4 ms·

Does anyone know if there exists a tool that can convert tarballs to filesystems and back. I know you can make a loopback device, but it can be pretty hard/impo

Does anyone know if there exists a tool that can convert tarballs to filesystems and back. I know you can make a loopback device, but it can be pretty hard/impossible to do inside a container, and often requires special flags and privileges.

loeg 3y ago
guestfish and libarchive are sort of in this space. Neither is a canned tool for exactly this.
- helpfulContrib 3y ago
  [dead]
st_goliath 3y ago
For squashfs there is `tar2sqfs`[1] and `sqfs2tar`[2] (and now also `sqfstar`[3]) that can go from tarball to filesystem and back again. For ext4, I recently saw a patch set on the mailing list[4]. Not sure about other filesystems tough. [1] https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/squashfs-tools-ng/tar2sqfs.1.en.html https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/squashfs-tools-ng/tar2s... [2] https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/squashfs-tools-ng/sqfs2tar.1.en.html https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/squashfs-tools-ng/sqfs2... [3] https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/squashfs-tools/sqfstar.1.en.html https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/squashfs-tools/sqfstar.... [4] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-ext4/20230812150204.462962-2-josch@mister-muffin.de/ https://lore.kernel.org/linux-ext4/20230812150204.462962-2-j...
helpfulContrib 3y ago
[dead]
cedws 3y ago
You can extract the tarball to a directory, then run mkfs.ext4 -d DIRECTORY FILENAME BLOCKS to create a filesystem[0]. You'll need to know how many blocks your filesystem needs to be in advance. Unfortunately, mkfs.ext4 only works on Linux. There is no port for other operating systems. [0] https://github.com/cedws/concrete-ubuntu/blob/0ae3f076c5a20d36c687afbad9ead60055bed10a/Dockerfile#L85-L89 https://github.com/cedws/concrete-ubuntu/blob/0ae3f076c5a20d...
- guappa 3y ago
  If you want to create read-only, use ext2. No point in using ext4 if you don't want journaling.
  - cedws 3y ago
    You can also use ISO9660.
  - folmar 3y ago
    Extents are a useful feature even for readonly although the gain is smaller.
chociej 3y ago
7z can list and extract from ext4 images. Respectively: $ 7z l <image> $ 7z x <image>
chungy 3y ago
You can use fuse2fs to mount any ext[24] file system in user space. You can even use "-o fakeroot" to get complete control over UIDs and modes.
ravenstine 3y ago
I've been doing something similar recently, though it doesn't directly convert a tar to an ext4 FS. But maybe this can help you get to where you want to be. On Alpine Linux: ``` apk add --no-cache coreutils e2fsprogs ``` ``` #!/bin/sh # Untar the tar file mkdir -p /tmp/my_untarred_files_dir tar -xvf my_tar_file.tar -C /tmp/my_untarred_files_dir # Make an empty image file. dd if=/dev/zero of="fs.raw" bs=1M count=1024 # Format the file as ext4 (with journaling) and copy untarred files into it mke2fs -t ext4 -j -d "/tmp/my_untarred_files_dir" "fs.raw" ``` If you want to make a qcow2 image, you can then do this: ``` apk add --no-cache qemu-img qemu-img convert -O qcow2 "fs.raw" "fs.qcow2" ```
torcete 3y ago
Maybe you are looking for something like fsarchiver? https://www.fsarchiver.org https://www.fsarchiver.org

loeg 3y ago

guestfish and libarchive are sort of in this space. Neither is a canned tool for exactly this.

helpfulContrib 3y ago
[dead]

st_goliath 3y ago

For squashfs there is `tar2sqfs`[1] and `sqfs2tar`[2] (and now also `sqfstar`[3]) that can go from tarball to filesystem and back again. For ext4, I recently saw a patch set on the mailing list[4]. Not sure about other filesystems tough. [1] https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/squashfs-tools-ng/tar2sqfs.1.en.html https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/squashfs-tools-ng/tar2s... [2] https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/squashfs-tools-ng/sqfs2tar.1.en.html https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/squashfs-tools-ng/sqfs2... [3] https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/squashfs-tools/sqfstar.1.en.html https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/squashfs-tools/sqfstar.... [4] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-ext4/20230812150204.462962-2-josch@mister-muffin.de/ https://lore.kernel.org/linux-ext4/20230812150204.462962-2-j...

helpfulContrib 3y ago

[dead]

cedws 3y ago

You can extract the tarball to a directory, then run mkfs.ext4 -d DIRECTORY FILENAME BLOCKS to create a filesystem[0]. You'll need to know how many blocks your filesystem needs to be in advance. Unfortunately, mkfs.ext4 only works on Linux. There is no port for other operating systems. [0] https://github.com/cedws/concrete-ubuntu/blob/0ae3f076c5a20d36c687afbad9ead60055bed10a/Dockerfile#L85-L89 https://github.com/cedws/concrete-ubuntu/blob/0ae3f076c5a20d...

guappa 3y ago
If you want to create read-only, use ext2. No point in using ext4 if you don't want journaling.
- cedws 3y ago
  You can also use ISO9660.
- folmar 3y ago
  Extents are a useful feature even for readonly although the gain is smaller.

chociej 3y ago

7z can list and extract from ext4 images. Respectively: $ 7z l <image> $ 7z x <image>

chungy 3y ago

You can use fuse2fs to mount any ext[24] file system in user space. You can even use "-o fakeroot" to get complete control over UIDs and modes.

ravenstine 3y ago

I've been doing something similar recently, though it doesn't directly convert a tar to an ext4 FS. But maybe this can help you get to where you want to be. On Alpine Linux: ``` apk add --no-cache coreutils e2fsprogs ``` ``` #!/bin/sh # Untar the tar file mkdir -p /tmp/my_untarred_files_dir tar -xvf my_tar_file.tar -C /tmp/my_untarred_files_dir # Make an empty image file. dd if=/dev/zero of="fs.raw" bs=1M count=1024 # Format the file as ext4 (with journaling) and copy untarred files into it mke2fs -t ext4 -j -d "/tmp/my_untarred_files_dir" "fs.raw" ``` If you want to make a qcow2 image, you can then do this: ``` apk add --no-cache qemu-img qemu-img convert -O qcow2 "fs.raw" "fs.qcow2" ```

torcete 3y ago

Maybe you are looking for something like fsarchiver? https://www.fsarchiver.org https://www.fsarchiver.org