Handling physical and virtual media in macOS

Disk image manipulation

Mounting

hdiutil attach Adobe\ Photoshop\ 7\ DE.img

Attach as block device, but don't mount

hdiutil attach -nomount -noverify Downloads/QuickTime_Installer_6.5.1.dmg

Create an image from a folder

hdiutil create -volname $VOLUMENAME -srcfolder $SOURCEFOLDER {-format $IMAGEFORMAT} -fs $FILESYSTEM $FILENAME

Create a Joliet/ISO compatible image from a folder

hdiutil makehybrid -iso -joliet -o image.iso /path/to/source

Create an image from a device

hdiutil create -srcdevice /dev/diskN -format $IMAGEFORMAT ImageFromDevice.dmg == Create an empty raw image (Apple Partition) hdiutil create -volname Snow\ HD -size 20G -type UDIF -layout SPUD -fs HFS+ Snow.img

Show information on an image

hdiutil imageinfo /Users/wolfo/Downloads/QuickTime\ 6.3.1\ for\ OSX\ 10.1.5\ date\ 20040401.dmg

Compact a sparse image

hdiutil compact Address\ Book\ Backup.sparseimage

Filesystems used by hdiutil

`UDF`	Universal Disk Format (UDF)
`MS-DOS FAT12`	MS-DOS (FAT12)
`MS-DOS`	MS-DOS (FAT)
`MS-DOS FAT16`	MS-DOS (FAT16)
`MS-DOS FAT32`	MS-DOS (FAT32)
`HFS+`	Mac OS Extended
`Case-sensitive HFS+`	Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive)
`Case-sensitive Journaled HFS+`	Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
`Journaled HFS+`	Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
`ExFAT`	ExFAT
`Case-sensitive APFS`	APFS (Case-sensitive)
`APFS`	APFS

Partition layouts used by hdiutil

`MBRSPUD`	Single partition - Master Boot Record Partition Map
`SPUD`	Single partition - Apple Partition Map
`UNIVERSAL CD`	CD/DVD
`NONE`	No partition map
`GPTSPUD`	Single partition - GUID Partition Map
`SPCD`	Single partition - CD/DVD
`UNIVERSAL HD`	Hard disk
`ISOCD`	Single partition - CD/DVD with ISO data

Image formats used by hdiutil

`UDRO`	read-only
`UDCO`	compressed (ADC)
`UDZO`	compressed
`UDBZ`	compressed (bzip2)
`ULFO`	compressed (lzfse)
`ULMO`	compressed (lzma)
`UFBI`	entire device
`IPOD`	iPod image
`UDxx`	UDIF stub
`UDSB`	sparsebundle
`UDSP`	sparse
`UDRW`	read/write
`UDTO`	DVD/CD master
`DC42`	Disk Copy 4.2
`RdWr`	NDIF read/write
`Rdxx`	NDIF read-only
`ROCo`	NDIF compressed
`Rken`	NDIF compressed (KenCode)

Manipulation of physical media (diskutil)

Erasing/formatting a disk

diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 VolumeName MBR diskN

Securely erasing a volume

diskutil secureErase 4 diskN

`0`	Single-pass zeros.
`1`	Single-pass random numbers.
`2`	US DoD 7-pass secure erase.
`3`	Gutmann algorithm 35-pass secure erase.
`4`	US DoE 3-pass secure erase.

Zeroing a disk

diskutil zeroDisk /dev/diskN

Randomising a disk

diskutil randomDisk /dev/diskN

Force unmount volume

diskutil unmountDisk force diskX

Encrypted volumes

Change password for encrypted disk image

hdiutil chpass $FILENAME

Optical media

Burn an image to an optical disc

hdiutil burn /Volumes/Downloads/Mac\ OS\ X\ Jaguar/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ Disc\ 1.toast

Erase a rewritable disc

diskutil eraseOptical /dev/disk8

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