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-
- Squashfs Binary Format
- **********************
-
-0) Index
-********
-
- 0............Index
- 1............About
- 2............Overview
- 2.1........Packing File Data
- 2.2........Packing Metadata
- 2.3........Storing Lookup Tables
- 3............The Superblock
- 3.1........Compression Options
- 3.1.1....GZIP
- 3.1.2....XZ
- 3.1.3....LZ4
- 3.1.4....ZSTD
- 3.1.5....LZO
- 4............Data and Fragment Blocks
- 5............Inode Table
- 5.1........Common Inode Header
- 5.2........Directory inodes
- 5.3........File Inodes
- 5.4........Symbolic Links
- 5.5........Device Special Files
- 5.6........IPC inodes (FIFO or Socket)
- 6............Directory Table
- 6.1........Directory Index
- 7............Fragment Table
- 8............Export Table
- 9............ID Table
- 10...........Extended Attribute Table
-
-1) About
-********
-
-SquashFS is a compressed, read-only filesystem for Linux that can also be used
-as a flexible, general purpose, compressed archive format, optimized for fast
-random access with support for Unix permissions, sparse files and extended
-attributes.
-
-SquashFS supports data and metadata compression through zlib, lz4, lzo, lzma,
-xz or zstd.
-
-For fast random access, compressed files are split up in fixed size blocks
-that are compressed separately. The block size can be set between 4k and 1M
-(default for squashfs-tools and squashfs-tools-ng is 128K).
-
-
-This document attempts to specify the on-disk format in detail.
-
-It is based on a previous on-line version that was originally written by
-Zachary Dremann and subsequently expanded by David Oberhollenzer during
-reverse engineering attempts and available here:
-
- https://dr-emann.github.io/squashfs/
-
-
-2) Overview
-***********
-
-SquashFS always stores integers in little endian format. The data blocks that
-make up the SquashFS archive are byte aligned, i.e. they typically do not care
-for alignment. The implementation in the Linux kernel requires the archive
-itself to be a multiple of either 1k or 4k in size (called the device block
-size) and user space tools typically use 4k to be compatible with both.
-
-A SquashFS archive consists of a maximum of nine parts:
-
- _______________
- | | Important information about the archive, including
- | Superblock | locations of other sections.
- |_______________|
- | | If non-default compression options have been used,
- | Compression | they can optionally be stored here, to facilitate
- | options | later, offline editing of the archive.
- |_______________|
- | |
- | Data blocks | The contents of the files in the archive,
- | & fragments | split into separately compressed blocks.
- |_______________|
- | | Metadata (ownership, permissions, etc) for
- | Inode table | items in the archive.
- |_______________|
- | |
- | Directory | Directory listings, including file names, and
- | table | references to inodes.
- |_______________|
- | |
- | Fragment | Description of fragment locations within the
- | table | Datablocks & Fragments section.
- |_______________|
- | | A mapping from inode numbers to disk locations,
- | Export table | required for NFS export.
- |_______________|
- | |
- | UID/GID | A list of unique UID/GIDs. Inodes use an index into
- | lookup table | this table to save memory.
- |_______________|
- | |
- | Xattr | Extended attributes for items in the archive.
- | table |
- |_______________|
-
-
-Although the super block details the exact positions of each section, most
-implementations, including the one in the Linux kernel, insist on this exact
-order.
-
-
-2.1) Packing File Data
-
-The file data is packed into the archive after the super block (and optional
-compressor options).
-
-Files are divided into fixed size blocks that are separately compressed and
-stored in order. SquashFS supports optional tail-end-packing of files that
-are not an exact multiple of the block size. The remaining ends can either
-be treated as a short block, or can be packed together with the tail ends of
-other files in a single "fragment block". Files that are less than block size
-are treated the same way.
-
-If the size of a data or fragment block would exceed the input size after
-compression, the original, uncompressed data is stored, so that the size of a
-block after compression never exceeds the input block size.
-
-
-2.2) Packing Metadata
-
-Metadata (e.g. inodes, directory listings, etc...) is treated as a continuous
-stream of records that is chopped up into 8KiB blocks that are separately
-compressed into special metadata blocks.
-
-The input size of 8KiB is fixed and independent of the data block size.
-Similar to data blocks, if the compressed size would exceed 8KiB, the
-uncompressed block is stored instead, so the on-disk size of a metadata
-block never exceeds 8KiB.
-
-Individual entries are allowed to cross the block boundary, so e.g. an inode
-may be located at the end of a metadata block with some part of it located at
-the start of the next block. Both have to be read and decompressed when
-reading this inode. If an entry is written across block boundaries, there
-MUST NOT be any gap between the compressed metadata blocks on-disk.
-
-
-In contrast to data blocks, every metadata block is preceded by a single,
-16 bit unsigned integer. This integer holds the on-disk size of the block
-that follows. The MSB is set if the block is stored uncompressed. Whenever
-a metadata block is referenced, the position of this integer is given.
