platomav/BIOSUtilities

There are two different possible flows when using the BIOSUtilities project:

• Main (simple)
• Package (advanced)

You can use either one or the other, depending on your needs. Most end-users should probably choose the "Main" flow, which is very simple to use and automatically attempts to process one or more input files against all available utilities in one run. The "Package" flow is for those who are more familiar with python and/or need to use the project programmatically as a library/dependency.

Main

The "main" script provides a simple way to check and parse each of the user provided files against all utilities, in succession. It is ideal for quick drag & drop operations but lacks the finer control of the "Package" method.

1. Download or clone the repository to a local directory
2. Install the requirements ($PATH or "external" directory)
3. Drag and drop one or more files to the "main.py" script

If you use Linux, macOS, or the Windows command prompt/terminal, you may also call "main.py" via arguments and options, as such:

usage: main.py [-h] [-e] [-o OUTPUT_DIR] [-u UTILITY] [paths ...]

positional arguments:
  paths

options:
  -h, --help                   show this help message and exit
  -e, --auto-exit              do not pause on exit
  -o, --output-dir OUTPUT_DIR  extraction directory
  -u, --utility UTILITY        utility class name

python ./main.py "/path/to/input/file.bin" --output-dir "/path/to/output/folder"

python ./main.py "/path/to/input/file.bin" -e -o "/path/to/output/folder" -u AmiUcpExtract

If no arguments/options are provided, the "main" script requests the input and output paths from the user. If no output path is provided, the utility will use the parent directory of the first input file or fallback to the runtime execution directory.

Enter input file or directory path: "C:\P5405CSA.303"

Enter output directory path: "C:\P5405CSA.303_output"

Package

Each utility is derived from a base "BIOSUtility" template and all utilities form the "biosutilities" python package, which can be installed from PyPi:

python -m pip install --upgrade biosutilities[pefile,lznt1]

Installing the python package is the recommended way to call one or more utilities either via the CLI (main.py script) or programatically (python imports, utility arguments).

biosutilities --help

biosutilities "/path/to/input/file.bin" -o "/path/to/output/folder/" -u PhoenixTdkExtract -e

from biosutilities.ami_pfat_extract import AmiPfatExtract

ami_pfat_extractor = AmiPfatExtract(input_object='/path/to/input/file.bin', extract_path='/path/to/output/folder/')

is_supported = ami_pfat_extractor.check_format()
is_extracted = ami_pfat_extractor.parse_format()

from biosutilities.dell_pfs_extract import DellPfsExtract

with open('/path/to/input/file.bin', 'rb') as pfs_file:
    pfs_data = pfs_file.read()

dell_pfs_extractor = DellPfsExtract(input_object=pfs_data, extract_path='/path/to/output/directory/', padding=8)

is_supported = dell_pfs_extractor.check_format()
is_extracted = dell_pfs_extractor.parse_format()

Arguments

Each BIOSUtility expects the following required and optional arguments to check and/or parse a given file format:

input_object (required)

input_object: str | bytes | bytearray = b''

extract_path (required)

extract_path: str = runtime_root()

padding (optional)

padding: int = 0

If the required arguments are not provided, placeholder values are set so that it is possible to use the BIOSUtility-inherited instance to access auxiliary public methods and class constants. However, checking and/or parsing of file formats will not yield results.

Methods

Once the BIOSUtility-inherited object is initialized with arguments, its two public methods can be called:

check_format

Check if input object is of specific supported format

is_supported: bool = check_format()

parse_format

Process input object as a specific supported format

is_extracted: bool = parse_format()