README

erofs-utils
===========

erofs-utils includes user-space tools for EROFS filesystem.
Currently mkfs.erofs, (experimental) erofsfuse, dump.erofs, fsck.erofs
are available.

Dependencies & build
--------------------

 lz4 1.8.0+ for lz4 enabled [2], lz4 1.9.3+ highly recommended [4][5].
 XZ Utils 5.3.2alpha [6] or later versions for MicroLZMA enabled.

 libfuse 2.6+ for erofsfuse enabled as a plus.

How to build with lz4-1.9.0 or above
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To build, you can run the following commands in order:

::

	$ ./autogen.sh
	$ ./configure
	$ make

mkfs.erofs binary will be generated under mkfs folder.

* For lz4 < 1.9.2, there are some stability issues about
  LZ4_compress_destSize(). (lz4hc isn't impacted) [3].

** For lz4 = 1.9.2, there is a noticeable regression about
   LZ4_decompress_safe_partial() [5], which impacts erofsfuse
   functionality for legacy images (without 0PADDING).

How to build with lz4-1.8.0~1.8.3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For these old lz4 versions, lz4hc algorithm cannot be supported
without lz4-static installed due to LZ4_compress_HC_destSize()
unstable api usage, which means lz4 will only be available if
lz4-static isn't found.

On Fedora, lz4-static can be installed by using:

	yum install lz4-static.x86_64

However, it's still not recommended using those versions directly
since there are serious bugs in these compressors, see [2] [3] [4]
as well.

How to build with liblzma
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In order to enable LZMA support, build with the following commands:
	$ ./configure --enable-lzma
	$ make

Additionally, you could specify liblzma build paths with:
	--with-liblzma-incdir and --with-liblzma-libdir

mkfs.erofs
----------

two main kinds of EROFS images can be generated: (un)compressed.

 - For uncompressed images, there will be none of compression
   files in these images. However, it can decide whether the tail
   block of a file should be inlined or not properly [1].

 - For compressed images, it'll try to use specific algorithms
   first for each regular file and see if storage space can be
   saved with compression. If not, fallback to an uncompressed
   file.

How to generate EROFS images (lz4 for Linux 5.3+, lzma for Linux 5.16+)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Currently lz4(hc) and lzma are available for compression, e.g.
 $ mkfs.erofs -zlz4hc foo.erofs.img foo/

Or leave all files uncompressed as an option:
 $ mkfs.erofs foo.erofs.img foo/

In addition, you could specify a higher compression level to get a
(slightly) better compression ratio than the default level, e.g.
 $ mkfs.erofs -zlz4hc,12 foo.erofs.img foo/

Note that all compressors are still single-threaded for now, thus it
could take more time on the multiprocessor platform. Multi-threaded
approach is already in our TODO list.

How to generate EROFS big pcluster images (Linux 5.13+)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In order to get much better compression ratios (thus better sequential
read performance for common storage devices), big pluster feature has
been introduced since linux-5.13, which is not forward-compatible with
old kernels.

In details, -C is used to specify the maximum size of each big pcluster
in bytes, e.g.
 $ mkfs.erofs -zlz4hc -C65536 foo.erofs.img foo/

So in that case, pcluster size can be 64KiB at most.

Note that large pcluster size can cause bad random performance, so
please evaluate carefully in advance. Or make your own per-(sub)file
compression strategies according to file access patterns if needed.

How to generate legacy EROFS images (Linux 4.19+)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Decompression inplace and compacted indexes have been introduced in
Linux upstream v5.3, which are not forward-compatible with older
kernels.

In order to generate _legacy_ EROFS images for old kernels,
consider adding "-E legacy-compress" to the command line, e.g.

 $ mkfs.erofs -E legacy-compress -zlz4hc foo.erofs.img foo/

For Linux kernel >= 5.3, legacy EROFS images are _NOT recommended_
due to runtime performance loss compared with non-legacy images.

Obsoleted erofs.mkfs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is an original erofs.mkfs version developed by Li Guifu,
which was replaced by the new erofs-utils implementation.

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/xiang/erofs-utils.git -b obsoleted_mkfs

PLEASE NOTE: This version is highly _NOT recommended_ now.

erofsfuse (experimental)
------------------------

erofsfuse is introduced to support EROFS format for various platforms
(including older linux kernels) and new on-disk features iteration.
It can also be used as an unpacking tool for unprivileged users.

