B-21
Catalyst 2950 Desktop Switch Software Configuration Guide
78-14982-01
Appendix B Working with the IOS File S ys tem, Configurat ion Files, and Soft w are Images Working with Software Images

tar File Format of Images on a Server or Cisco.com

Software images located on a server or downloaded from Cisco.com are provided in a tar file format,
which contai ns these files:
info file
The info f ile is a lw ays at th e be gin ning of th e tar fi le and c ontain s informa tion about the files with in
it.
IOS i mag e
Web manage ment files needed by the HTT P server on the switch
LRE binary files needed for the proper functioning of LRE interfaces and LRE CPE devices
info.ver file
The info.ver file is always at the end of the tar file and contains the same information as the info
file. Because it is the last file in the tar file, its existence means that all files in the image have been
downloaded.
This example shows the information contained in the info and info.ver files:
version_suffix: i6k2l2q4-121-0.0.16.EA1
version_directory: c2950lre-i6k2l2q4-mz.121-0.0.16.EA1
image_name: c2950lre-i6k2l2q4-mz.121-0.0.16.EA1.bin
ios_image_file_size: 3214848
total_image_file_size: 4719616
image_feature: LAYER_2|MIN_DRAM_MEG=32
image_family: C2950lre
info_end:
Table B-3 describe s th e co nten t s of the info and info.ver files.
Table B-3 inf o and info.ver File Description
Field Description
version_suffix Specifies the IOS image version string suffix
version_directory Specifies the directory where the IOS image and the HTML subdirectory are installed
image_name Specifies the name of the IOS image within the tar file
ios_image_file_size Specifies the IOS image size in the tar file, which is an approximate measure of how much
Flash space is required to hold just the IOS image
total_image_file_size Specifies the size of all the images (the IOS image and the HTML files) in the tar file, which
is an approximate measure of how much Flash space is required to hold them
image_feature Describes the core functionality of the image
image_family Describes the family of products on which the software can be installed
image_min_dram Specifies the minimum amount of DRAM needed to run this image