Rock Ridge is an extension to the ISO 9660 volume format.

The extension adds support for storing Unix-specific file information on ISO 9660 CD-ROMs.

These extensions are, briefly:

  • longer file names (up to 255 characters)
  • almost any ASCII character can be used in file and folder names
  • owner permissions can be stored
  • symbolic links
  • the long file names are argued to look better in Windows

See the ISO 9660 page about operating support for Rock Ridge.