1mtools(1)                   General Commands Manual                  mtools(1)
2
3
4

Name

6       mtools - utilities to access DOS disks in Unix.
7
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9

Introduction

11       Mtools is a collection of tools to allow Unix systems to manipulate MS-
12       DOS files: read, write, and move around files on an MS-DOS file  system
13       (typically  a floppy disk).  Where reasonable, each program attempts to
14       emulate the MS-DOS equivalent command.  However,  unnecessary  restric‐
15       tions  and oddities of DOS are not emulated. For instance, it is possi‐
16       ble to move subdirectories from one subdirectory to another.
17
18       Mtools is sufficient to  give  access  to  MS-DOS  file  systems.   For
19       instance,  commands  such  as mdir a: work on the a: floppy without any
20       preliminary  mounting   or   initialization   (assuming   the   default
21       `/etc/mtools.conf' works on your machine).  With mtools, one can change
22       floppies too without unmounting and mounting.
23

Where to get mtools

25       Mtools can be found at the following places (and their mirrors):
26
27          http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mtools/mtools-4.0.23.tar.gz
28          http://mtools.linux.lu/mtools-4.0.23.tar.gz
29          ftp://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/mtools/mtools-4.0.23.tar.gz
30          ftp://ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/mtools-4.0.23.tar.gz
31
32
33
34       Before reporting a bug, make sure that it has not yet been fixed in the
35       Alpha patches which can be found at:
36
37          http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mtools/
38          http://mtools.linux.lu/
39          ftp://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/mtools
40
41
42
43       These  patches  are named mtools-version-ddmm.taz, where version stands
44       for the base version, dd for the day and mm for the  month.  Due  to  a
45       lack of space, I usually leave only the most recent patch.
46
47       There  is an mtools mailing list at mtools @ tux.org .  Please send all
48       bug reports to this list.  You may subscribe to the list by  sending  a
49       message  with  'subscribe  mtools @ tux.org' in its body to majordomo @
50       tux.org . (N.B. Please remove the spaces around the "@" both  times.  I
51       left  them  there  in  order  to  fool spambots.)  Announcements of new
52       mtools versions will also be sent to the list, in addition to the Linux
53       announce    newsgroups.     The    mailing    list   is   archived   at
54       http://lists.gnu.org/pipermail/info-mtools/
55

