2 # Copyright (C) 2010-2011 Red Hat Inc.
4 # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
5 # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
6 # the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
7 # (at your option) any later version.
9 # This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
10 # but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
11 # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
12 # GNU General Public License for more details.
14 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
15 # along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
16 # Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
22 use Win::Hivex::Regedit qw(reg_import reg_export);
31 hivexregedit - Merge and export Registry changes from regedit-format files.
35 hivexregedit --merge [--prefix prefix] [--encoding enc] \
38 hivexregedit --export [--prefix prefix] hivefile key > regfile
42 Please note hivexregedit is a low-level tool for manipulating hive
43 files directly. To merge or export registry changes to Windows
44 virtual machines it's better to use L<virt-win-reg(1)>.
46 Given a local binary ("hive") file, there are two modes. C<--merge>
47 imports (merges) changes from a regedit-format file into the hive. It
48 is similar to using the C</s> switch in Windows regedit.exe.
50 C<--export> exports a Registry key (recursively) into the regedit format.
54 C<hivexregedit> expects that regedit files have already been re-encoded
55 in the local encoding. Usually on Linux hosts, this means UTF-8 with
56 Unix-style line endings. Since Windows regedit files are often in
57 UTF-16LE with Windows-style line endings, you may need to re-encode the
58 whole file before or after processing.
60 To re-encode a file from Windows format to Linux (before processing it
61 with the C<--merge> option), you would do something like this:
63 iconv -f utf-16le -t utf-8 < win.reg | dos2unix > linux.reg
65 To go in the opposite direction, after using C<--export> and before
66 sending the file to a Windows user, do something like this:
68 unix2dos linux.reg | iconv -f utf-8 -t utf-16le > win.reg
70 For more information about encoding, see L<Win::Hivex::Regedit(3)>.
72 If you are unsure about the current encoding, use the L<file(1)>
73 command. Recent versions of Windows regedit.exe produce a UTF-16LE
74 file with Windows-style (CRLF) line endings, like this:
77 software.reg: Little-endian UTF-16 Unicode text, with very long lines,
78 with CRLF line terminators
80 This file would need conversion before you could C<--merge> it.
84 Be careful when passing parameters containing C<\> (backslash) in the
85 shell. Usually you will have to use 'single quotes' or double
86 backslashes (but not both) to protect them from the shell.
88 =head2 CurrentControlSet etc.
90 Registry keys like C<CurrentControlSet> don't really exist in the
91 Windows Registry at the level of the hive file, and therefore you
94 C<CurrentControlSet> is usually an alias for C<ControlSet001>. In
95 some circumstances it might refer to another control set. The way
96 to find out is to look at the C<HKLM\SYSTEM\Select> key:
98 $ hivexregedit --export SYSTEM '\Select'
100 "Current"=dword:00000001
101 "Default"=dword:00000001
102 "Failed"=dword:00000000
103 "LastKnownGood"=dword:00000002
105 "Current" is the one which Windows will choose when it boots.
107 Similarly, other C<Current...> keys in the path may need to
112 $ virt-cat WindowsGuest /Windows/System32/config/software > software.hive
113 $ hivexregedit --export \
114 --prefix 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE' \
115 software.hive '\Microsoft' > ms-keys.reg
117 $ hivexregedit --merge system.hive \
118 --prefix 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM' additions.reg
138 Enable debugging in the hivex library. This is useful for diagnosing
139 bugs and also malformed hive files.
147 hivexregedit --merge [--prefix prefix] [--encoding enc] \
150 Merge C<regfile> (a regedit-format text file) into the hive
151 C<hivefile>. If C<regfile> is omitted, then the program reads from
152 standard input. (Also you can give multiple input files).
154 C<--prefix> specifies the Windows Registry prefix. It is almost
155 always necessary to use this when dealing with real hive files.
157 C<--encoding> specifies the encoding for unmarked strings in the
158 input. It defaults to C<UTF-16LE> which should work for recent
159 versions of Windows. Another possibility is to use C<ASCII>.
167 hivexregedit --export [--prefix prefix] hivefile key > regfile
169 C<key> is a path within the hive C<hivefile>. (The key should not
170 contain any prefix and should be quoted to defend backslashes from the
171 shell). The key is exported, recursively, to standard output in the
172 textual regedit format.