-
-To read a metadata block, seek to the indicated position and read the 16 bit
-header. Sanity check that the lower 15 bit are less than 8KiB and proceed
-to read that many bytes. If the highest bit of the header is cleared,
-uncompress the data into an 8KiB buffer that MUST NOT overflow.
-
-
-In the SquashFS archive format, metadata entries (e.g. inodes) are often
-referenced using a 64 bit integer. The lower 16 bit hold an offset into the
-uncompressed block and the upper 48 bit point to the on-disk location of the
-block.
-
-The on-disk location is relative to the type of metadata entry, e.g. for
-inodes it is relative to the start of the inode table given by the
-super block.
-
-
-2.3) Storing Lookup Tables
-
-Lookup tables are arrays (i.e. sequences of identical sized records) that are
-addressed by an index.
-
-Such tables are stored in the SquashFS format as metadata blocks, i.e. by
-dividing the table data into 8KiB chunks that are separately compressed and
-stored in sequence.
-
-To allow constant time lookup, a list of 64 bit unsigned integers is stored,
-holding the on-disk locations of each metadata block.
-
-This list itself is stored uncompressed and not preceded by a header.
-
-When referring to a lookup table, the superblock gives the number of table
-entries and points to this location list.
-
-Since the table entry size is a known, fixed value, the required number of
-metadata blocks can be computed:
-
- block_count = ceil(table_count * entry_size / 8192)
-
-Which is also the number of 64 bit integers in the location list.
-
-
-When resolving a lookup table index, first work out the index of the
-metadata block:
-
- meta_index = floor(index * entry_size / 8192)
-
-Using this index on the location list yields the on-disk location of
-the metadata block containing the entry.
-
-After reading this metadata block, the byte offset into the block can
-be computed to get the entry:
-
- offset = index * entry_size % 8192
-
-
-The location list can be cached in memory. Resolving an index requires at
-worst a single metadata block read (at most 8194 bytes fetched from an
-unaligned on-disk location).
-
-
-2.4) Supported Compressors
-
-The SquashFS format supports the following compressors:
-
- - zlib deflate (referred to as "gzip" but only uses raw zlib streams)
- - lzo
- - lzma 1 (considered deprecated)
- - lzma 2 (referred to as "xz")
- - lz4
- - zstd
-
-The archive can only specify one compressor in the super block and has to use
-it for both file data and metadata compression. Using one compressor for data
-and switching to a different compressor for e.g. inodes is not supported.
-
-While it is technically not possible to pick a "null" compressor in the super
-block, an implementation can still deliberately write only uncompressed blocks
-to a SquashFS archive, or choose to store certain metadata blocks without
-compression.
-
-The lzma 2 aka xz compressor MUST use CRC32 checksums only. Using SHA-256 is
-not supported.
-
-
-3) The superblock
-*****************
-
-The superblock is the first section of a SquashFS archive. It is always
-96 bytes in size and contains important information about the archive,
-including the locations of other sections.
-
-+======+===============+=====================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+===============+=====================================================+
-| u32 | magic | Must be set to 0x73717368 ("hsqs" on disk). |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | inode count | The number of inodes stored in the archive. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | mod time | Last modification time of the archive. Count seconds|
-| | | since 00:00, Jan 1st 1970 UTC (not counting leap |
-| | | seconds). This is unsigned, so it expires in the |
-| | | year 2106 (as opposed to 2038). |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | block size | The size of a data block in bytes. Must be a power |
-| | | of two between 4096 (4k) and 1048576 (1 MiB) |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | frag count | The number of entries in the fragment table |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | compressor | An ID designating the compressor used for both data |
-| | | and meta data blocks. |
-| | | |
-| | +-------+------+--------------------------------------+
-| | | Value | Name | Comment |
-| | +-------+------+--------------------------------------+
-| | | 1 | GZIP | just zlib streams (no gzip headers!) |
-| | | 2 | LZO | |
-| | | 3 | LZMA | LZMA version 1 |
-| | | 4 | XZ | LZMA version 2 as used by xz-utils |
-| | | 5 | LZ4 | |
-| | | 6 | ZSTD | |
-+------+---------------+-------+------+--------------------------------------+
-| u16 | block log | The log2 of the block size. If the two fields do not|
-| | | agree, the archive is considered corrupted. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | flags | Bit wise OR of the flag bits below. |
-| | | |
-| | +--------+--------------------------------------------+
-| | | Value | Meaing |
-| | +--------+--------------------------------------------+
-| | | 0x0001 | Inodes are stored uncompressed. |
-| | | 0x0002 | Data blocks are stored uncompressed. |
-| | | 0x0008 | Fragments are stored uncompressed. |
-| | | 0x0010 | Fragments are not used. |
-| | | 0x0020 | Fragments are always generated. |
-| | | 0x0040 | Data has been deduplicated. |
-| | | 0x0080 | NFS export table exists. |
-| | | 0x0100 | Xattrs are stored uncompressed. |
-| | | 0x0200 | There are no Xattrs in the archive. |
-| | | 0x0400 | Compressor options are present. |
-| | | 0x0800 | The ID table is uncompressed. |
-+------+---------------+--------+--------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | id count | The number of entries in the ID lookup table. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | version major | Major version of the format. Must be set to 4. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | version minor | Minor version of the format. Must be set to 0. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u64 | root inode | A reference to the inode of the root directory. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u64 | bytes used | The number of bytes used by the archive. Because |
-| | | SquashFS archives must be padded to a multiple of |
-| | | the underlying device block size, this can be less |
-| | | than the actual file size. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u64 | ID table | The byte offset at which the id table starts. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u64 | Xattr table | The byte offset at which the xattr id table starts. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u64 | Inode table | The byte offset at which the inode table starts. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u64 | Dir. table | The byte offset at which the directory table starts.|
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u64 | Frag table | The byte offset at which the fragment table starts. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u64 | Export table | The byte offset at which the export table starts. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-
-The Xattr table, fragment table and export table are optional. If they are
-omitted from the archive, the respective fields indicating their position
-must be set to 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (i.e. all bits set).
