ISO 9660

ISO 9660 is a read-only filesystem often used on CD-ROMs. It is also common to encounter files containing an image of an ISO 9660 filesystem.

Details
The standard limits filenames to the DOS 8.3 style. Several extensions – TRANS.TBL, Rock Ridge, and Joliet – were developed to remove this restriction.

The size of a file is limited to 4GB (2GB in some implementations). This is irrelevant with respect to CD-ROMs, because of their small capacity, but it is a reason to avoid using ISO 9660 on DVD-ROMs and other media. (An extension called "multiple extents" makes larger files possible, but support for it is limited.)

Reading
Operating systems often include drivers for ISO 9660. On Linux, an ISO 9660 image file can be mounted using a loopback driver.
 * 7-Zip

Writing

 * cdrkit → genisoimage
 * Countless CD burning applications

Links

 * Wikipedia: ISO 9660
 * Wikipedia: TRANS.TBL
 * Wikipedia: Rock Ridge
 * Wikipedia: Joliet