1mtools.1(3) Library Functions Manual mtools.1(3)
2
6 mtools - utilities to access DOS disks in Unix.
7
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 filesystem
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 Mtools is sufficient to give access to MS-DOS filesystems. 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
25 Mtools can be found at the following places (and their mirrors):
26 http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mtools/mtools-4.0.12.tar.gz
28 http://mtools.linux.lu/mtools-4.0.12.tar.gz
29 ftp://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/mtools/mtools-4.0.12.tar.gz
30 ftp://ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/mtools-4.0.12.tar.gz
31 Before reporting a bug, make sure that it has not yet been fixed in the
35 Alpha patches which can be found at:
36 http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mtools/
38 http://mtools.linux.lu/
39 ftp://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/mtools
40 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 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
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 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 All options use the - (minus) as their first character, not / as you'd
73 expect in MS-DOS.
74 Most mtools commands allow multiple filename parameters, which doesn't
76 follow MS-DOS conventions, but which is more user-friendly.
77 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 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 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 Example:
102 mcopy -i my-image-file.bin ::file1 ::file2 .
104 This copies file1 and file2 from the image file (my-image-file.bin) to
108 the /tmp directory.
109 You can also supply an offset within the image file by including @@off‐
111 set into the file name.
112 Example:
114 mcopy -i my-image-file.bin@@1M ::file1 ::file2 .
116 This looks for the image at the offset of 1M in the file, rather than
120 at its beginning.
121 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 filesystem), 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 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 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 As you see, the following transformations happen to derive a short
146 name:
147 * Illegal characters are replaced by underscores. The illegal
149 characters are ;+=[]',\"*\\<>/?:|.
150 * Extra dots, which cannot be interpreted as a main name/extension
152 separator are removed
153 * A ~n number is generated,
155 * The name is shortened so as to fit in the 8+3 limitation
157 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 Example:
163 mcopy /etc/motd a:Reallylongname
165 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 mcopy /etc/motd a:motd
171 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 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 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 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 As you see, the following transformations happen if a long name is
191 illegal:
192 * Illegal characters are replaces by underscores,
194 * A -n number is generated,
196 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 overwrite
205 Overwrites the existing file. It is not possible to overwrite a
206 directory with a file.
207 rename
209 Renames the newly created file. Mtools prompts for the new file‐
210 name
211 autorename
213 Renames the newly created file. Mtools chooses a name by itself,
214 without prompting
215 skip Gives up on this file, and moves on to the next (if any)
217 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 You may also chose actions (for all files) on the command line, when
224 invoking mtools:
225 -D o Overwrites primary names by default.
227 -D O Overwrites secondary names by default.
229 -D r Renames primary name by default.
231 -D R Renames secondary name by default.
233 -D a Autorenames primary name by default.
235 -D A Autorenames secondary name by default.
237 -D s Skip primary name by default.
239 -D S Skip secondary name by default.
241 -D m Ask user what to do with primary name.
243 -D M Ask user what to do with secondary name.
245 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 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 By default, the user is prompted if the primary name clashes, and the
256 secondary name is autorenamed.
257 If a name clash occurs in a Unix directory, mtools only asks whether to
259 overwrite the file, or to skip it.
260 Case sensitivity of the VFAT filesystem
262 The VFAT filesystem is able to remember the case of the filenames. How‐
263 ever, filenames which differ only in case are not allowed to coexist in
264 the same directory. For example if you store a file called LongFileName
265 on a VFAT filesystem, mdir shows this file as LongFileName, and not as
266 Longfilename. However, if you then try to add LongFilename to the same
267 directory, it is refused, because case is ignored for clash checks.
268 The VFAT filesystem allows to store the case of a filename in the
270 attribute byte, if all letters of the filename are the same case, and
271 if all letters of the extension are the same case too. Mtools uses this
272 information when displaying the files, and also to generate the Unix
273 filename when mcopying to a Unix directory. This may have unexpected
274 results when applied to files written using an pre-7.0 version of DOS:
275 Indeed, the old style filenames map to all upper case. This is differ‐
276 ent from the behavior of the old version of mtools which used to gener‐
277 ate lower case Unix filenames.
278 high capacity formats
280 Mtools supports a number of formats which allow to store more data on
281 disk as usual. Due to different operating system abilities, these for‐
282 mats are not supported on all OS'es. Mtools recognizes these formats
283 transparently where supported.
284 In order to format these disks, you need to use an operating system
286 specific tool. For Linux, suitable floppy tools can be found in the
287 fdutils package at the following locations~:
288 ftp://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/fdutils/.