-
-Most of the flags only serve an informational purpose and are only useful
-when editing the archive to convey the original packer settings.
-
-The only flag that actually carries information is the "Compressor options are
-present" flag. In fact, this is the only flag that the Linux kernel
-implementation actually tests for.
-
-The compressor options, however, are also only there for informal purpose, as
-most compression libraries understand their own stream format irregardless of
-the options used to compress and in fact don't provide any options for the
-decompressor. In the Linux kernel, the XZ decompressor is currently the only
-one that processes those options to pre-allocate the LZMA dictionary if a
-non-default size was used.
-
-
-3.1) Compression Options
-
-If the compressor options flag is set in the superblock, the superblock is
-immediately followed by a single metadata block, which is always uncompressed.
-
-The data stored in this block is compressor dependent.
-
-There are two special cases:
- - For LZ4, the compressor options always have to be present.
- - The LZMA compressor does not support compressor options, so this section
- must never be present.
-
-For the compressors currently implemented, a 4 to 8 byte payload follows.
-
-The following sub sections outline the contents for each compressor that
-supports options. The default values if the options are missing are outlined
-as well.
-
-
-3.1.1) GZIP
-
-+======+===================+=================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+===================+=================================================+
-| u32 | compression level | In the range 1 to 9 (inclusive). Defaults to 9. |
-+------+-------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | window size | In the range 8 to 15 (inclusive) Defaults to 15.|
-+------+-------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | strategies | A bit field describing the enabled strategies. |
-| | | If no flags are set, the default strategy is |
-| | | implicitly used. Please consult the ZLIB manual |
-| | | for details on specific strategies. |
-| | | |
-| | +--------+----------------------------------------+
-| | | Value | Comment |
-| | +--------+----------------------------------------+
-| | | 0x0001 | Default strategy. |
-| | | 0x0002 | Filtered. |
-| | | 0x0004 | Huffman Only. |
-| | | 0x0008 | Run Length Encoded. |
-| | | 0x0010 | Fixed. |
-+------+-------------------+--------+----------------------------------------+
-
-Note: The SquashFS writer typically tries all selected strategies (including
-not setting any and letting zlib work with defaults) and stores the result
-with the smallest size.
-
-
-3.1.2) XZ
-
-+======+===================+=================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+===================+=================================================+
-| u32 | dictionary size | SHOULD be >= 8KiB, and must be either a power of|
-| | | 2, or the sum of two consecutive powers of 2. |
-+------+-------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | Filters | A bit field describing the additional enabled |
-| | | filters attempted to better compress executable |
-| | | code. |
-| | | |
-| | +--------+----------------------------------------+
-| | | Value | Comment |
-| | +--------+----------------------------------------+
-| | | 0x0001 | x86 |
-| | | 0x0002 | PowerPC |
-| | | 0x0004 | IA64 |
-| | | 0x0008 | ARM |
-| | | 0x0010 | ARM thumb |
-| | | 0x0020 | SPARC |
-+------+-------------------+--------+----------------------------------------+
-
-Note: A SquashFS writer typically tries all selected VLI filters (including
-not setting any and letting libxz work with defaults) and stores the resulting
-block that has the smallest size.
-
-Also note that further options, such as XZ presets, are not included. The
-compressor typically uses the libxz defaults, i.e. level 6 and not using the
-extreme flag. Likewise for lc, lp and pb (defaults are 3, 0 and 2
-respectively).
-
-If the encoder chooses to change those values, the decoder will still be
-able to read the data, but there is currently no way to convey that those
-values were changed.
