isomage

Browse and extract files from ISO images without mounting them.

No root. No FUSE. No mount points. Just read the bytes.

Install

Homebrew (macOS and Linux):

brew install jackdanger/tap/isomage

Cargo (any platform with Rust):

cargo install isomage

Binary — grab a prebuilt binary from releases:

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -L https://github.com/JackDanger/isomage/releases/latest/download/isomage-macos-arm64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv isomage-macos-arm64 /usr/local/bin/isomage

# Linux (x86_64, static musl)
curl -L https://github.com/JackDanger/isomage/releases/latest/download/isomage-linux-x86_64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv isomage-linux-x86_64 /usr/local/bin/isomage

From source:

git clone https://github.com/JackDanger/isomage.git
cd isomage && cargo build --release

Usage

List contents

isomage movie.iso

d / (24.8 GB)
  d BDMV (24.8 GB)
    d STREAM (24.7 GB)
      - 00000.m2ts (20.1 GB)
      - 00001.m2ts (4.6 GB)
    d CLIPINF (1.2 KB)
    d PLAYLIST (408 B)
  - CERTIFICATE (3.1 KB)

Cat a file to stdout

Print any file straight to stdout — no extraction, no temp files. Pipe it wherever you want:

# Inspect a file
isomage -c etc/hostname linux.iso

# Pipe to other tools
isomage -c BDMV/PLAYLIST/00000.mpls movie.iso | hexdump -C

# Page through a file
isomage -c readme.txt data.iso | less

# Play video directly from the ISO
isomage -c BDMV/STREAM/00000.m2ts movie.iso | mpv -

Extract files

Extract a single file, a directory tree, or the whole disc:

# One file
isomage -x BDMV/STREAM/00001.m2ts movie.iso

# A directory (recursively)
isomage -x BDMV/STREAM -o ./streams movie.iso

# Everything
isomage -x / -o ./full_dump movie.iso

Verbose / debug mode

See how the filesystem is being parsed — useful when a disc won't read:

isomage -v movie.iso

File size: 26663725056 bytes (24.84 GB)
Scanning key sectors for filesystem signatures...
  Sector  16 (ISO 9660 PVD / UDF VRS): 01 43 44 30 30 31 01 00  |.CD001..|
  Sector 256 (UDF AVDP): 02 00 02 00 ...
Attempting ISO 9660 parsing...
  Found Primary Volume Descriptor at sector 16
  ...

Supported formats

ISO 9660 with Joliet (Unicode filenames) and Rock Ridge (POSIX long filenames) extensions
UDF including metadata partitions and multi-extent files

Covers CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays.

Why

I got tired of leaving a container just to mount an image just to read one file. isomage runs entirely in userspace — it reads the raw bytes and reconstructs the filesystem tree itself.

Cross-compile

make install-targets   # one-time: adds musl target
make build-linux       # static linux binary from macOS

Limitations

Read-only (by design)
Some exotic UDF variations might not parse correctly

If you hit a disc that doesn't work, run with -v and open an issue.

License

MIT

isomage 0.1.0