Common features of all mtools commands

57   Options and filenames
58       MS-DOS filenames are composed of a drive letter followed by a colon,  a
59       subdirectory,  and a filename. Only the filename part is mandatory, the
60       drive letter and the subdirectory are  optional.  Filenames  without  a
61       drive letter refer to Unix files. Subdirectory names can use either the
62       '/' or '\' separator.  The  use  of  the  '\'  separator  or  wildcards
63       requires  the  names  to be enclosed in quotes to protect them from the
64       shell. However, wildcards in Unix filenames should not be  enclosed  in
65       quotes, because here we want the shell to expand them.
66
67       The  regular  expression  "pattern  matching" routines follow the Unix-
68       style rules.  For example, `*' matches all  MS-DOS  files  in  lieu  of
69       `*.*'.   The  archive,  hidden, read-only and system attribute bits are
70       ignored during pattern matching.
71
72       All options use the - (minus) as their first character, not / as  you'd
73       expect in MS-DOS.
74
75       Most  mtools commands allow multiple filename parameters, which doesn't
76       follow MS-DOS conventions, but which is more user-friendly.
77
78       Most mtools commands allow options that instruct  them  how  to  handle
79       file name clashes. See section name clashes, for more details on these.
80       All commands accept the -V flags which prints  the  version,  and  most
81       accept  the  -v  flag, which switches on verbose mode. In verbose mode,
82       these commands print out the name of the MS-DOS files upon  which  they
83       act,  unless  stated otherwise. See section Commands, for a description
84       of the options which are specific to each command.
85
86   Drive letters
87       The meaning of the drive letters depends on the  target  architectures.
88       However,  on  most  target  architectures,  drive A is the first floppy
89       drive, drive B is the second floppy drive (if available), drive J is  a
90       Jaz  drive  (if  available), and drive Z is a Zip drive (if available).
91       On those systems where the device name is derived from the SCSI id, the
92       Jaz drive is assumed to be at SCSI target 4, and the Zip at SCSI target
93       5 (factory default settings).  On Linux, both drives are assumed to  be
94       the  second  drive on the SCSI bus (/dev/sdb). The default settings can
95       be changes using a configuration file (see section  Configuration).
96
97       The drive letter : (colon) has a special meaning. It is used to  access
98       image  files which are directly specified on the command line using the
99       -i options.
100
101       Example:
102
103           mcopy -i my-image-file.bin ::file1 ::file2 .
104
105
106
107       This copies file1 and file2 from the image file (my-image-file.bin)  to
108       the /tmp directory.
109
110       You can also supply an offset within the image file by including @@off‐
111       set into the file name.
112
113       Example:
114
115           mcopy -i my-image-file.bin@@1M ::file1 ::file2 .
116
117
118
119       This looks for the image at the offset of 1M in the file,  rather  than
120       at its beginning.
121
122   Current working directory
123       The mcd command (`mcd') is used to establish the device and the current
124       working directory (relative to the MS-DOS file system),  otherwise  the
125       default is assumed to be A:/. However, unlike MS-DOS, there is only one
126       working directory for all drives, and not one per drive.
127
128   VFAT-style long file names
129       This version of mtools supports VFAT style long filenames.  If  a  Unix
130       filename is too long to fit in a short DOS name, it is stored as a VFAT
131       long name, and a companion short name is generated. This short name  is
132       what you see when you examine the disk with a pre-7.0 version of DOS.
133        The following table shows some examples of short names:
134
135          Long name       MS-DOS name     Reason for the change
136          ---------       ----------      ---------------------
137          thisisatest     THISIS~1        filename too long
138          alain.knaff     ALAIN~1.KNA     extension too long
139          prn.txt         PRN~1.TXT       PRN is a device name
140          .abc            ABC~1           null filename
141          hot+cold        HOT_CO~1        illegal character
142
143
144
145        As  you  see,  the  following transformations happen to derive a short
146       name:
147
148       *      Illegal characters are  replaced  by  underscores.  The  illegal
149              characters are ;+=[]',\"*\\<>/?:|.
150
151       *      Extra dots, which cannot be interpreted as a main name/extension
152              separator are removed
153
154       *      A ~n number is generated,
155
156       *      The name is shortened so as to fit in the 8+3 limitation
157
158        The initial Unix-style file name  (whether  long  or  short)  is  also
159       called  the primary name, and the derived short name is also called the
160       secondary name.
161
162        Example:
163
164           mcopy /etc/motd a:Reallylongname
165
166        Mtools creates a VFAT entry for Reallylongname, and uses REALLYLO as a
167       short  name.  Reallylongname  is  the primary name, and REALLYLO is the
168       secondary name.
169
170           mcopy /etc/motd a:motd
171
172        Motd fits into  the  DOS  filename  limits.  Mtools  doesn't  need  to
173       derivate  another  name. Motd is the primary name, and there is no sec‐
174       ondary name.
175
176        In a nutshell: The primary name is the long name, if  one  exists,  or
