2023-11-21 14:37:16 +00:00
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<title>Ghidra Filesystem Storage</title>
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<H1>Ghidra Filesystem Storage</H1>
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<H2>Introduction</H2>
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<P>The purpose of this document is to provide technical details of the file storage scheme(s) employed by
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both Ghidra projects and Ghidra Server repositories. As of this writing Ghidra has employed two
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different local filesystem storage schemes:</P>
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<UL>
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<LI>Indexed Filesystem (current)</LI>
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<LI>Mangled Filesystem (legacy, pre-9.0 PUBLIC release)</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>In addition to providing details of each storage scheme, some details are provided about how project/repository database
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files are stored within each filesystem as well as some troubleshooting tips to aid in any manual interventions
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which may be required.</P>
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<P>At this point in time all filesystem implementations rely on the use of a property file for each project defined
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file (<I>*.prp</I>). For all database type project files there will be a corresponding subdirectory (<I>~*.db</I>)
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which is used to store all content related to a project file database (e.g., ProgramDB). The naming and organization
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of these two differ significantly between the two filesystem implementations.
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<H3>Name Mangling/Encoding</H3>
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<P>Ghidra uses the following name mangling/encoding for both Ghidra Server project repository subdirectories as well as
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project folder and file naming within the legacy Mangled Filesystem. The goal of this encoding scheme is to preserve case-sensitive
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naming while allowing storage on a single-case or case-insensitive native filesystem. This is achieved by mutating the original
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name with the following character substitutions:</P>
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<UL>
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<LI>All uppercase letters replaced with an underscore ('_') followed by the lowercase letter, and</LI>
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<LI>All underscore ('_') characters are replaced with two underscores ("__")
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</UL>
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<P>For a Ghidra Server repository named "My_Project", the resulting filesystem storage folder named "_my___project"
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would appear within the server repositories directory.</P>
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<H3>Ghidra Project Storage</H3>
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<P>Ghidra projects employ multiple filesystem storage directories within the top-level project directory (<I>*.rep</I>):</P>
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<UL>
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<LI>Local project file storage (<I>idata</I>) provides the primary storage area for non-versioned project files
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and for versioned files checked-out by the user.</LI>
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<LI>Versioned project file storage (<I>versioned</I>) is present with private non-shared projects only and provides
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version control storage similar to a Ghidra Server repository.</LI>
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<LI>User data storage (<I>user</I>) provides non-versioned storage of user-specific data associated with a specific project file.</LI>
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</UL>
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<H3>Ghidra Server Storage</H3>
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<P>The Ghidra Server employs a separate filesystem storage directory for each project repository using a mangled
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name (see <I>Name Mangling/Encoding</I> above). While all newly created project repositories will use the latest
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Indexed Filesystem storage scheme Ghidra continues to support the legacy Mangled Filesystem which may be in use
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by older Ghidra Server installations. The <I>svrAdmin</I> command provides the ability to migrate an older
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Mangled Filesystem to the current Index Filesystem (see <I>server/serverREADME.html</I>).</P>
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<H2>Indexed Filesystem (current)</H2>
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2024-10-03 09:31:02 +00:00
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<P>This filesystem overcomes the project file-path length limitations inherent to the legacy Mangled Filesystem and
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utilizes an index file to store project file-paths and the corresponding 8-digit hexadecimal identifier for
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each
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(e.g., <I>00001234.prp</I> / <I>~00001234.db</I>). The following files are used to manage the filesystem content
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and are located at the root of the filesystem storage directory.</P>
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<UL>
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<LI>Index File (<I>~index.dat<I>) - current index file
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<LI>Backup Index File (<I>~index.bak</I>) - backup of current index file</LI>
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<LI>Temporary Index File (<I>~index.tmp</I>) - temporary index file created during update</LI>
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<LI>Index Journal File (<I>~journal.dat</I>) - journal or recent changes not yet reflected by index</LI>
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<LI>Backup Journal File (<I>~journal.bak</I>) - backup of journal file created during incremental update</LI>
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<LI>Index Lock File (<I>~index.lock</I>) - index lock used to coordinate index access and modification</LI>
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</UL>
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<P><B>Index Rebuild</B> - If the index file becomes corrupt it may be easily rebuilt while the associated project
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is closed or Ghidra Server stopped to avoid file access during the repair process. While the filesystem is not
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active/in-use all of the index
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related files mentioned above may be manually deleted from the root of the appropriate filesystem storage directory
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(see Ghidra Project Storage and Ghidra Server Storage above). Once the filesystem store is
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started (e.g., project opened or Ghidra Server started) the missing index will trigger an automatic rebuild of the
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index based upon the details provided by each property file contained within (<I>*.prp</I>).
