Create an ISO Image File in Linux

Create an ISO image from optical media

In this example, we're going to copy the contents of a disk in the CD/DVD drive (/dev/cdrom) to an ISO image file. Open a terminal window and type the following at the command line.

dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/directory/example.iso

Notations:
- dd is the program used to convert and copy a file.
- if defines an input file.
- of defines an output file.
- iso is the resulting ISO image file.

Create an ISO image from files in a directory

To create an ISO image from files within a directory is just as simple. State an output directory and name of the ISO to create, along with a source directory. For example:

mkisofs -o /home/linuxlookup/example.iso /source/directory/