174 C<--prefix> specifies the Windows Registry prefix. It is almost
175 always necessary to use this when dealing with real hive files.
181 =item B<--prefix> prefix
183 Hive files and Windows Registry key names are indirectly related. For
184 example, inside the software hive, all keys are stored relative to
185 C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE>. Thus
186 C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft> appears in the hive file as
189 The hive format itself does not store this prefix, so you have to
190 supply it based on outside knowledge. (L<virt-win-reg(1)>, amongst
191 other things, already knows about this).
193 Usually it is sufficient to pass the parameter
194 C<--prefix 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE'> or similar when doing
201 =item B<--encoding> UTF-16LE|ASCII
203 When merging (only), you may need to specify the encoding for strings
204 to be used in the hive file. This is explained in detail in
205 L<Win::Hivex::Regedit(3)/ENCODING STRINGS>.
207 The default is to use UTF-16LE, which should work with recent versions
212 my $unsafe_printable_strings;
214 =item B<--unsafe-printable-strings>
216 When exporting (only), assume strings are UTF-16LE and print them as
217 strings instead of hex sequences. Remove the final zero codepoint
218 from strings if present.
220 This is unsafe and does not preserve the fidelity of strings in the
221 original hive for various reasons:
227 Assumes the original encoding is UTF-16LE. ASCII strings and strings
228 in other encodings will be corrupted by this transformation.
232 Assumes that everything which has type 1 or 2 is really a string
233 and that everything else is not a string, but the type field in
234 real hives is not reliable.
238 Loses information about whether a zero codepoint followed the string
243 This all happens because the hive itself contains no information about
244 how strings are encoded (see
245 L<Win::Hivex::Regedit(3)/ENCODING STRINGS>).
247 You should only use this option for quick hacking and debugging of the
248 hive contents, and I<never> use it if the output is going to be passed
249 into another program or stored in another hive.
255 GetOptions ("help|?" => \$help,
257 "merge|import" => \$merge,
258 "export" => \$export,
259 "prefix=s" => \$prefix,
260 "encoding=s" => \$encoding,
261 "unsafe-printable-strings" => \$unsafe_printable_strings,
263 pod2usage (1) if $help;
265 if ($merge && $export) {
266 die "hivexregedit: cannot use --merge and --export at the same time\n"
269 unless ($merge || $export) {
270 die "hivexregedit: use --merge or --export, see the manpage for help\n"
273 if ($export && defined $encoding) {
274 die "hivexregedit: --encoding has no effect when used with --export\n"
277 if ($merge) { # --merge (reg_import)
279 die "hivexregedit --merge hivefile [input.reg ...]\n"
282 my $hivefile = shift @ARGV;
284 my $h = Win::Hivex->open ($hivefile, write => 1, debug => $debug);
286 # Read from stdin unless other files have been specified.
287 unshift (@ARGV, '-') unless @ARGV;
290 open FILE, $_ or die "$_: $!";
291 reg_import (\*FILE, sub {
293 # Remove prefix from the start of the path, matching
294 # case insensitively.
295 if (defined $prefix) {
296 my $len = length $prefix;
297 if (length $_ >= $len &&
298 lc (substr ($_, 0, $len)) eq lc ($prefix)) {
299 $_ = substr ($_, $len);
307 } else { # --export (reg_export)
309 die "hivexregedit --export hivefile key\n"
312 my $hivefile = shift @ARGV;
313 my $key = shift @ARGV;
315 my $h = Win::Hivex->open ($hivefile, debug => $debug);
317 print "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00\n\n";
319 reg_export ($h, $key, \*STDOUT,
321 unsafe_printable_strings => $unsafe_printable_strings);
327 L<Win::Hivex::Regedit(3)>,
333 L<http://libguestfs.org/>.
337 Richard W.M. Jones L<http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/>
341 Copyright (C) 2010 Red Hat Inc.
343 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
344 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
345 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
346 (at your option) any later version.
348 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
349 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
350 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
351 GNU General Public License for more details.
353 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
354 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
355 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.