177       the short name if there is no long name.
178
179        Although  VFAT  is  much more flexible than FAT, there are still names
180       that are not acceptable, even in VFAT. There  are  still  some  illegal
181       characters left (\"*\\<>/?:|), and device names are still reserved.
182
183          Unix name       Long name       Reason for the change
184          ---------       ----------      ---------------------
185          prn             prn-1           PRN is a device name
186          ab:c            ab_c-1          illegal character
187
188
189
190        As  you  see,  the  following transformations happen if a long name is
191       illegal:
192
193       *      Illegal characters are replaces by underscores,
194
195       *      A -n number is generated,
196
197   Name clashes
198       When writing a file to disk, its long name or short  name  may  collide
199       with  an  already  existing  file or directory. This may happen for all
200       commands which create new directory entries, such as mcopy, mmd,  mren,
201       mmove. When a name clash happens, mtools asks you what it should do. It
202       offers several choices:
203
204       overwrite
205              Overwrites the existing file. It is not possible to overwrite  a
206              directory with a file.
207
208       rename
209              Renames the newly created file. Mtools prompts for the new file‐
210              name
211
212       autorename
213              Renames the newly created file. Mtools chooses a name by itself,
214              without prompting
215
216       skip   Gives up on this file, and moves on to the next (if any)
217
218       To  chose one of these actions, type its first letter at the prompt. If
219       you use a lower case letter, the action  only  applies  for  this  file
220       only, if you use an upper case letter, the action applies to all files,
221       and you won't be prompted again.
222
223       You may also chose actions (for all files) on the  command  line,  when
224       invoking mtools:
225
226       -D o   Overwrites primary names by default.
227
228       -D O   Overwrites secondary names by default.
229
230       -D r   Renames primary name by default.
231
232       -D R   Renames secondary name by default.
233
234       -D a   Autorenames primary name by default.
235
236       -D A   Autorenames secondary name by default.
237
238       -D s   Skip primary name by default.
239
240       -D S   Skip secondary name by default.
241
242       -D m   Ask user what to do with primary name.
243
244       -D M   Ask user what to do with secondary name.
245
246       Note  that for command line switches lower/upper differentiates between
247       primary/secondary name whereas  for  interactive  choices,  lower/upper
248       differentiates between just-this-time/always.
249
250       The  primary name is the name as displayed in Windows 95 or Windows NT:
251       i.e. the long name if it exists, and the  short  name  otherwise.   The
252       secondary name is the "hidden" name, i.e. the short name if a long name
253       exists.
254
255       By default, the user is prompted if the primary name clashes,  and  the
256       secondary name is autorenamed.
257
258       If a name clash occurs in a Unix directory, mtools only asks whether to
259       overwrite the file, or to skip it.
260
261   Case sensitivity of the VFAT file system
262       The VFAT file system is able to remember the  case  of  the  filenames.
263       However, filenames which differ only in case are not allowed to coexist
264       in the same directory. For example if you store a file called LongFile‐
265       Name  on  a VFAT file system, mdir shows this file as LongFileName, and
266       not as Longfilename. However, if you then try to  add  LongFilename  to
267       the  same  directory,  it is refused, because case is ignored for clash
268       checks.
269
270       The VFAT file system allows to store the case  of  a  filename  in  the
271       attribute  byte,  if all letters of the filename are the same case, and
272       if all letters of the extension are the same case too. Mtools uses this
273       information  when  displaying  the files, and also to generate the Unix
274       filename when mcopying to a Unix directory. This  may  have  unexpected
275       results  when applied to files written using an pre-7.0 version of DOS:
276       Indeed, the old style filenames map to all upper case. This is  differ‐
277       ent from the behavior of the old version of mtools which used to gener‐
278       ate lower case Unix filenames.
279
280   high capacity formats
281       Mtools supports a number of formats which allow to store more  data  on
282       disk  as usual. Due to different operating system abilities, these for‐
283       mats are not supported on  all  operating  systems.  Mtools  recognizes
284       these formats transparently where supported.
285
286       In  order  to  format  these disks, you need to use an operating system
287       specific tool. For Linux, suitable floppy tools can  be  found  in  the
288       fdutils package at the following locations~:
289
290          ftp://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/fdutils/.
291          ftp://ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/fdutils-*
292
293
294
295       See  the  manual pages included in that package for further detail: Use
296       superformat to format all formats except XDF, and use xdfcopy to format
297       XDF.
298
299     More sectors
300       The oldest method of fitting more data on a disk is to use more sectors
301       and more cylinders. Although the standard format uses 80 cylinders  and
302       18  sectors (on a 3 1/2 high density disk), it is possible to use up to
