VirtualFS::ISO9660 - Perl extension allowing programs to open files inside ISO-9660 format CD images.

	$ref = new VirtualFS::ISO9660('file.iso') or die "Can't open file.iso: $!";
	$ref = new VirtualFS::ISO9660('file.iso', -verbose => 1);

	$ref->opendir($dh, '/') or die "Can't open rootdir in file.iso";
	print "files in file.iso's root directory:\n";
	for ($dh->readdir) { print "\t$_\n"; }
	print "let's see that again!";
	$dh->rewinddir();
	for ($dh->readdir) { print "\t$_\n"; }
	# there is no $dh->closedir; just undef $dh or something when you're done
	# with it.

	# NOTE! ONLY THE 3-ARGUMENT FORM OF open IS SUPPORTED!
	$ref->open($fh, '<', '/MANIFEST');
	print "the MANIFEST file contains:\n";
	# this will have to do until perl adds STAT support for tied filehandles
	@stats1 = tied($fh)->STAT;
	@stats2 = $ref->stat('/MANIFEST');
	while (<$fh>) {
		print "$_\n";
	}
	# unlike closedir, $fh is a "real" (tied) filehandle, and you close it
	# normally.
	close $fh;

Linux systems (and probably other Unix-y OSes like *BSD) have a 'loop' device that allow you to take a filesystem embedded in another file, and mount it as if it were normal media:

		mount file.iso /cdrom -t iso9660 -o ro,loop

Unfortunately, this suffers from some problems:

• Windows users cannot benefit from this. (You may not think that Windows is important, but you are not the only person on the planet.)
• For the systems that *do* support such a loop device, this only works if the kernel has been compiled loop device compiled in; thus, using this feature may require recompilation of the kernel.
• And for systems that have a loop device, and for which the loop device is enabled, a user also must normally be root in order to execute the mount command. Not everybody has root on the machines they're using.

VirtualFS::ISO9660 was written to avoid these three issues entirely, by internally emulating a ISO-9660 filesystem driver. It can be used to list the contents of a directory (with ->opendir() and ->readdir()), and it can be used to open files inside the ISO image and read their contents.

Constructs a new VirtualFS::ISO9660 object tied to a specific file, specified by filename. If options are specified, they are a set of (name, value) pairs (think flattened hash). Currently, no options are defined.

Examples:

	# open foo.iso with default options
	$x = new VirtualFS::ISO9660 ('foo.iso');
	# open bar.iso, disabling Joliet support (this is moot because this module
	# does not yet support Joliet)
	$y = new VirtualFS::ISO9660 ('bar.iso', -nojoliet => 1);

	$x->opendir(my $ref, $path) or die "can't open $path\: $!";

Open a directory specified by path. It doesn't matter if path starts with '/', since everything has to be absolute (there is no current directory to be relative to). Note that, since there is no such thing as a tied directory handle, $ref MUST be a scalar lvalue capable of holding a reference to an object. Unlike the real opendir, where opendir($dirh, 'bar') would make $dirh a reference to the GLOB containing the IO handle, this method simply creates an object.

	@s = $x->stat('/');
	@s = $x->stat('/COPYRIGH');	# note that ISO9660 limits filenames to 8 characters

Emulates the stat in perlfunc builtin. Returns the same arguments, in the same order. Zeroes most values. The first two values (device and inode), which are numbers when returned by the real stat, are actually references to data related to file being statted.

	%all_ids = $o->identifier;
	$one_id  = $o->identifier('system');
	@several_ids = $o->identifier('system', 'publisher');

Pulls stuff out of the Volume Descriptor. The valid keys are 'system', 'volume', 'volume_set', 'publisher', 'preparer', and 'application'.

See identifier for instructions on use. Here, the keys are 'copyright', 'abstract', and 'biblio'.

NOTE: These accessors will probably change in the future. As in, within the next few versions.

These functions are documented so that people who want to hack at this module can better understand how it works.

	__readsectors($filehandle, $buffer, $firstsector); # reads 1 sector
	__readsectors($filehandle, $buffer, $firstsector, $N); # reads $N sectors

This internal function is used to read one or more sectors out of the ISO image. Each CD-ROM sector is 2048 bytes.

	$info = __extract_pathtablerec($data);	# leaves $data alone
	$info = __extract_pathtablerec(\$data); # strips the record it reads from $data

This function is used to process the path tables (somewhat of a cached copy of the directory tree located on the CD-ROM). It reads and decodes exactly one path table entry.

	$pathtable = __extract_pathtable($pathtabledata, $pathtabledatasize);

This function calls _extract_pathtablerec repeatedly to extract every path table entry into one large array, then returns a reference to that array.

	$pathtree = __build_pathtree(__extract_pathtable($ptdata, $ptdatasize));

This function converts the flat array generated by __extract_pathtable into a hierarchical nest of hashes and arrayrefs that reflects the actual directory tree.

	$direntry = __extract_direntry($rawentry);

Extracts the contents of $rawentry into a hash, then returns a reference to that hash.

	$voldesc = __extract_voldesc($rawvd);

Extracts the contents of $rawvd into a hash, then returns a reference to that hash.

	$filepos = $iso9660obj->__startpos('/autorun.inf');
	$rootpos = $iso9660obj->__startpos('/');

Returns the fileposition in the .ISO where the contents of the specified file or directory begin. Intended as a debugging aid for those with a decent hex editor/viewer open to the .ISO image.

	@s = $iso9660obj->__stat($href);

$href is a hash reference containing the information from a directory entry. This function is the backend for VirtualFS::ISO9660::stat as well as VirtualFS::ISO9660::FileHandle::STAT.

These are the public methods for the object referenced by $dirh after successfully calling:

	$iso9660obj->opendir($dirh, '/');

This is the biggie. Works almost exactly like the real readdir:

	$one_file = $dirh->readdir;
	@all_files = $dirh->readdir;

Just like the real rewinddir:

	print "here are the files:\n";
	for my $filename ($dirh->readdir) {
		print "$filename\n";
	}
	$dirh->rewinddir;
	print "and here they are again:\n";
	for my $filename ($dirh->readdir) {
		print "$filename\n";
	}

This function is only there for completeness; it is a no-op. If you really want to close the handle, then just throw away the reference to the object.

This method reads exactly one directory entry and returns exactly one filename. It is called once for $dirh-readdir> in scalar context and looped over for array context.

This method does the equivalent of stat in perlfunc on this virtual filehandle.

TIEHANDLE, GETC, READ, and READLINE, for tying purposes.

Also includes a __READLINE method; this is related to READLINE the exact same way that VirtualFS::ISO9660:DirHandle's __readdir and readdir methods are related.

Stevie-O, soberholtzer@freedompay.com

• The stat $fh syntax doesn't work when $fh is a tied filehandle. This means that other things that depend on stat, like just about everything in -X, won't work either. For this, you'd need to do:
  
  

  	@stats = tied($fh)->STAT();
  
  

  
  
  It would be nice if someone could patch Perl to provide this functionality.
• The following features do NOT work on the magic filehandles:
• • binmode
  • seek
  • tell
  • eof


This is because perltie (or at least 5.8.0's perltie) mentions them, but does not document how to use them. It also mentions an OPEN, but I have *no* idea what that does.