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<P><B>Locating Project File Storage</B> - Locating individual project files on disk requires interpretation of
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the index file (<I>~index.dat</I>) and traversing the numbered storage folders appropriately. When locating a project
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file within the index it is important to know both the full Ghidra project directory path and project filename.
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If the project filename is unique you can simply search for the filename within the index, otherwise you will have
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to search for project folder path first. Sample <I>~index.dat</I> file:</P>
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<PRE>
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VERSION=1
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/
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00000003:myFile:a701ee4b1c71321380792951888
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/A
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00000100:anotherFile:a701ee4920f909328022843906
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00000105:yetAnotherFile:a701ee48743913628104779815
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/A/B
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00001234:myFile:a701ee48019210920546276045
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00001200:myFile.1:a701ee48491297248400412904
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/A/B/C
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00000004:someFile:a701ee4a23590324427866017
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NEXT-ID:1250
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MD5:d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e
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</PRE>
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<P>Once the project file of interest has been located within the index file and the corresponding 8-digit hex file number identified,
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the storage subfolder name is derived from the 2nd and 3rd digits of the file number. Example file number "00001234" will be contained
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with the subfolder "12". Within this subfolder the "00001234.prp" file should exist as will all other numbered files which have the
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same 2nd/3rd digits. The storage hierarchy for the above index file would have the following hierarchy:</P>
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<PRE>
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./~index.dat
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./00/
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00000003.prp
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~00000003.db/
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00000004.prp
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~00000004.db/
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./01/
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00000100.prp
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~00000100.db/
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00000105.prp
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~00000105.db/
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./12/
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00001200.prp
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~00001200.db/
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00001234.prp <-- /A/B/myFile property file
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~00001234.db/ <-- /A/B/myFile database directory
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</PRE>
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<H2>Mangled Filesystem (legacy)</H2>
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<P>This filesystem utilizes mangled naming for all project folders and files and follows the same hierarchy as the project.
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For example, a project file with the path <I>"/A_1/B_1/myFile"</I> would be found stored as
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<I>"./_a__1/_b__1/my_file.prp"</I> and <I>"./_a__1/_b__1/~my_file.db/"</I>. Due to file path-length limitations of native
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filesystems the use of this storage scheme is no longer used by default and has been retained only for backward
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compatibility with older projects and repositories.
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<H2>Removal of Corrupt Files</H2>
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<P>If a project or Ghidra Server repository contains a corrupt file it may not be possible to remove the file via the
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Ghidra GUI or API. While a detailed triage of a corrupt file may be possible by the Ghidra Development Team, such files
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may need to be removed after being copied for triage. For a shared repository this will require stopping the Ghidra Server
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and digging into the appropriate named repository directory. For a local project simply ensure that the project is
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not in use.</P>
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<P>For the local project case it will be neccessary to isolate the storage issue since it could be caused by the
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local project store (<I>*.rep/idata/</I>) or versioned repository (Ghidra Server or private non-shared (<I>*.rep/versioned/</I>).
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The Ghidra Server case can easily be identified by creating another temporary shared project to the same shared repository
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and check the behavior of the project file in question. If the same behavior is observed the issue is likely on the server.
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If you need assistance identifying the source of the bad behavior or recommended resolution please submit a Ghidra
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trouble ticket.<P>
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<P>As discussed for each filesystem above, the specific <I>*.prp</I> file and <I>~*.db/</I> directory should be
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identified and copied for triage. Keeping a copy will enable triage and may enable restoring the file in the
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future if possible. Once this file and corresponding directory have been copied they may be removed from the filesystem.
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For the indexed filesystem case the index related files can be deleted which will trigger a rebuild of the index
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(see Indexed Filesystem above).
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</body>
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2024-10-03 09:31:02 +00:00
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</html>
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