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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 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
+ ***********
+
+ A SquashFS archive consists of a maximum of nine parts, packed together on
+ a byte alignment:
+
+ _______________
+ | | Important information about the archive, including
+ | Superblock | locations of other sections.
+ |_______________|
+ | |
+ | Compression | If non-default compression options have been used,
+ | options | then these are stored here.
+ |_______________|
+ | |
+ | Data blocks | The contents of the files in the archive,
+ | & fragments | split into 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 |
+ |_______________|
+
+
+ 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 stored in special
+ metadata blocks.
+
+ Metadata blocks always have a fixed input size of 8KiB. Similar to data
+ blocks, if the compressed would exceed 8KiB, the uncompressed block is stored
+ instead, so the on-disk size of a metadata block never exceeds 8KiB.
+
+ In contrast to data blocks, metadata blocks are prefixed 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.
+
+
+ To read a metadata block, seek to the indicated position and read the 16 bit
+ header. Then read the size indicated by the lower 15 bit. If the highest bit
+ of the header is set, uncompress the data you just read.
+
+
+ In the SquashFS archive format, metadata is often referenced using a 64 bit
+ integer, consisting of the on-disk location of the metadata block, shifted
+ left by 16, and OR-ed with a byte offset into the uncompressed block.
+
+ The location is relative to the type of metadata, i.e. for inodes it is an
+ offset relative to the start of the inode table.
+
+ The location of a metadata block always points to the 16 bit header.
+
+
+ 2.3) Storing Lookup Tables
+
+ Lookup tables are arrays (i.e. sequences of identical sized data) that are
+ addressed by an index in constant time.
+
+ 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 is itself uncompressed and not preceded by a header. It is just a
+ block of raw values.
+
+ 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 / 8129)
+
+ 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).
+
+
+
+ 2) 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 deflate (no gzip headers!) |
+ | | | 2 | LZO | |
+ | | | 3 | LZMA | LZMA version 1 |
+ | | | 4 | XZ | LZMA version 2 (no XZ headers!) |
+ | | | 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 (1k or 4k, default |
+ | | | is 4k), this can be less than the 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).
+
+ Please note that most of the flags are either redundant, or entirely useless
+ and only serve an informational purpose.
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
+ 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 bitfield 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. |
+ +------+-------------------+--------+----------------------------------------+
+
+ 3.1.2) XZ
+
+ +======+===================+=================================================+
+ | Type | Name | Description |
+ +======+===================+=================================================+
+ | u32 | dictionary size | Should be > 8KiB, and must be either a power of |
+ | | | two, or the sum of two sequential powers of two.|
+ +------+-------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
+ | u32 | Filters | A bitfield 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 |
+ +------+-------------------+--------+----------------------------------------+
+
+ 3.1.3) LZ4
+
+ +======+===================+=================================================+
+ | Type | Name | Description |
+ +======+===================+=================================================+
+ | u32 | Version | Must be set to 1. |
+ +------+-------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
+ | u32 | Flags | A bitfield 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(). |
+ +------+-------------------+-------------------------------------------------+
+
+ 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). Has to 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 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 3 is smaller than block size.
+
+ For each file, the blocks are compressed in sequence and stored on disk.
+
+ 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. Additional meta
+ information, stored in the inodes, is required to locate the blocks of a
+ file.
+
+
+ To locate file data, the 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) if NOT
+
+ - 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 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
+
+
+ To access fragment blocks, a lookup table is built (see section 7) that stores
+ the on-disk location and size of all fragment blocks. Inodes use an index into
+ this table together with a byte offset into the uncompressed fragment block to
+ access tail ends.
+
+
+ To support sparse files, an on-disk block size of 0 is used to indicate that
+ no data was written to disk and the SquashFS reader should supply a single
+ block filled with 0 bytes instead.
+
+
+ Typical SquashFS packers would also perform file deduplication. If the
+ compressed blocks of a file are identical to blocks already written to disk,
+ the already written blocks are reused. Similarly, the tail end can be
+ deduplicated independently, by pointing to an existing tail end.
+
+
+ 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 frequently occurring items, 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 bitmask 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 4.2
+ to 4.6.
+
+
+
+ 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. |
+ +------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
+ | 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 will 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. an empty directory has a link count of 2, a directory with one
+ entry has 3, a directory with two entries has 4 and so on.
+
+
+ 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 | One less than 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 3 |
+ | | | for details. |
+ +------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
+ | u32 | file size | The (uncompressed) size of this file. |
+ +------+--------------+------------------------------------------------------+
+ | u32[]| block sizes | An array of consecutive block sizes. See section 3 |
+ | | | 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
+
+
+ There is one corner case: if the on-disk block size is 0, the block does not
+ exist on-disk. The reader has to substitute a single block full of 0 bytes
+ instead.
+
+
+ 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 blocks of 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 | The number of hard links to this entry. |
+ +------+---------------+-----------------------------------------+
+ | 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 that are 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. All 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 not be followed by more than 256 entries. If there are more
+ entries, a new header is emitted.
+
+ Typically, inode allocation strategies would sort the children of a directory
+ and then allocate inode numbers incrementally, to optimize directory entry
+ listings.
+
+ Hard links of course break the sequence and require a new header if they are
+ further away than +/- 32k of the reference number in the header. 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. |
+ +======+==============+======================================================+
+
+ And is followed by 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.
+
+ Also note, that the inode type is stored in the entry, but always as a basic
+ type!
+
+
+ 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 | Must 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).
+
+
+ 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 be 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. |
+ +------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+ After a key, the following structure follows 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 block of key
+ value pairs.
+
+ All an inode needs to store is a 32 bit index into this table. If two inodes
+ have the identical attribute sets, the key/value block 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 | Always set this to 0. |
+ +-------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
+ | 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.
+