-
-This is specifically problematic for the compression level, since increasing
-the level can result in drastically increasing the decoders memory consumption.
-
-
-3.1.3) LZ4
-
-+======+===================+=================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+===================+=================================================+
-| u32 | Version | MUST be set to 1. |
-+------+-------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | Flags | A bit field describing the enabled LZ4 flags. |
-| | | There is currently only one possible flag: |
-| | | |
-| | +--------+----------------------------------------+
-| | | Value | Comment |
-| | +--------+----------------------------------------+
-| | | 0x0001 | Use LZ4 High Compression(HC) mode. |
-+------+-------------------+--------+----------------------------------------+
-
-3.1.4) ZSTD
-
-+======+===================+=================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+===================+=================================================+
-| u32 | compression level | Should be in range 1 to 22 (inclusive). The real|
-| | | maximum is the zstd defined ZSTD_maxCLevel(). |
-| | | |
-| | | The default value is 15. |
-+------+-------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
-
-3.1.5) LZO
-
-+======+===================+=================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+===================+=================================================+
-| u32 | algorithm | Which variant of LZO to use. |
-| | | |
-| | +--------+----------------------------------------+
-| | | Value | Comment |
-| | +--------+----------------------------------------+
-| | | 0 | lzo1x_1 |
-| | | 1 | lzo1x_1_11 |
-| | | 2 | lzo1x_1_12 |
-| | | 3 | lzo1x_1_15 |
-| | | 4 | lzo1x_999 (default) |
-+------+-------------------+--------+----------------------------------------+
-| u32 | compression level | For lzo1x_999, this can be a value between 0 |
-| | | and 9 inclusive (defaults to 8). MUST be 0 |
-| | | for all other algorithms. |
-+------+-------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
-
-
-
-4) Data and Fragment Blocks
-***************************
-
-As outlined in 2.1, file data is packed by dividing the input files into fixed
-size chunks (the block size from the super block) that are stored in sequence.
-
-The picture below tries to illustrate this concept:
-
-
- _____ _____ _____ _ _____ _____ _ _
- File A: |__A__|__A__|__A__|A| File B: |__B__|__B__|B| File C: |C|
- | | | | | | | |
- | +---+ | | | | | |
- | | +------+ | | | | |
- | | | | | | | |
- | | | +------|---------------+ | | |
- | | | | +--|---------------------+ | |
- | | | | | | | |
- | | | | | +-----------------------+ | +------------+
- | | | | | | | |
- V V V V V V V V
- __ _ ___ ___ ___ __ Fragment block: |A|B|C|
- Output: |_A|A|_A_|_B_|_B_|_F| |
- __V__
- A |__F__|
- | |
- +------------------------+
-
-Figure 2.1: Packing of File Data.
-
-
-In Figure 1, file A consists of 3 blocks and a single tail end, file B has
-2 blocks and one tail end while file C is smaller than block size.
-
-For each file, the blocks are individually compressed and stored on disk
-in order.
-
-The tail ends of A and B, together with the entire contents of C are packed
-together into a fragment block F, that is compressed and stored on disk once
-it is full.
-
-This tail-end-packing is completely optional. The tail ends (or in case of C
-the entire file) can also be treated as truncated blocks that expand to less
-than block size when uncompressed.
-
-
-There are no headers in front of data or fragment blocks and there MUST NOT be
-any gaps between data blocks from a single file, but a SquashFS packer is free
-to leave gaps between two different files or fragment blocks. The packer is
-also free to decide how to arrange fragments within a fragment block and what
-fragments to pack together.
-
-
-
-To locate file data, the file inodes store the following information:
-
- - The uncompressed size of the file. From this, the number of blocks can
- be computed:
-
- block_count = floor(file_size / block_size) if tail end packing is used
- block_count = ceil(file_size / block_size) otherwise
-
- - The exact location of the first block, if one exists.
- - For each consecutive block, the on-disk size.
-
- A 32 bit integer is used with bit 24 (i.e. 1 << 24) set if the block
- is stored uncompressed.
-
- - If tail-end-packing was done, the location of the fragment block and a
- byte offset into the uncompressed fragment block. The size of the tail
- end can be computed easily:
-
- tail_end_size = file_size % block_size
-
-
-Since a fragment block will likely be referred to by multiple files, inodes
-don't store its on-disk location and size directly, but instead use a 32 bit
-index into a fragment block lookup table (see section 7).
-
-
-If a data block other than the last one unpacks to less than block size, the
-rest of the buffer is filled with 0 bytes. This way, sparse files are
-implemented. Specifically if a block has an on-disk size of 0 this translates
-to an entire block filled with 0 bytes without having to retrieve any data
-from disk.
-
-
-The on-disk locations of file blocks MAY overlap and different file inodes are
-free to refer to the same fragment. Typical SquashFS packers would explicitly
-use this to for files that are duplicates of others. Doing so is NOT counted
-as a hard link.
