One step ISO creation from folders in OS X
SoftwareHere’s a great little trick I discovered this afternoon. Previously, if I wanted to create an ISO image to either burn or mount in a VM, I’d do this:
- Create “CD/DVD master” from a folder using hdiutil or Disk Utility.app
- Convert to a “hybrid image”
- Rename the file from *cdr to *iso
I’m not sure how long we’ve been able to do this, but you can specify it with just one command now, using the “UNIV” flag. For example:
% hdiutil create \ -volname MSDOS6 \ -srcfolder EN_MSDOS60 \ -ov -format UNIV \ image.dmg % mv image.dmg image.iso
Okay I cheated, there are two commands there. Still, now I have a way to create an ISO image I can mount in virtual machines (or burn) without a conversion step.
If you’ve found that useful, feel free to bankroll me an upgrade to the latest VMware Fusion on the Buy me a Coffee page. Hey, one can dream, right? ^_^
The rather retro set of icons above are from the Tango Desktop Project, originally assembled for this FreeBSD post in 2009.
Update: The other way
I had a few people ask me what I meant by “convert to a hybrid image” in my original procedure above. In a nutshell, if you’re created a “CD/DVD master image” and have a something.cdr file, you can convert it by doing this:
% hdiutil makehybrid -iso -joliet -o image.iso image.cdr
Creating a hybrid image from the start negates this step, though perhaps there are circumstances where this approach may be preferable. Happy imaging!