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I was curious about using compressed and modifiable DMGs to store all kinds of data.

Eg: I've got a tablatures set for guitar which is like 120mb zipped and contains 60-70k files and 1.3Gb unzipped. Instead that keeping them unzipped I could store them inside a DMG to be able to access them without worrying about extracting (since the operation it is invisible compared to using a plain archive like a zip) and without cluttering the file system with lots of entries. Another example could be my abandonware collection, a lot of files, a lot of folders but not any really need to keep them directly inside the file system.

What I was wondering about is:

  • is it possible to have a DMG that is either compressed either modifiable? (Adding files to it just by drag'n'drop')
  • will this create any severe performance issue when accessing that files?
  • is it in general a good/usable idea?
  • finally, are there other more "cross-platform" solutions? Since DMGs are natively available only on OSX (I think)

Thanks in advance!

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DMG files are simply ISOs. The Disk Utility can create them in various formats (disc ready, encrypted, etc.) but if you select a compressed option the image will not be modifiable. They are completely portable as long as it's a format that system can read.

I've been using an encrypted DMG since I switched to OSX many years ago and have had no issues with them performance-wise.

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  • Why then usually downloaded DMGs are smaller than its extracted content?
    – Jack
    Dec 10, 2010 at 18:00
  • It could have something to do with the filesystems involved, but that's a good question. It would be nice to know for sure. In regards to compressed DMGS, they don't have built-in compression like zips or anything.
    – kweerious
    Dec 10, 2010 at 18:21
  • Actually if I create a sparse image with diskutil and then I select it and convert it through the convert button it allows me to choose as image format "compressed" so maybe it is possible to compress DMGs but without having a modifiable one.
    – Jack
    Dec 10, 2010 at 18:48
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    @Jack ... indicating those features (modifyable & compressed) are exclusive.
    – Daniel Beck ♦
    Dec 10, 2010 at 19:52
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    @kweerious DMGs can be compressed, but then they aren't modifiable. There is an option in Disk Utility to create a compressed image.
    – whoKnows
    Sep 5, 2018 at 20:28
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is it possible to have a DMG that is either compressed either modifiable? (Adding files to it just by drag'n'drop')

Yes. OS X can by using the somewhat more advanced bZip2 format. If you don't get the option in the Disk Utility format options try the open-source dmgCreator.

will this create any severe performance issue when accessing that files

That depends on your definition of "severe" -which only you can answer by trial and error. You might try to look into a file system that includes compression natively. The reduction in read/writes offsets the decompression time, but I don't know how well balanced the trade-off is.

is it in general a good/usable idea?

No, disk space is cheap and big media files typically don't benefit all that much. A text file can easily be 1/4 of the normal space, but movies, audio, and images are already compressed.

finally, are there other more "cross-platform" solutions? Since DMGs are natively available only on OSX (I think)

Zip files are about as close to universal compression as you can get.

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