Command Line tool to create ISO images

Question

I was tasked with helping automate the build process where I work and was specifically given the task of packaging the installer/release files into an ISO to be burnt and distributed to customers. The script will pull all of the files to a central location, but then I need to package those files into an ISO disk image. I was going to do this through the command line, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience with any command line tools for packaging a built product into an ISO (disk image).

I have heard of using Linux's MKISOFS (however I will most likely be setting this up to run on a Windows environment) but haven't done much research yet and was wondering if anyone out there could help point me in the right direction.

Solution 1

There are a couple of options listed in this question. I haven't got any experience of using any of them so can't give you pros/cons on them I'm afraid. I have used MagicISO Maker via its UI in the past and it worked fairly well for that, but I can't comment on the command line/scriptability of it.

Solution 2

Nay, all those fancy ways and I'm still using an old copy of cdimage.exe, Microsoft's CD-ROM Premastering Utility which, from the copyright notice on the exe file seems to data from 1996!

Solution 3

Thanks for the response Rob. Since we were using Windows to do this, we ended up deciding to use a freeware tool called CDBurnerXP (http://cdburnerxp.se/help/Appendices/commandlinearguments).

I tried using MagicISO but it is not free and is actually extremely buggy (as far as the command line tool goes).

I would have tried MKISOFS but I didn't want to waste my time trying to build it.

Solution 4

mkisofs with cygwin : http://www.cygwin.com/

This is the best fastest solution for automatic usage.

mkisofs is precompiled and can be installed through cygwin install program.

View more solutions

Comments

[dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten]

BTW-- I was one of the people who voted to migrate this, and I feel the need to defnd the decision. Yes, you're planning to write a script but you question of the "help me find a tool" nature, which I feel is better suited to SU. I would heartily recommend mkisofs, but don't know what you need to run it on windows (cygwin or...).

[Brian]

I appricate your response, but no worries dmckee! I understood that it was not exactly a software development question, but didn't know there was a new site for questions like this. I was actually going to script it as an Ant task.

[Brian]

Thanks Rob! I was playing around trying to build mkisofs, but it is turning out to be a bit of a pain in the ass. I'll try MagicISO next.

[Sun]

mkisofs seems to be symlink to genisoimage. Use genisoimage instead if you're running from Windows command prompt