xorriso: Methods
4 Creating, Growing, Modifying, Blind Growing:
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A new empty ISO image gets *created* if there is no input drive with a
valid ISO 9660 image when the first time an output drive is defined.
This is achieved by command -dev on blank media or by command -outdev on
media in any state.
The new empty image can be populated with directories and files. Before
it can be written, the medium in the output drive must get into blank
state if it was not blank already.
If there is a input drive with a valid ISO image, then this image
gets loaded as foundation for manipulations and extension. The
constellation of input and output drive determines which write method
will be used. They have quite different capabilities and constraints.
The method of *growing* adds new data to the existing data on the
medium. These data comprise of new file content and they override the
existing ISO 9660 + Rock Ridge directory tree. It is possible to hide
files from previous sessions but they still exist on the medium and with
many types of optical media it is quite easy to recover them by mounting
older sessions.
Growing is achieved by command -dev.
The write method of *modifying* produces compact filesystem images
with no outdated files or directory trees. Modifying can write its
images to target media which are completely unsuitable for multi-session
operations. E.g. DVD-RW which were treated with -blank
deformat_quickest, DVD-R DL, named pipes, character devices, sockets.
On the other hand modified sessions cannot be written to appendable
media but to blank media only.
So for this method one needs either two optical drives or has to work
with filesystem objects as source and/or target medium.
Modifying takes place if input drive and output drive are not the same
and if command -grow_blindly is set to its default "off". This is
achieved by commands -indev and -outdev.
If command -grow_blindly is set to a non-negative number and if
-indev and -outdev are both set to different drives, then *blind
growing* is performed. It produces an add-on session which is ready for
being written to the given block address. This is the usage model of
mkisofs -M $indev -C $msc1,$msc2 -o $outdev
which gives much room for wrong parameter combinations and should thus
only be employed if a strict distinction between ISO formatter 'xorriso'
and the burn program is desired. -C $msc1,$msc2 is equivalent to:
-load sbsector $msc1 -grow_blindly $msc2
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