README.md for wim: wic Image Manipulator

wim is a tool that allows users to perform post-build manipulation of an OpenEmbedded-generated wic image file without needing root privileges.

wic is a tool that is used by OpenEmbedded to lay out build artifacts into a file under the direction of a wks configuration. In most cases the result is an image that is bootable on some target device (although this is not strictly the case; a wks configuration could lay out pieces of a wic file that is not necessarily an image that is bootable).

If a wic file contains a bootable image, that image will start with some flavour of a partition table, then contain one or more partitions. Two common partition table formats are GPT and MBR, with GPT being the newer of the two. Partitions can be formatted in one of many formats such as vfat, ext2/3/4, btrfs, etc. Currently wim supports both GPT and MBR partition tables, and only supports vfat and ext2/3/4 partition formats.

If a wic file contains a bootable image, the wim tool allows you to:

• list the partition information
• list the contents of a directory of a partition in the wic
• copy files to/from the host machine from/to a partition in the wic
• remove files from a partition in the wic

NOTE: if a bmap file was generated by the OE/Yocto build alongside the wic file it generated, that bmap file will be invalidated by any post-build modifications to the wic