genisoimage

ISO9660 filesystem image creator

TLDR

Create an ISO image from the given source directory

$ genisoimage -o myimage.iso [path/to/source_directory]

Create an ISO image with files larger than 2 GiB

$ genisoimage -allow-limited-size -o myimage.iso [path/to/source_directory]

Create a bootable ISO with Rock Ridge and Joliet extensions

$ genisoimage -R -J -V "[VOLUME_LABEL]" -b [boot/isolinux.bin] -c [boot/boot.cat] -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o myimage.iso [path/to/source_directory]

SYNOPSIS

genisoimage [options] -o output.iso pathspec

genisoimage creates ISO9660 filesystem images suitable for CD/DVD burning or mounting as loop devices. It supports multiple filesystem extensions including Rock Ridge (Unix), Joliet (Windows), and HFS (Mac) for cross-platform compatibility.The tool can create bootable images using El Torito specification, supporting both legacy BIOS and UEFI boot methods with appropriate configuration.genisoimage is a fork of mkisofs from the cdrtools package, maintained separately in Debian and Ubuntu repositories.

PARAMETERS

-o FILE

Output ISO filename

-R, -rock

Generate Rock Ridge extensions (Unix permissions/symlinks)

-J, -joliet

Generate Joliet extensions (Windows long filenames)

-V ID

Set volume ID (volume label)

-b FILE

Set El Torito boot image for bootable CD/DVD

-c FILE

Set El Torito boot catalog file

-allow-limited-size

Allow files larger than 2GiB by reporting smaller apparent size

-udf

Generate UDF filesystem (supports larger files)

-iso-level LEVEL

Set ISO9660 conformance level (1-4)

-input-charset CHARSET

Set input character set

-v, -verbose

Enable verbose output

INSTALL

sudo apt install genisoimage

sudo dnf install genisoimage

sudo apk add cdrkit

nix profile install nixpkgs#cdrkit

CAVEATS

Standard ISO9660 has a 4GiB file size limit. Use -udf or -allow-limited-size for larger files. Filename length and character restrictions vary by extension type. Boot image creation requires careful configuration.

HISTORY

genisoimage is a fork of mkisofs created in 2006 due to licensing concerns with the original cdrtools package. It's maintained as part of the cdrkit project and is the default ISO creation tool on Debian-based systems.