It supports fixed-sized output decompression *without* any in-place
I/O or in-place decompression optimization. Also like the other FUSE
implementations, it suffers from most common performance issues (e.g.
significant I/O overhead, double caching, etc.)

Therefore, NEVER use it if performance is the top concern.

Note that xattr & ACL aren't implemented yet due to the current Android
use-case vs limited time. If you have some interest, contribution is,
as always, welcome.

How to build erofsfuse
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's disabled by default as an experimental feature for now due to
the extra libfuse dependency, to enable and build it manually:

	$ ./configure --enable-fuse
	$ make

erofsfuse binary will be generated under fuse folder.

How to mount an EROFS image with erofsfuse
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the other FUSE implementations, it's quite simple to mount with
erofsfuse, e.g.:
 $ erofsfuse foo.erofs.img foo/

Alternatively, to make it run in foreground (with debugging level 3):
 $ erofsfuse -f --dbglevel=3 foo.erofs.img foo/

To debug erofsfuse (also automatically run in foreground):
 $ erofsfuse -d foo.erofs.img foo/

To unmount an erofsfuse mountpoint as a non-root user:
 $ fusermount -u foo/

dump.erofs and fsck.erofs (experimental)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

dump.erofs and fsck.erofs are two new experimental tools to analyse
and check EROFS file systems.

They are still incomplete and actively under development by the
community. But you could check them out if needed in advance.

Report, feedback and/or contribution are welcomed.

Contribution
------------

erofs-utils is under GPLv2+ as a part of EROFS filesystem project,
feel free to send patches or feedback to:
  linux-erofs mailing list   <linux-erofs@lists.ozlabs.org>

Comments
--------

[1] According to the EROFS on-disk format, the tail block of files
    could be inlined aggressively with its metadata in order to reduce
    the I/O overhead and save the storage space (called tail-packing).

[2] There was a bug until lz4-1.8.3, which can crash erofs-utils
    randomly. Fortunately bugfix by our colleague Qiuyang Sun was
    merged in lz4-1.9.0.

    For more details, please refer to
    https://github.com/lz4/lz4/commit/660d21272e4c8a0f49db5fc1e6853f08713dff82

[3] There were many bugfixes merged into lz4-1.9.2 for
    LZ4_compress_destSize(), and I once ran into some crashs due to
    those issues. * Again lz4hc is not affected. *

    [LZ4_compress_destSize] Allow 2 more bytes of match length
    https://github.com/lz4/lz4/commit/690009e2c2f9e5dcb0d40e7c0c40610ce6006eda

    [LZ4_compress_destSize] Fix rare data corruption bug
    https://github.com/lz4/lz4/commit/6bc6f836a18d1f8fd05c8fc2b42f1d800bc25de1

    [LZ4_compress_destSize] Fix overflow condition
    https://github.com/lz4/lz4/commit/13a2d9e34ffc4170720ce417c73e396d0ac1471a

    [LZ4_compress_destSize] Fix off-by-one error in fix
    https://github.com/lz4/lz4/commit/7c32101c655d93b61fc212dcd512b87119dd7333

    [LZ4_compress_destSize] Fix off-by-one error
    https://github.com/lz4/lz4/commit/d7cad81093cd805110291f84d64d385557d0ffba

    since upstream lz4 doesn't have stable branch for old versions, it's
    preferred to use latest upstream lz4 library (although some regressions
    could happen since new features are also introduced to latest upstream
    version as well) or backport all stable bugfixes to old stable versions,
    e.g. our unofficial lz4 fork: https://github.com/erofs/lz4

[4] LZ4HC didn't compress long zeroed buffer properly with
    LZ4_compress_HC_destSize()
    https://github.com/lz4/lz4/issues/784

    which has been resolved in
    https://github.com/lz4/lz4/commit/e7fe105ac6ed02019d34731d2ba3aceb11b51bb1

    and already included in lz4-1.9.3, see:
    https://github.com/lz4/lz4/releases/tag/v1.9.3

[5] LZ4_decompress_safe_partial is broken in 1.9.2
    https://github.com/lz4/lz4/issues/783

    which is also resolved in lz4-1.9.3.

[6] https://tukaani.org/xz/xz-5.3.2alpha.tar.xz