290 ftp://ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/fdutils-*
291 See the manpages included in that package for further detail: Use
295 superformat to format all formats except XDF, and use xdfcopy to format
296 XDF.
297 More sectors
299 The oldest method of fitting more data on a disk is to use more sectors
300 and more cylinders. Although the standard format uses 80 cylinders and
301 18 sectors (on a 3 1/2 high density disk), it is possible to use up to
302 83 cylinders (on most drives) and up to 21 sectors. This method allows
303 to store up to 1743K on a 3 1/2 HD disk. However, 21 sector disks are
304 twice as slow as the standard 18 sector disks because the sectors are
305 packed so close together that we need to interleave them. This problem
306 doesn't exist for 20 sector formats.
307 These formats are supported by numerous DOS shareware utilities such as
309 fdformat and vgacopy. In his infinite hybris, Bill Gate$ believed that
310 he invented this, and called it `DMF disks', or `Windows formatted
311 disks'. But in reality, it has already existed years before! Mtools
312 supports these formats on Linux, on SunOs and on the DELL Unix PC.
313 Bigger sectors
315 By using bigger sectors it is possible to go beyond the capacity which
316 can be obtained by the standard 512-byte sectors. This is because of
317 the sector header. The sector header has the same size, regardless of
318 how many data bytes are in the sector. Thus, we save some space by
319 using fewer, but bigger sectors. For example, 1 sector of 4K only takes
320 up header space once, whereas 8 sectors of 512 bytes have also 8 head‐
321 ers, for the same amount of useful data.
322 This method allows to store up to 1992K on a 3 1/2 HD disk.
324 Mtools supports these formats only on Linux.
326 2m
328 The 2m format was originally invented by Ciriaco Garcia de Celis. It
329 also uses bigger sectors than usual in order to fit more data on the
330 disk. However, it uses the standard format (18 sectors of 512 bytes
331 each) on the first cylinder, in order to make these disks easyer to
332 handle by DOS. Indeed this method allows to have a standard sized boot‐
333 sector, which contains a description of how the rest of the disk should
334 be read.
335 However, the drawback of this is that the first cylinder can hold less
337 data than the others. Unfortunately, DOS can only handle disks where
338 each track contains the same amount of data. Thus 2m hides the fact
339 that the first track contains less data by using a shadow FAT. (Usu‐
340 ally, DOS stores the FAT in two identical copies, for additional
341 safety. XDF stores only one copy, and it tells DOS that it stores two.
342 Thus the same that would be taken up by the second FAT copy is saved.)
343 This also means that your should never use a 2m disk to store anything
344 else than a DOS fs.
345 Mtools supports these format only on Linux.
347 XDF
349 XDF is a high capacity format used by OS/2. It can hold 1840 K per
350 disk. That's lower than the best 2m formats, but its main advantage is
351 that it is fast: 600 milliseconds per track. That's faster than the 21
352 sector format, and almost as fast as the standard 18 sector format. In
353 order to access these disks, make sure mtools has been compiled with
354 XDF support, and set the use_xdf variable for the drive in the configu‐
355 ration file. See section Compiling mtools, and `misc variables', for
356 details on how to do this. Fast XDF access is only available for Linux
357 kernels which are more recent than 1.1.34.
358 Mtools supports this format only on Linux.
360 Caution / Attention distributors: If mtools is compiled on a Linux ker‐
362 nel more recent than 1.3.34, it won't run on an older kernel. However,
363 if it has been compiled on an older kernel, it still runs on a newer
364 kernel, except that XDF access is slower. It is recommended that dis‐
365 tribution authors only include mtools binaries compiled on kernels
366 older than 1.3.34 until 2.0 comes out. When 2.0 will be out, mtools
367 binaries compiled on newer kernels may (and should) be distributed.
368 Mtools binaries compiled on kernels older than 1.3.34 won't run on any
369 2.1 kernel or later.
370 Exit codes
372 All the Mtools commands return 0 on success, 1 on utter failure, or 2
373 on partial failure. All the Mtools commands perform a few sanity
374 checks before going ahead, to make sure that the disk is indeed an MS-
375 DOS disk (as opposed to, say an ext2 or minix disk). These checks may
376 reject partially corrupted disks, which might otherwise still be read‐
377 able. To avoid these checks, set the MTOOLS_SKIP_CHECK environmental
378 variable or the corresponding configuration file variable (see section
379 global variables)
380 Bugs
382 An unfortunate side effect of not guessing the proper device (when mul‐
383 tiple disk capacities are supported) is an occasional error message
384 from the device driver. These can be safely ignored.
385 The fat checking code chokes on 1.72 Mb disks mformatted with pre-2.0.7
387 mtools. Set the environmental variable MTOOLS_FAT_COMPATIBILITY (or the
388 corresponding configuration file variable, `global variables') to
389 bypass the fat checking.
390
392 floppyd_installtest mattrib mbadblocks mcd mcopy mdel mdeltree mdir mdu
393 mformat minfo mkmanifest mlabel mmd mmount mmove mrd mren mtoolstest
394 mtype
395mtools-4.0.12 03Nov09 mtools.1(3)