-
-If an inode references on-disk locations outside the data area, the result is
-undefined.
-
-
-5) Inode Table
-**************
-
-Inodes are packed into metadata blocks and are not aligned, i.e. they can span
-the boundary between metadata blocks. To save space, there are different
-inodes for each type (regular file, directory, device, etc.) of varying
-contents and size.
-
-To further save more space, inodes come in two flavors: simple inode types
-optimized for a simple, standard use case, and extended inode types where
-extra information has to be stored.
-
-SquashFS more or less supports 32 bit UIDs and GIDs. As an optimization, those
-IDs are stored in a lookup table (see section 9) and the inodes themselves
-hold a 16 bit index into this table. This allows to 32 bit UIDs/GIDs, but only
-among 2^16 unique values.
-
-
-The location of the first metadata block is indicated by the inode table start
-in the superblock. The inode table ends at the start of the directory table.
-
-
-5.1) Common Inode Header
-
-All Inodes share a common header, which contains some common information,
-as well as describing the type of Inode which follows. This header has the
-following structure:
-
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| u16 | type | The type of item described by the inode which follows|
-| | | this header. |
-| | | |
-| | +-------+----------------------------------------------+
-| | | Value | Comment |
-| | +-------+----------------------------------------------+
-| | | 1 | Basic Directory |
-| | | 2 | Basic File |
-| | | 3 | Basic Symlink |
-| | | 4 | Basic Block Device |
-| | | 5 | Basic Character Device |
-| | | 6 | Basic Named Pipe (FIFO) |
-| | | 7 | Basic Socket |
-| | | 8 | Extended Directory |
-| | | 9 | Extended File |
-| | | 10 | Extended Symlink |
-| | | 11 | Extended Block Device |
-| | | 12 | Extended Character Device |
-| | | 13 | Extended Named Pipe (FIFO) |
-| | | 14 | Extended Socket |
-+------+--------------+-------+----------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | permissions | A bit mask representing Unix file system permissions |
-| | | for the inode. This only stores permissions, not the |
-| | | type. The type is reconstructed from the field above.|
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | uid | An index into the ID table, giving the user ID |
-| | | of the owner. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | gid | An index into the ID table, giving the group ID |
-| | | of the owner. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | mtime | The unsigned number of seconds (not counting leap |
-| | | seconds) since 00:00, Jan 1st, 1970 UTC when the item|
-| | | described by the inode was last modified. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | inode number | Unique node number. Must be at least 1 and at most |
-| | | the inode count from the super block. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-
-Depending on the type, additional data follows, outlined in sections 5.2
-to 5.6.
-
-
-
-5.2) Directory inodes
-
-Directory inodes mainly contain a reference into the directory table where
-the listing of entries is stored.
-
-A basic directory has an entry listing of at most 64k (uncompressed) and
-no extended attributes. The layout of the inode data is as follows:
-
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| u32 | block index | The location of the metadata block in the directory |
-| | | table where the entry information starts. This is |
-| | | relative to the directory table location. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | link count | The number of hard links to this directory. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | file size | Total (uncompressed) size in bytes of the entry |
-| | | listing in the directory table, including headers. |
-| | | |
-| | | This value is 3 bytes larger than the real listing. |
-| | | The Linux kernel creates "." and ".." entries for |
-| | | offsets 0 and 1, and only after 3 looks into the |
-| | | listing, subtracting 3 from the size. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | block offset | The (uncompressed) offset within the metadata block |
-| | | in the directory table where the directory listing |
-| | | starts. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | parent inode | The inode number of the parent of this directory. If |
-| | | this is the root directory, this SHOULD be 0. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-
-
-Note that for historical reasons, the hard link count of a directory includes
-the number of entries in the directory and is initialized to 2 for an empty
-directory. I.e. a directory with N entries has at least N + 2 link count.
-
-
-If the "file size" is set to a value < 4, the directory is empty and there is
-no corresponding listing in the directory table.
-
-
-An extended directory can have a listing that is at most 4GiB in size, may
-have extended attributes and can have an optional index for faster lookup:
-
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| u32 | link count | Same as above. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | file size | Same as above. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | block index | Same as above. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | parent inode | Same as above. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | index count | The number of directory index entries following the |
-| | | inode structure. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | block offset | Same as above. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | xattr index | An index into the xattr lookup table or 0xFFFFFFFF |
-| | | if the inode has no extended attributes. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-
-The index follows directly after the inode. See section 6.1 for details on
-how the directory index is structured.
