diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 79278c7d..c36583a8 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -28,4 +28,5 @@ rust-crypto = "0.2.36"
 nix = "0.12.0"
 shellwords = "1.0.0"
 uuid = { version = "0.7", features = ["v4"] }
+chrono = "0.4.6" # Date and time library for Rust
 
diff --git a/src/backup/image_index.rs b/src/backup/image_index.rs
index 3bcc2a21..5194406d 100644
--- a/src/backup/image_index.rs
+++ b/src/backup/image_index.rs
@@ -2,10 +2,11 @@ use failure::*;
 
 use super::chunk_store::*;
 
-use std::io::Write;
+use std::io::{Read, Write};
 use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
 use std::os::unix::io::AsRawFd;
 use uuid::Uuid;
+use chrono::{Local, TimeZone};
 
 #[repr(C)]
 pub struct ImageIndexHeader {
@@ -14,11 +15,100 @@ pub struct ImageIndexHeader {
     pub uuid: [u8; 16],
     pub ctime: u64,
     pub size: u64,
-    reserved: [u8; 4048], // oversall size is one page (4096 bytes)
+    pub chunk_size: u64,
+    reserved: [u8; 4040], // oversall size is one page (4096 bytes)
 }
 
 // split image into fixed size chunks
 
+pub struct ImageIndexReader<'a> {
+    store: &'a mut ChunkStore,
+    filename: PathBuf,
+    chunk_size: usize,
+    size: usize,
+    index: *mut u8,
+    uuid: [u8; 16],
+    ctime: u64,
+}
+
+impl <'a> Drop for ImageIndexReader<'a> {
+
+    fn drop(&mut self) {
+        if let Err(err) = self.unmap() {
+            eprintln!("Unable to unmap file {:?} - {}", self.filename, err);
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl <'a> ImageIndexReader<'a> {
+
+    pub fn open(store: &'a mut ChunkStore, path: &Path) -> Result<Self, Error> {
+
+        let full_path = store.relative_path(path);
+
+        let mut file = std::fs::File::open(&full_path)?;
+
+        let header_size = std::mem::size_of::<ImageIndexHeader>();
+
+        // todo: use static assertion when available in rust
+        if header_size != 4096 { panic!("got unexpected header size"); }
+
+        let mut buffer = vec![0u8; header_size];
+        file.read_exact(&mut buffer)?;
+
+        let header = unsafe { &mut * (buffer.as_ptr() as *mut ImageIndexHeader) };
+
+        let size = u64::from_be(header.size) as usize;
+        let ctime = u64::from_be(header.ctime);
+        let chunk_size = u64::from_be(header.chunk_size) as usize;
+
+        let index_size = ((size + chunk_size - 1)/chunk_size)*32;
+
+        // fixme: verify file size ?
+
+        let data = unsafe { nix::sys::mman::mmap(
+            std::ptr::null_mut(),
+            index_size,
+            nix::sys::mman::ProtFlags::PROT_READ,
+            nix::sys::mman::MapFlags::MAP_PRIVATE,
+            file.as_raw_fd(),
+            header_size as i64) }? as *mut u8;
+
+        Ok(Self {
+            store,
+            filename: full_path,
+            chunk_size,
+            size,
+            index: data,
+            ctime,
+            uuid: header.uuid,
+        })
+    }
+
+    fn unmap(&mut self) -> Result<(), Error> {
+
+        if self.index == std::ptr::null_mut() { return Ok(()); }
+
+        let index_size = ((self.size + self.chunk_size - 1)/self.chunk_size)*32;
+
+        if let Err(err) = unsafe { nix::sys::mman::munmap(self.index as *mut std::ffi::c_void, index_size) } {
+            bail!("unmap file {:?} failed - {}", self.filename, err);
+        }
+
+        self.index = std::ptr::null_mut();
+
+        Ok(())
+    }
+
+    pub fn print_info(&self) {
+        println!("Filename: {:?}", self.filename);
+        println!("Size: {}", self.size);
+        println!("ChunkSize: {}", self.chunk_size);
+        println!("CTime: {}", Local.timestamp(self.ctime as i64, 0).format("%c"));
+        println!("UUID: {:?}", self.uuid);
+    }
+}
+
 pub struct ImageIndexWriter<'a> {
     store: &'a mut ChunkStore,
     filename: PathBuf,
@@ -54,7 +144,7 @@ impl <'a> ImageIndexWriter<'a> {
             .write(true)
             .open(&tmp_path)?;
 
-        let chunk_size = 64*1024;
+        let chunk_size = 64*1024; // fixed size for now??
 
         let header_size = std::mem::size_of::<ImageIndexHeader>();
 
@@ -73,6 +163,7 @@ impl <'a> ImageIndexWriter<'a> {
         header.version = u32::to_be(1);
         header.ctime = u64::to_be(ctime);
         header.size = u64::to_be(size as u64);
+        header.chunk_size = u64::to_be(chunk_size as u64);
         header.uuid = *uuid.as_bytes();
 
         file.write_all(&buffer)?;
diff --git a/src/bin/backup-client.rs b/src/bin/backup-client.rs
index 4dc64962..e4606722 100644
--- a/src/bin/backup-client.rs
+++ b/src/bin/backup-client.rs
@@ -33,19 +33,26 @@ fn backup_file(param: Value, _info: &ApiMethod) -> Result<Value, Error> {
 
     println!("Backup file '{}' to '{}'", filename, store);
 
-    let file = std::fs::File::open(filename)?;
-    let stat = nix::sys::stat::fstat(file.as_raw_fd())?;
-    if stat.st_size <= 0 { bail!("got strange file size '{}'", stat.st_size); }
-    let size = stat.st_size as usize;
+    let target = "test1.idx";
 
-    let mut index = ImageIndexWriter::create(&mut chunk_store, "test1.idx".as_ref(), size)?;
+    {
+        let file = std::fs::File::open(filename)?;
+        let stat = nix::sys::stat::fstat(file.as_raw_fd())?;
+        if stat.st_size <= 0 { bail!("got strange file size '{}'", stat.st_size); }
+        let size = stat.st_size as usize;
 
-    tools::file_chunker(file, 64*1024, |pos, chunk| {
-        index.add_chunk(pos, chunk)?;
-        Ok(true)
-    })?;
+        let mut index = ImageIndexWriter::create(&mut chunk_store, target.as_ref(), size)?;
 
-    index.close()?; // commit changes
+        tools::file_chunker(file, 64*1024, |pos, chunk| {
+            index.add_chunk(pos, chunk)?;
+            Ok(true)
+        })?;
+
+        index.close()?; // commit changes
+    }
+
+    let idx = ImageIndexReader::open(&mut chunk_store, target.as_ref())?;
+    idx.print_info();
 
     Ok(Value::Null)
 }