#505381 genisoimage: writes blank sectors

Package:
genisoimage
Source:
cdrkit
Description:
Creates ISO-9660 CD-ROM filesystem images
Submitter:
"Eduardo Pérez Ureta"
Date:
2021-07-04 23:15:03 UTC
Severity:
minor
Tags:
#505381#5
Date:
2008-11-11 22:08:02 UTC
From:
To:
I have found genisoimage adds unneeded blank sectors.

Comparing joliet images with only 1 small file

mkisofs                                  nero
sectors                                  sectors
16 blank                                 16 blank
01 Volume descriptor                     01 Volume descriptor
01 Volume descriptor Joliet              01 Volume descriptor Joliet
01 Volume Descriptor Set Terminator      01 Volume Descriptor Set Terminator
01 Version                               01 directory
01 path table little endian              01 path table little endian
01 blank                                 01 path table big endian
01 path table big endian                 01 directory joliet
01 blank                                 01 path table little endian joliet
01 path table little endian joliet       01 path table big endian joliet
01 blank                                 01 file data
01 path table big endian joliet
01 blank
01 directory
01 directory joliet
01 file data

As you can see there are 4 extra blank unneeded sectors.

I have attached the patch I have been using some years successfully.
#505381#14
Date:
2008-11-20 12:34:41 UTC
From:
To:
Cool, thanks. I'll take a look.
#505381#19
Date:
2014-06-13 17:20:03 UTC
From:
To:
This behavior (or one very similar to it) appears to still be present,
five and a half years later. The patch still appears to apply (albeit
with considerable a offset) against current upstream SVN.

I have not managed to find any indication of what the reason for adding
these blank sectors is supposed to be. The code in question appears to
date all the way back to the original import of mkisofs into Subversion,
so there's no help there.

Any chance of either getting this patch applied, or at least figuring
out a reason why it would be a bad idea?
#505381#24
Date:
2021-07-04 23:05:36 UTC
From:
To:
OK, some updates for 2021:

* genisoimage is officially marked "abandoned" and should not be used
(time stamps will start break come 2028; I've fixed the bug but there's
no genisoimage maintainer to update the program with the fix).  See
https://wiki.debian.org/genisoimage for end-of-life notice

* As per that Wiki page, the official answer is to use xorrisofs, which
yes has fixed (or never had) this "blank sector" bug

* I have made my own fork of genisoimage, iso9660, which fixes this bug
and the bug with post-2027 timestamps: https://github.com/samboy/iso9660

- Sam
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