-
-
-5.3) File Inodes
-
-Basic files can be at most 4 GiB in size (uncompressed), must be located
-within the first 4 GiB of the SquashFS image, cannot have any extended
-attributes and don't support hard-link or sparse file accounting:
-
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| u32 | blocks start | The offset from the start of the archive to the first|
-| | | data block. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | frag index | An index into the fragment table which describes the |
-| | | fragment block that the tail end of this file is |
-| | | stored in. If not used, this is set to 0xFFFFFFFF. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | block offset | The (uncompressed) offset within the fragment block |
-| | | where the tail end of this file is. See section 4 |
-| | | for details. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | file size | The (uncompressed) size of this file. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32[]| block sizes | An array of consecutive block sizes. See section 4 |
-| | | for details. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-
-If 'frag index' is set to 0xFFFFFFFF, the number of blocks is computed as
-
- ceil(file_size / block_size)
-
-otherwise, if 'frag index' is a valid fragment index, the block count is
-computed as
-
- floor(file_size / block_size)
-
-and the size of the tail end is
-
- file_size % block_size
-
-
-To access a data block, first compute the block index as
-
- index = floor(offset / block_size)
-
-then compute the on-disk location of the block by summing up the sizes of the
-blocks that come before it:
-
- location = block_start
-
- for i = 0; i < index; i++
- location += block_sizes[i] & 0x00FFFFFF
-
-
-The tail end, if present, is accessed by resolving the fragment index through
-the fragment lookup table (see section 7), loading the fragment block and
-using the given 'block offset' into the fragment block.
-
-
-
-Extended files have a 64 bit location and size, have additional counters for
-sparse file accounting and hard links, and can have extended attributes:
-
-
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| u64 | blocks start | Same as above (but larger). |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u64 | file size | Same as above (but larger). |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u64 | sparse | The number of bytes saved by omitting zero bytes. |
-| | | Used in the kernel for sparse file accounting. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | link count | The number of hard links to this node. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | frag index | Same as above. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | block offset | Same as above. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | xattr index | An index into the xattr lookup table or 0xFFFFFFFF |
-| | | if the inode has no extended attributes. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32[]| block sizes | Same as above. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-
-
-5.4) Symbolic Links
-
-Symbolic links mainly have a target path stored directly after the inode
-header, as well as a hard-link counter (yes, you can have hard links to
-symlinks):
-
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| u32 | link count | The number of hard links to this symlink. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | target size | The size in bytes of the target path this symlink |
-| | | points to. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u8[] | target path | An array of bytes holding the target path this |
-| | | symlink points to. The path is 'target size' bytes |
-| | | long and NOT null-terminated. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-
-The extended symlink type adds an additional extended attribute index:
-
-+======+==============+=======================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+==============+=======================================+
-| u32 | link count | Same as above. |
-+------+--------------+---------------------------------------+
-| u32 | target size | Same as above. |
-+------+--------------+---------------------------------------+
-| u8[] | target path | Same as above. |
-+------+--------------+---------------------------------------+
-| u32 | xattr index | An index into the xattr lookup table. |
-+------+--------------+---------------------------------------+
-
-
-5.5) Device Special Files
-
-Basic device special files only store a hard-link counter and a device number.
-The layout is identical for both character and block devices:
-
-+======+===============+=====================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+===============+=====================================================+
-| u32 | link count | The number of hard links to this entry. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | device number | The system specific device number. |
-| | | |
-| | | On Linux, this consists of major and minor device |
-| | | numbers that can be extracted as follows: |
-| | | major = (dev & 0xFFF00) >> 8. |
-| | | minor = (dev & 0x000FF) | ((dev >> 12) & 0xFFF00) |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
-
-The extended device file inode adds an additional extended attribute index:
-
-+======+===============+=========================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+===============+=========================================+
-| u32 | link count | Same as above. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------+
-| u32 | device number | Same as above. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------+
-| u32 | xattr index | An index into the xattr lookup table. |
-+------+---------------+-----------------------------------------+
-
-
-5.6) IPC inodes (FIFO or Socket)
-
-Named pipe (FIFO) and socket special files only add a hard-link counter
-after the inode header:
-
-+======+=============+=========================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+=============+=========================================+
-| u32 | link count | The number of hard links to this entry. |
-+------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
-
-The extended versions add an additional extended attribute index:
-
-+======+=============+=========================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+=============+=========================================+
-| u32 | link count | Same as above. |
-+------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
-| u32 | xattr index | An index into the xattr lookup table. |
-+------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
-
-
-
-6) Directory Table
-******************
-
-For each directory inode, the directory table stores a linear list of all
-entries, with references back to the inodes that describe those entries.
-
-The entry list itself is sorted ASCIIbetically by entry name and split into
-multiple runs, each preceded by a short header.
-
-The directory inodes store the total, uncompressed size of the entire listing,
-including headers. Using this size, a SquashFS reader can determine if another
-header with further entries should be following once it reaches the end of a
-run.
-
-To save space, the header indicates a metadata block and a reference inode
-number. The entries that follow simply store a difference to that inode number
-and an offset into the specified metadata block.
-
-Every time, the inode block changes or the difference of the inode number
-to the reference in the header cannot be encoded in 16 bits anymore, a new
-header is emitted.
