the -O option of tune2fs. This is a comma separated list of enabled or disabled features. See man ext4 for features. For genext2fs all feature are specified. Default for ext3 images is has_journal. Default for ext4 images is extents,uninit_bg,dir_index,has_journal. For mke2fs these features are added in addition to the default features of the ext type. Already enabled features can be disabled by prefixing the feature with ^.
label: Specify the volume-label. Passed to the -L option of tune2fs
fs-timestamp: Sets different timestamps in the image. Sets the given timestamp using the debugfs commands set_current_time, set_super_value mkfs_time and set_super_value lastcheck
root-owner: User and group IDs for the root directory. Defaults to 0:0.
usage-type: Specify the usage type for the filesystem. Only valid with mke2fs. More details can be found in the mke2fs man-page.

FIT

Generates U-Boot FIT images.

Options:

its: String option holding the path of the input its file
keydir: String option holding the directory containing the keys used for signing.

flash

Generates flash images. These are basically the partition contents padded to the partition sizes concatenated together. There is no partition table. Needs a valid flashtype where the flash parameters are read from.

hdimage

Generates DOS partition images.

Options:

align: Partition alignment. Defaults to 512 bytes
partition-table: Boolean. If true, writes a partition table. If false, no partition table is generated. Defaults to true.
extended-partition: Number of the extended partition. Contains the number of the extended partition between 1 and 4 or 0 for automatic. Defaults to 0.
disk-signature: 32 bit integer used as disk signature (offset 440 in the MBR). Using a special value random will result in using random 32 bit number.
gpt: Boolean. If true, a GPT type partition table is written. If false a DOS type partition table is written. Defaults to false.
gpt-location: Location of the GPT table. Occasionally useful for moving the GPT table away from where a bootloader is placed due to hardware requirements. All partitions in the table must begin after this table. Regardless of this setting, the GPT header will still be placed at 512 bytes (sector 1). Defaults to 1024 bytes (sector 2).
disk-uuid: UUID string used as disk id in GPT partitioning. Defaults to a random value.

iso

Generates an ISO image.

Options:

boot-image: Path to the El Torito boot image. Passed to the -b option of genisofs
bootargs: Bootargs for the El Torito boot image. Defaults to -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -c boot.cat -hide boot.cat
extraargs: Extra arguments passed to genisofs
input-charset: The input charset. Passed to the -input-charset option of genisofs. Defaults to default
volume-id: Volume ID. Passed to the -V option of genisofs

jffs2

Generates a JFFS image. Needs a valid flashtype where the flash parameters are read from.

Options:

extraargs: Extra arguments passed to mkfs.jffs2

qemu

Generates a QEMU image. Needs at least one valid partition.

Options:

format: A valid qemu-img like qcow, qcow2, parallels, vdi, vhdx or vmdk. Check qemu-img convert --help for the complete list of possible values. Defaults to qcow2.
extraargs: Extra arguments passed to qemu-img convert

squashfs

Generates a squashfs image.

Options:

extraargs: Extra arguments passed to mksquashfs
compression: compression type for the image. Possible values are gzip (default), lzo, xz or none
block-size: Block size. Passed to the -b option of mksquashfs. Defaults to 4096.

rauc

Generates a RAUC update bundle.

Options:

extraargs: Extra arguments passed to RAUC
file: Specify a file to be added into the RAUC bundle. Usage is: file foo { image = "bar" } which adds a file "foo" in the RAUC bundle from then input file "bar"
files: A list of filenames added into the RAUC bundle. Like file above, but without the ability to add the files under different name.
key: Path to the key file. Passed to the --key option of RAUC
cert: Path to the certificate file. Passed to the --cert option of RAUC
manifest: content of the manifest file

tar

Generates a tar image. The image will be compressed as defined by the filename suffix.

ubi

Generates an UBI image. Needs a valid flashtype where the flash parameters are read from.

