QFSGen ROM File-System Generator

QClean Code Whitespace CleanupRevision History

QFSGen is a cross-platform, command-line utility that generates a ROM-based file system, which can be incorporated in a C source. Specifically, the QFSGen utility generates a C header file that contains multiple constant byte arrays representing your files and directories. This generated header file (named fsdata.h by default) can be subsequently included in a ROM-Based File System implementation.

QFSGen is deployed as a natively compiled executable and is located in the sub-directory qtools/bin/. QFSGen is available in portable source code and can be compiled on all desktop platforms (Windows and POSIX—Linux, macOS...).

Note

The main motivation for the QFSGen utility is to generate ROM-based file systems for embedded HTTP servers. However, the utility can be used for any ROM-based file systems.

QFSGen Usage

You use the QFSGen utility from a command-prompt. First, change the current directory to the directory where you wish to generate the C header file (named fsdata.h by default) and type:

qfsgen website -h

where website is a directory which contains the files and sub-directories you wish to include into your ROM-based file system. This particular QFSGen invocation will generate the file-system found in the directory website with HTTP headers (-h option).

Example run of the QFSGen utility

QFSGen Command-Line Parameters

QFSGen takes the following command-line parameters:

PARAMETER	DEFAULT	COMMENT
fs-dir		file system directory (relative or absolute)
[output-flie]	fsdata.h	output file name (optional)
OPTIONS
-h		generate HTTP headers

How QFSGen Works

QFSGen recursively scans the provided directory and recursively encodes any file and sub-directory into an array in the generated header file. For example, here is the content of the website directory:

+-website/
  +-img/
  | +-AN_QP_and_lwIP.jpg
  | +-arrow.gif
  | +-favicon.ico
  | +-footer.jpg
  | +-logo_lwip_qp.jpg
  | +-logo_ql.jpg
  | +-logo_sics.gif
  | +-PSiCC2.gif
  | +-QP_datasheet.gif
  +-404.htm
  +-bg_footer.gif
  +-cgi_demo.htm
  +-index.htm
  +-ssi_demo.shtm
  +-style.css
  +-thank_you.htm
  +-udp_demo.htm

This directory structure is then encoded into the following header file fsdata.h:

/* This file has been generated with the qfsgen utility. */
 
/* /404.htm */
static unsigned char const data_404_htm[] = {
    /* name: */
    0x2F, 0x34, 0x30, 0x34, 0x2E, 0x68, 0x74, 0x6D, 0x00,
    /* HTTP header: */
    0x48, 0x54, 0x54, 0x50, 0x2F, 0x31, 0x2E, 0x30, 0x20, 0x34,
    . . .
    0x6D, 0x6C, 0x0D, 0x0A, 0x0D, 0x0A,
    /* data: */
    0x3C, 0x21, 0x44, 0x4F, 0x43, 0x54, 0x59, 0x50, 0x45, 0x20,
    0x68, 0x74, 0x6D, 0x6C, 0x3E, 0x0A
};
 
struct fsdata_file const file_404_htm[] = {
    {
        (struct fsdata_file *)0,
        data_404_htm,
        data_404_htm + 9,
        sizeof(data_404_htm) - 9
    }
};
 
/* /thank_you.htm */
static unsigned char const data_thank_you_htm[] = {
    /* name: */
    0x2F, 0x74, 0x68, 0x61, 0x6E, 0x6B, 0x5F, 0x79, 0x6F, 0x75,
    0x2E, 0x68, 0x74, 0x6D, 0x00,
    /* HTTP header: */
    0x48, 0x54, 0x54, 0x50, 0x2F, 0x31, 0x2E, 0x30, 0x20, 0x32,
    . . .
    0x0D, 0x0A, 0x0D, 0x0A,
    /* data: */
    0x3C, 0x21, 0x44, 0x4F, 0x43, 0x54, 0x59, 0x50, 0x45, 0x20,
 
    0x4D, 0x4C, 0x3E, 0x0A
};
 
struct fsdata_file const file_thank_you_htm[] = {
    {
        file_style_css,
        data_thank_you_htm,
        data_thank_you_htm + 15,
        sizeof(data_thank_you_htm) - 15
    }
};
 
/* /udp_demo.htm */
static unsigned char const data_udp_demo_htm[] = {
    /* name: */
    0x2F, 0x75, 0x64, 0x70, 0x5F, 0x64, 0x65, 0x6D, 0x6F, 0x2E,
    0x68, 0x74, 0x6D, 0x00,
    /* HTTP header: */
    0x48, 0x54, 0x54, 0x50, 0x2F, 0x31, 0x2E, 0x30, 0x20, 0x32,
    . . .
    0x0D, 0x0A, 0x0D, 0x0A,
    /* data: */
    0x3C, 0x21, 0x44, 0x4F, 0x43, 0x54, 0x59, 0x50, 0x45, 0x20,
    . . .
    0x3E, 0x0A
};
 
struct fsdata_file const file_udp_demo_htm[] = {
    {
        file_thank_you_htm,
        data_udp_demo_htm,
        data_udp_demo_htm + 14,
        sizeof(data_udp_demo_htm) - 14
    }
};
 
#define FS_ROOT file_udp_demo_htm
 
#define FS_NUMFILES 17

Subsequently, the fsdata.h header file is included in the ROM file-system implementation file fs.c, which is included in the qfsgen/source directory.

QClean Code Whitespace CleanupRevision History