-
-A header must be followed by AT MOST 256 entries. If there are more entries,
-a new header MUST be emitted.
-
-Typically, inode allocation strategies would sort the children of a directory
-and then allocate inode numbers incrementally, to optimize directory entry
-listings.
-
-Since hard links might be further further away than +/- 32k of the reference
-number, they might require a new header to be emitted. Inode number allocation
-and picking of the reference could of course be optimized to prevent this.
-
-The directory header has the following structure:
-
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| u32 | count | Number of entries following the header |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | start | The location of the metadata block in the inode table|
-| | | where the inodes are stored. This is relative to the |
-| | | inode table start from the super block. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| s32 | inode number | An arbitrary inode number. The entries that follow |
-| | | store their inode number as a difference to this. |
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-
-The counter is stored off-by-one, i.e. a value of 0 indicates 1 entry follows.
-This also makes it impossible to encode a size of 0, which wouldn't make any
-sense. Empty directories simply have their size set to 0 in the inode instead,
-so no extra dummy header has to be stored or looked up.
-
-
-The header is followed by multiple entries that each have this structure:
-
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| u16 | offset | An offset into the uncompressed inode metadata block.|
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| s16 | inode offset | The difference of this inodes number to the reference|
-| | | stored in the header. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | type | The inode type. For extended inodes, the basic type |
-| | | is stored here instead. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | name size | One less than the size of the entry name. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u8[] | name | The file name of the entry without a trailing null |
-| | | byte. Has 'name size' + 1 bytes. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-
-In the entry structure itself, the file names are stored without trailing null
-bytes. Since a zero length name makes no sense, the name length is stored
-off-by-one, i.e. the value 0 cannot be encoded.
-
-The inode type is stored in the entry, but always as the corresponding
-basic type.
-
-While the field is technically 16 bits, the kernel implementation currently
-imposes an arbitrary limit of 255 on the name size field. Since the field is
-off-by-one, this means that a file name in SquashFS can be at most 256
-characters long.
-
-
-6.1) Directory Index
-
-To speed up lookups on directories with lots of entries, the extended
-directory inode can store an index, holding the locations of all directory
-headers and the name of the first entry after the header.
-
-When searching for an entry, the reader can then iterate over the index to
-find a range of metadata blocks that should contain a given entry and then
-only scan over the given range.
-
-To allow for even faster lookups, a new header should be emitted every time
-the entry list crosses a metadata block boundary. This narrows the boundary
-down to a single metadata block lookup in most cases.
-
-The index entries have the following structure:
-
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| u32 | index | This stores a byte offset from the first directory |
-| | | header to the current header, as if the uncompressed |
-| | | directory metadata blocks were laid out in memory |
-| | | consecutively. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | start | Start offset of a directory table metadata block, |
-| | | relative to the directory table start. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | name size | One less than the size of the entry name. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u8[] | name | The name of the first entry following the header |
-| | | without a trailing null byte. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-
-
-7) Fragment Table
-*****************
-
-Tail-ends and smaller than block size files can be combined into fragment
-blocks that are at most 'block size' bytes long.
-
-The fragment table describes the location and size of the fragment blocks
-(not the tail-ends within them).
-
-
-This is a lookup table which stores entries of the following shape:
-
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+==============+======================================================+
-| u64 | start | The offset within the archive where the fragment |
-| | | block starts. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | size | The on-disk size of the fragment block. If the block |
-| | | is uncompressed, bit 24 (i.e. 1 << 24) is set. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | unused | SHOULD be set to 0. |
-+------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
-
-
-The table is stored on-disk as described in section 2.3.
-
-The fragment table location in the superblock points to an array of 64 bit
-integers that store the on-disk locations of the metadata blocks containing
-the lookup table.
-
-Each metadata block can store up to 512 entries (= 8129 / 16).
-
-The "unused" field is there for alignment and SHOULD be set to 0, however the
-Linux kernel currently ignores this field completely, making it impossible for
-Linux to ever re-purpose this field.
-
-
-8) Export Table
-***************
-
-To support NFS exports, SquashFS needs a fast way to resolve an inode number
-to an inode structure.
-
-For this purpose, a SquashFS archive can optionally contain an export table,
-which is basically a flat array of 64 bit inode references, with the inode
-number being used as an index into the array.
-
-Because the inode number 0 is not used (reserved as a sentinel value), the
-array actually starts at inode number 1 and the index is thus
-inode_number - 1.
-
-The array itself is stored in a series of metadata blocks, as outlined in
-section 2.3.
-
-Since each block can store 1024 references (= 8192 / 8), there will be
-ceil(inode_count / 1024) metadata blocks for the entire array.
-
-
-9) ID Table
-***********
-
-As outlined in section 5.1, SquashFS supports 32 bit user and group IDs. To
-compact the inode table, the unique UID/GID values are collected in a lookup
-table and a 16 bit table index is stored in the inode instead.