Options:

extraargs: Extra arguments passed to ubinize

ubifs

Generates a UBIFS image. Needs a valid flashtype where the flash parameters are read from.

Options:

extraargs: Extra arguments passed to mkubifs
max-size: Maximum size of the UBIFS image

vfat

Generates a VFAT image.

Options:

extraargs: Extra arguments passed to mkdosfs
label: Specify the volume-label. Passed to the -n option of mkdosfs
file: Specify a file to be added into the filesystem image. Usage is: file foo { image = "bar" } which adds a file "foo" in the filesystem image from the input file "bar"
files: A list of filenames added into the filesystem image. Like file above, but without the ability to add the files under different name.

Note: If no content is specified with file or files then rootpath and mountpoint are used to provide the content.

The Flash Section

The flash section can be given multiple times and each section describes a flash chip. The option names are mostly derived from the UBI terminology. There are the following options:

pebsize: The size of a physical eraseblock in bytes
lebsize: The size of a logical eraseblock in bytes (for ubifs)
numpebs: Number of physical eraseblocks on this device. The total size of the device is determined by pebsize * numpebs
minimum-io-unit-size: The minimum size in bytes accessible on this device
vid-header-offset: offset of the volume identifier header
sub-page-size: The size of a sub page in bytes.

Several flash related image types need a valid flash section. From the image types the flash type section is referred to using the flashtype option which contains the name of the flash type to be used.

For more information of the meaning of these values see the ubi(fs) and mtd FAQs:

http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/faq/general.html

Example flash section:

flash nand-64M-512 {
    pebsize = 16384
    lebsize = 15360
    numpebs = 4096
    minimum-io-unit-size = 512
    vid-header-offset = 512
    sub-page-size = 512
}
...
image jffs2 {
    flashtype = "nand-64M-512"
}

The config section

In this section the global behaviour of the program is described. All options here can be given from either environment variables, the config file or command line switches. For instance, a config option foo can be passed as a --foo command line switch or as a GENIMAGE_FOO environment variable.

config: default: genimage.cfg Path to the genimage config file.
loglevel: default: 1 genimage log level.
outputpath: default: images Mandatory path where all images are written to (must exist).
inputpath: default: input This mandatory path is searched for input images, for example bootloader binaries, kernel images (must exist).
rootpath: default: root Mandatory path to the root filesystem (must exist).
tmppath: default: tmp Optional path to a temporary directory. There must be enough space available here to hold a copy of the root filesystem.
cpio: path to the cpio program (default cpio)
dd: path to the dd program (default dd)
e2fsck: path to the e2fsck program (default e2fsck)
genext2fs: path to the genext2fs program (default genext2fs)
genisoimage: path to the genisoimage program (default genisoimage)
mcopy: path to the mcopy program (default mcopy)
mmd: path to the mmd program (default mmd)
mkcramfs: path to the mkcramfs program (default mkcramfs)
mkdosfs: path to the mkdosfs program (default mkdosfs)
mkfsjffs2: path to the mkfs.jffs2 program (default mkfs.jffs2)
mkfsubifs: path to the mkfs.ubifs program (default mkfs.ubifs)
mksquashfs: path to the mksquashfs program (default mksquashfs)
qemu-img: path to the qemu-img program (default qemu-img)
tar: path to the tar program (default tar)
tune2fs: path to the tune2fs program (default tune2fs)
ubinize: path to the ubinize program (default ubinize)

Include Configurations Fragments

To include a "foo.cfg" config file, use the following statement:

include("foo.cfg")

This allows to re-use, for example flash configuration files, across different image configurations.

any1 / genimage

Genimage - The Image Creation Tool

The Configuration File

The image section

The image configuration options

cpio

cramfs

ext2, ext3, ext4

FIT

flash

hdimage

iso

jffs2

qemu

squashfs

rauc

tar

ubi

ubifs

vfat

The Flash Section

The config section

Include Configurations Fragments

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