The mkisofs software can be used to create an image of a UNIX file system suitable for writing to a CD-ROM or CD-RW disk. mkisofs is available on most Physics workstations (refer to the free or public domain software link at http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/software). A good approach is to create disk images using mkisofs and lay them down in one session. This is the most reliable option--one gets an exact image of the UNIX file system (modification times et cetera are preserved). The most portable (tcsh) command line seems to be
mkisofs -lLavrT -o <output file> <path> >& mkisofs.out -l allow 32 character names. -L Allow files which start with a . -a Include files with names commencing with '~' or '#' -v verbose execution. -r Adds UNIX info via Rock Ridge extensions. -T Add aliases so that systems without Rock Ridge extensions can still use the CD-ROM (e.g. MS-DOS)
If you're using Bourne Shell or one of its relatives, the mkisofs command line should be:
mkisofs -lLavrT -o <output file> <path> > mkisofs.out 2>&1