-
-This lookup table is stored as outlined in section 2.3.
-
-Each metadata block can store up to 2048 IDs (=8192 / 4).
-
-
-10) Extended Attribute Table
-****************************
-
-Extended attributes are arbitrary key value pairs attached to inodes. The key
-names use dots as separators to create a hierarchy of name spaces.
-
-The key value pairs of all inodes are stored consecutively in a series of
-metadata blocks.
-
-The values can either be stored inline, i.e. a key entry is directly followed
-by a value, or out-of-line to deduplicate identical values and use a reference
-instead. Typically, the first occurrence of a value is stored in line and
-every consecutive use of the same value uses an out-of-line reference back to
-the first one.
-
-
-The keys are stored using the following data structure:
-
-+======+===========+=========================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+===========+=========================================================+
-| u16 | type | A prefix ID for the key name. If the value that follows |
-| | | is stored out-of-line, the flag 0x0100 is ORed to the |
-| | | type ID. |
-| | | |
-| | +-------+-------------------------------------------------+
-| | | Value | Comment |
-| | +-------+-------------------------------------------------+
-| | | 0 | Prefix the name with "user." |
-| | | 1 | Prefix the name with "trusted." |
-| | | 2 | Prefix the name with "security." |
-+------+-----------+-------+-------------------------------------------------+
-| u16 | name size | The number of key bytes that follows. |
-+------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------+
-| u8[] | name | The remainder of the key without the prefix and without |
-| | | trailing null byte. |
-+------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------+
-
-
-Following the key, this structure is used to store the value:
-
-+======+============+========================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+============+========================================================+
-| u32 | value size | The size of the value string. If the value is stored |
-| | | out of line, this is always 8, i.e. the size of an |
-| | | unsigned 64 bit integer. |
-+------+------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
-| u8[] | value | This is 'value size' bytes of arbitrary binary data. |
-| | | If the value is stored out-of-line, this is a 64 bit |
-| | | reference, i.e. a location of a metadata block, |
-| | | shifted left by 16 and OR-ed with an offset into the |
-| | | uncompressed block, giving the location of another |
-| | | value structure. |
-+------+------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
-
-
-The metadata block location given by an out-of-line reference is relative to
-the location of the first block.
-
-
-To actually address a block of key value pairs associated with an inode, a
-lookup table is used that specifies the start and size of a sequence of key
-value pairs.
-
-All an inode needs to store is a 32 bit index into this table. If two inodes
-have an identical attribute sets, the key/value sequence is only written once,
-there is only one lookup table entry and both inodes have the same index.
-
-Each lookup table entry has the following structure:
-
-+======+============+========================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+======+============+========================================================+
-| u64 | xattr ref | A reference to the start of the key value block, i.e. |
-| | | the metadata block location shifted left by 16, OR-ed |
-| | | with am offset into the uncompressed block. |
-+------+------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | count | The number of key value pairs. |
-+------+------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | size | The exact, uncompressed size in bytes of the entire |
-| | | block of key value pairs, counting what has been |
-| | | written to disk and including the key/value entry |
-| | | structures. |
-+------+------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
-
-This lookup table is stored as outlined in section 2.3.
-
-Each metadata block can hold 512 (= 8192 / 16) entries.
-
-However, in contrast to section 2.3, additional data is given before the list
-of metdata block locations, to locate the key-value pairs, as well as the
-actual number of lookup table entries that are not specified in the super
-block.
-
-
-The 'Xattr table' entry in the superblock gives the absolute location of the
-following data structure which is stored on-disk as is, uncompressed:
-
-+=======+===========+========================================================+
-| Type | Name | Description |
-+=======+===========+========================================================+
-| u64 | kv start | The absolute position of the first metadata block |
-| | | holding the key/value pairs. |
-+-------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | count | The number of entries in the lookup table. |
-+-------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
-| u32 | unused | SHOULD be set to 0, however Linux currently ignores |
-| | | this field completely and squashfs-tools used to leak |
-| | | stack data here, making it impossible for Linux to |
-| | | ever re-purpose this field. |
-+-------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
-| u64[] | locations | An array holding the absolute on-disk location of each |
-| | | metadata block of the lookup table. |
-+-------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
-
-If an inode has a a valid xattr index (i.e. not 0xFFFFFFFF), the metadata
-block index is computed as
-
- block_idx = floor(index / 512)
-
-which is then used to retrieve the metadata block index from the locations
-array.
-
-Once the block has been read from disk and uncompressed, the byte offset into
-the metadata block can be computed as
-
- offset = (index * 16) % 8192
-
-From this position, the structure can be read that holds a reference to the
-metadata block that contains the key/value pairs (and byte offset into the
-uncompressed block where the pairs start), as well as the number of key/value
-pairs and their total, uncompressed size.
-