# mhx/dwarfs

A fast high-compression read-only file system for Linux, FreeBSD, macOS and Windows

Repository: https://github.com/mhx/dwarfs
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/dwarfs
Language: C++
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: filesystem, squashfs, compression, fuse-filesystem, cpp, lzma, zstd, lrzip, zpaq, fuse, deduplication, archiving, linux, dwarfs, windows, winfsp, flac, macos, macfuse, freebsd
Last push: 2026-08-25T17:21:08+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 99/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 98, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2111, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 14, "gap_med": 8.5, "n_releases_24m": 21}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2593, forks 89 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:03.012784+00:00)

## What it is
DwarFS is a fast, high-compression read-only file system with built-in deduplication, available for Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, and Windows. It is typically used via command-line tools to create compressed images and mount them through FUSE or WinFsp.

## Use cases
- compress a large directory into a read-only mountable image
- deduplicate redundant files while archiving data
- mount compressed archives as file systems on Linux or macOS
- create portable read-only snapshots of datasets
- reduce disk usage for astrophotography or media archives
- replace squashfs when higher compression is needed

## When to choose
- you need very high compression ratios with fast random read access
- your data contains many duplicate files or blocks
- you need a read-only compressed file system across Linux, macOS, and Windows

## When to avoid
- you need a writable file system
- you need to modify individual files inside the archive frequently
- you target platforms without FUSE or WinFsp support

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: compression, file-system, cli
- domain: files, developer-tools
- platform: windows, bsd, cross-platform, cli
- tags: fuse-filesystem, read-only-filesystem, deduplication, squashfs-alternative, archiving, zstd, lzma, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- mhx/dwarfs (main) score 99

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:03.012784+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:22:16.830254+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mhx/dwarfs (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:03.012784+00:00, sha 8c85e1b1affe)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.