mkpfs-tui 0.1.2

A Textual terminal UI for mkpfs — pack, inspect, verify, tree, and unpack PlayStation PFS images.

mkpfs-tui

A Textual terminal UI for mkpfs — pack, inspect, verify, tree, and unpack PlayStation PFS images from a single sidebar-driven app. Every operation has its own view with file/directory pickers, live progress, and a result panel that surfaces warnings and errors without ever leaving the terminal.

mkpfs-tui is a third-party frontend. It pins mkpfs as a dependency and never modifies it.

Contents: Screenshots · Operations · Requirements · Install · Usage · Contributing · License

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Operations

Operation	What it does
Pack	Build a PFS image from a source folder or file (compression, signing, encryption, dry-run).
Inspect	Show an image's header, inode/dir/file counts, sizes, and checksums in a table.
Verify	Validate an image's structure and checksums — optionally against a source tree or expected CRC32 / manifest.
Tree	Browse the file tree stored inside an image.
Unpack	Extract an image to a target directory, with progress and a files/dirs/bytes summary.

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Screenshots

About — the welcome screen:

Pack — build an image from a folder or file:

Inspect — header, counts, sizes, and checksums:

Verify — structure / checksum checks with a PASS/FAIL banner:

Tree — browse the file tree stored inside an image:

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Requirements

• Python 3.11 or newer (only needed for the uvx/pipx install; the Linux binary bundles its own).
• A terminal that renders modern TUIs. Most do; on Windows use Windows Terminal (the default on Windows 11), not the legacy console.
• mkpfs is installed automatically as a dependency — you do not install it yourself.

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Install

Prefer a self-contained download? Grab a build from the Releases page.

The cross-platform way is via Python, using either uv (recommended — uvx runs it without installing) or pipx (installs the mkpfs-tui command).

Linux

# Prerequisite — uv (one line, no root):
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Run it (downloads + runs in an isolated env, nothing to clean up):
uvx mkpfs-tui

Or with pipx — sudo apt install pipx (Debian/Ubuntu) / sudo pacman -S python-pipx (Arch), then:

pipx ensurepath        # once, then restart the shell
pipx install mkpfs-tui
mkpfs-tui

No Python? Download mkpfs-tui-linux-x86_64.tar.gz from the Releases page, then:

tar -xzf mkpfs-tui-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
./mkpfs-tui/mkpfs-tui

macOS

# Prerequisite — uv (via Homebrew or the install script):
brew install uv          # or: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

uvx mkpfs-tui

Or with pipx: brew install pipx && pipx ensurepath, then pipx install mkpfs-tui. (No prebuilt macOS binary yet — use the Python install above.)

Windows

Use Windows Terminal for a TUI. In PowerShell:

# Prerequisite — uv:
winget install --id=astral-sh.uv  # or: powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

uvx mkpfs-tui

Or with pipx: py -m pip install --user pipx, then py -m pipx ensurepath (restart the terminal) and pipx install mkpfs-tui. (No prebuilt Windows binary yet — use the Python install above.)

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Usage

Launch the app (uvx mkpfs-tui, or mkpfs-tui if installed). You land on the Pack view.

The interface

• Left sidebar — the five operations. Move with ↑/↓; the right pane switches as you go.
• Right pane — the selected operation's form, run button, progress, and a result panel (errors in red, warnings in amber, success in green).
• Browse… buttons open a file/directory picker — navigate with the arrows, Choose to accept, Cancel/Escape to dismiss. You can also just type a path into the field.

Keyboard

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Move in the sidebar / lists / tree
Tab / Shift+Tab	Move between form fields
Enter / Space	Activate the focused button / switch
Ctrl+P	Command palette — includes theme switching
Escape	Close a modal (picker / overwrite prompt)
Ctrl+Q	Quit

By operation

• Pack — choose Folder or File mode, pick the Source and the Output image path (the image is written exactly to the path you type — include the extension you want), then set options: PS4/PS5 version, inode width (folder mode only), compression level, CPU count, block size, and the switches (Compress, Case-insensitive, Signed, Encrypted, Dry run, Verify after). Press Pack to watch a live progress bar; Cancel stops the build. If the output already exists you'll be asked to confirm before it's overwritten.
• Inspect — point at an Image and press Inspect; the table fills with version, sizes, counts, and checksums.
• Verify — give an Image and, optionally, a Source directory and/or an expected CRC32 / manifest SHA-256, then press Verify for a PASS/FAIL banner plus any errors.
• Tree — pick an Image and press Build tree to browse its contents.
• Unpack — pick an Image and an Output directory and press Unpack. Turn on Overwrite to clear a non-empty output directory first (you'll be asked to confirm the deletion).

Encrypted images

Every view has an EKPFS key field (64 hex characters) and a newCrypt switch for encrypted images; leave them blank/off for unencrypted ones. In Pack, the key is only applied when Encrypted is on.

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Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome. The project uses uv for everything.

Set up

git clone https://github.com/ClaudioVarandas/mkpfs-tui
cd mkpfs-tui
uv sync                                              # creates .venv with deps + dev tools
uv run textual run --dev mkpfs_tui.app:MkpfsTuiApp   # run the app (or: uv run python -m mkpfs_tui)

Tip: run uv run textual console in a second pane to see logs/tracebacks from the --dev app.

Test & lint

./run-tests.sh        # ruff format + ruff check --fix + pytest (what to run before committing)
uv run pytest         # tests only

Tests use Textual's App.run_test() Pilot harness with pytest-asyncio in auto mode. CI runs lint + tests (check-mode) on every push and PR.

Conventions

• uv only — uv sync, uv run …; never pip or a global Python.
• Type hints everywhere, Google-style docstrings, from __future__ import annotations at the top of every module, prefer X | None over Optional. ruff is law (config in pyproject.toml).
• The mkpfs boundary (most important rule): all imports of and calls to mkpfs.* live in the single module mkpfs_tui/mkpfs_runner.py, which exposes the app's own value types. No other module imports mkpfs. When you depend on new mkpfs surface, add an assertion to tests/test_mkpfs_contract.py so an upstream change fails loudly.
• Updating the pinned mkpfs: uv lock --upgrade-package mkpfs, run the tests (including the contract test), then commit.

See CHANGELOG.md for release history. The architecture and the per-milestone build plans are kept outside the repo (in the author's planning notes).

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License

GPL-3.0-or-later. mkpfs-tui imports mkpfs, which is GPLv3, so the combined work is GPL.