303       83 cylinders (on most drives) and up to 21 sectors. This method  allows
304       to  store  up to 1743K on a 3 1/2 HD disk. However, 21 sector disks are
305       twice as slow as the standard 18 sector disks because the  sectors  are
306       packed  so close together that we need to interleave them. This problem
307       doesn't exist for 20 sector formats.
308
309       These formats are supported by numerous DOS shareware utilities such as
310       fdformat  and vgacopy. In his infinite hubris, Bill Gate$ believed that
311       he invented this, and called it  `DMF  disks',  or  `Windows  formatted
312       disks'.  But  in  reality,  it has already existed years before! Mtools
313       supports these formats on Linux, on SunOS and on the DELL Unix PC.
314
315     Bigger sectors
316       By using bigger sectors it is possible to go beyond the capacity  which
317       can  be  obtained  by the standard 512-byte sectors. This is because of
318       the sector header. The sector header has the same size,  regardless  of
319       how  many  data  bytes  are  in the sector. Thus, we save some space by
320       using fewer, but bigger sectors. For example, 1 sector of 4K only takes
321       up  header space once, whereas 8 sectors of 512 bytes have also 8 head‐
322       ers, for the same amount of useful data.
323
324       This method allows to store up to 1992K on a 3 1/2 HD disk.
325
326       Mtools supports these formats only on Linux.
327
328     2m
329       The 2m format was originally invented by Ciriaco Garcia  de  Celis.  It
330       also  uses  bigger  sectors than usual in order to fit more data on the
331       disk.  However, it uses the standard format (18 sectors  of  512  bytes
332       each)  on  the  first  cylinder, in order to make these disks easier to
333       handle by DOS. Indeed this method allows to have a standard sized  boot
334       sector, which contains a description of how the rest of the disk should
335       be read.
336
337       However, the drawback of this is that the first cylinder can hold  less
338       data  than  the  others. Unfortunately, DOS can only handle disks where
339       each track contains the same amount of data. Thus  2m  hides  the  fact
340       that  the  first  track contains less data by using a shadow FAT. (Usu‐
341       ally, DOS stores the  FAT  in  two  identical  copies,  for  additional
342       safety.   XDF  stores  only one copy, but tells DOS that it stores two.
343       Thus the space that would be taken up by the second FAT copy is saved.)
344       This  also  means that you should never use a 2m disk to store anything
345       else than a DOS file system.
346
347       Mtools supports these formats only on Linux.
348
349     XDF
350       XDF is a high capacity format used by OS/2. It  can  hold  1840  K  per
351       disk.  That's lower than the best 2m formats, but its main advantage is
352       that it is fast: 600 milliseconds per track. That's faster than the  21
353       sector  format, and almost as fast as the standard 18 sector format. In
354       order to access these disks, make sure mtools has  been  compiled  with
355       XDF support, and set the use_xdf variable for the drive in the configu‐
356       ration file. See section Compiling  mtools,  and  `miscellaneous  vari‐
357       ables',  for  details on how to do this. Fast XDF access is only avail‐
358       able for Linux kernels which are more recent than 1.1.34.
359
360       Mtools supports this format only on Linux.
361
362       Caution / Attention distributors: If mtools is compiled on a Linux ker‐
363       nel  more recent than 1.3.34, it won't run on an older kernel. However,
364       if it has been compiled on an older kernel, it still runs  on  a  newer
365       kernel,  except  that XDF access is slower. It is recommended that dis‐
366       tribution authors only include  mtools  binaries  compiled  on  kernels
367       older  than  1.3.34  until  2.0 comes out. When 2.0 will be out, mtools
368       binaries compiled on newer kernels may  (and  should)  be  distributed.
369       Mtools  binaries compiled on kernels older than 1.3.34 won't run on any
370       2.1 kernel or later.
371
372   Exit codes
373       All the Mtools commands return 0 on success, 1 on utter failure,  or  2
374       on  partial  failure.   All  the  Mtools  commands perform a few sanity
375       checks before going ahead, to make sure that the disk is indeed an  MS-
376       DOS  disk  (as opposed to, say an ext2 or MINIX disk). These checks may
377       reject partially corrupted disks, which might otherwise still be  read‐
378       able.  To  avoid  these checks, set the MTOOLS_SKIP_CHECK environmental
379       variable or the corresponding configuration file variable (see  section
380       global variables)
381
382   Bugs
383       An unfortunate side effect of not guessing the proper device (when mul‐
384       tiple disk capacities are supported) is  an  occasional  error  message
385       from the device driver.  These can be safely ignored.
386
387       The fat checking code chokes on 1.72 Mb disks mformatted with pre-2.0.7
388       mtools. Set the environmental variable MTOOLS_FAT_COMPATIBILITY (or the
389       corresponding  configuration  file  variable,  `global  variables')  to
390       bypass the fat checking.
391

See also

393       floppyd_installtest mattrib mbadblocks mcd mclasserase mcopy mdel mdel‐
394       tree mdir mdu mformat minfo mkmanifest mlabel mmd mmount mmove mrd mren
395       mshortname mshowfat mtoolstest mtype
396
397
398
399mtools-4.0.23                       10Dec18                          mtools(1)
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