1mtools(1) General Commands Manual mtools(1)
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 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 Mtools is sufficient to give access to MS-DOS file systems. For in‐
19 stance, commands such as mdir a: work on the a: floppy without any pre‐
20 liminary 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-4.0.36.tar.gz
28 These patches are named mtools-version-ddmm.taz, where version stands
32 for the base version, dd for the day and mm for the month. Due to a
33 lack of space, I usually leave only the most recent patch.
34 There is an mtools mailing list at info-mtools @ gnu.org . Please send
36 all bug reports to this list. You may subscribe to the list at
37 https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-mtools. (N.B. Please remove
38 the spaces around the "@". I left them there in order to fool spam‐
39 bots.) Announcements of new mtools versions will also be sent to the
40 list, in addition to the Linux announce newsgroups. The mailing list
41 is archived at http://lists.gnu.org/pipermail/info-mtools/
42
44 Options and filenames
45 MS-DOS filenames are composed of a drive letter followed by a colon, a
46 subdirectory, and a filename. Only the filename part is mandatory, the
47 drive letter and the subdirectory are optional. Filenames without a
48 drive letter refer to Unix files. Subdirectory names can use either the
49 '/' or '\' separator. The use of the '\' separator or wildcards re‐
50 quires the names to be enclosed in quotes to protect them from the
51 shell. However, wildcards in Unix filenames should not be enclosed in
52 quotes, because here we want the shell to expand them.
53 The regular expression "pattern matching" routines follow the Unix-
55 style rules. For example, `*' matches all MS-DOS files in lieu of
56 `*.*'. The archive, hidden, read-only and system attribute bits are
57 ignored during pattern matching.
58 All options use the - (minus) as their first character, not / as you'd
60 expect in MS-DOS.
61 Most mtools commands allow multiple filename parameters, which doesn't
63 follow MS-DOS conventions, but which is more user-friendly.
64 Most mtools commands allow options that instruct them how to handle
66 file name clashes. See section name clashes, for more details on these.
67 All commands accept the -V flags which prints the version, and most ac‐
68 cept the -v flag, which switches on verbose mode. In verbose mode,
69 these commands print out the name of the MS-DOS files upon which they
70 act, unless stated otherwise. See section Commands, for a description
71 of the options which are specific to each command.
72 Drive letters
74 The meaning of the drive letters depends on the target architectures.
75 However, on most target architectures, drive A is the first floppy
76 drive, drive B is the second floppy drive (if available), drive J is a
77 Jaz drive (if available), and drive Z is a Zip drive (if available).
78 On those systems where the device name is derived from the SCSI id, the
79 Jaz drive is assumed to be at SCSI target 4, and the Zip at SCSI target
80 5 (factory default settings). On Linux, both drives are assumed to be
81 the second drive on the SCSI bus (/dev/sdb). The default settings can
82 be changes using a configuration file (see section Configuration).
83 The drive letter : (colon) has a special meaning. It is used to access
85 image files which are directly specified on the command line using the
86 -i options.
87 Example:
89 mcopy -i my-image-file.bin ::file1 ::file2 .
91 This copies file1 and file2 from the image file (my-image-file.bin) to
95 the /tmp directory.
96 You can also supply an offset within the image file by including @@off‐
98 set into the file name.
99 Example:
101 mcopy -i my-image-file.bin@@1M ::file1 ::file2 .
103 This looks for the image at the offset of 1M in the file, rather than
107 at its beginning.
108 Current working directory
110 The mcd command (`mcd') is used to establish the device and the current
111 working directory (relative to the MS-DOS file system), otherwise the
112 default is assumed to be A:/. However, unlike MS-DOS, there is only one
113 working directory for all drives, and not one per drive.
114 VFAT-style long file names
116 This version of mtools supports VFAT style long filenames. If a Unix
117 filename is too long to fit in a short DOS name, it is stored as a VFAT
118 long name, and a companion short name is generated. This short name is
119 what you see when you examine the disk with a pre-7.0 version of DOS.
120 The following table shows some examples of short names:
121 Long name MS-DOS name Reason for the change
123 --------- ---------- ---------------------
124 thisisatest THISIS~1 filename too long
125 alain.knaff ALAIN~1.KNA extension too long
126 prn.txt PRN~1.TXT PRN is a device name
127 .abc ABC~1 null filename
128 hot+cold HOT_CO~1 illegal character
129 As you see, the following transformations happen to derive a short
133 name:
134 * Illegal characters are replaced by underscores. The illegal
136 characters are ;+=[]',\"*\\<>/?:|.
137 * Extra dots, which cannot be interpreted as a main name/extension
139 separator are removed
140 * A ~n number is generated,
142 * The name is shortened so as to fit in the 8+3 limitation
144 The initial Unix-style file name (whether long or short) is also
146 called the primary name, and the derived short name is also called the
147 secondary name.
148 Example:
150 mcopy /etc/motd a:Reallylongname
152 Mtools creates a VFAT entry for Reallylongname, and uses REALLYLO as a
154 short name. Reallylongname is the primary name, and REALLYLO is the
155 secondary name.
156 mcopy /etc/motd a:motd
158 Motd fits into the DOS filename limits. Mtools doesn't need to
160 derivate another name. Motd is the primary name, and there is no sec‐
161 ondary name.
162 In a nutshell: The primary name is the long name, if one exists, or
164 the short name if there is no long name.
165 Although VFAT is much more flexible than FAT, there are still names
167 that are not acceptable, even in VFAT. There are still some illegal
168 characters left (\"*\\<>/?:|), and device names are still reserved.
169 Unix name Long name Reason for the change
171 --------- ---------- ---------------------
172 prn prn-1 PRN is a device name
173 ab:c ab_c-1 illegal character
174 As you see, the following transformations happen if a long name is il‐
178 legal:
179 * Illegal characters are replaces by underscores,
181 * A -n number is generated,
183 Name clashes
185 When writing a file to disk, its long name or short name may collide
186 with an already existing file or directory. This may happen for all
187 commands which create new directory entries, such as mcopy, mmd, mren,
188 mmove. When a name clash happens, mtools asks you what it should do. It
189 offers several choices:
190 overwrite
192 Overwrites the existing file. It is not possible to overwrite a
193 directory with a file.
194 rename
196 Renames the newly created file. Mtools prompts for the new file‐
197 name
198 autorename
200 Renames the newly created file. Mtools chooses a name by itself,
201 without prompting
202 skip Gives up on this file, and moves on to the next (if any)
204 To chose one of these actions, type its first letter at the prompt. If
206 you use a lower case letter, the action only applies for this file
207 only, if you use an upper case letter, the action applies to all files,
208 and you won't be prompted again.
209 You may also chose actions (for all files) on the command line, when
211 invoking mtools:
212 -D o Overwrites primary names by default.
214 -D O Overwrites secondary names by default.
216 -D r Renames primary name by default.
218 -D R Renames secondary name by default.
220 -D a Autorenames primary name by default.
222 -D A Autorenames secondary name by default.
224 -D s Skip primary name by default.
226 -D S Skip secondary name by default.
228 -D m Ask user what to do with primary name.
230 -D M Ask user what to do with secondary name.
232 Note that for command line switches lower/upper differentiates between
234 primary/secondary name whereas for interactive choices, lower/upper
235 differentiates between just-this-time/always.
236 The primary name is the name as displayed in Windows 95 or Windows NT:
238 i.e. the long name if it exists, and the short name otherwise. The
239 secondary name is the "hidden" name, i.e. the short name if a long name
240 exists.
241 By default, the user is prompted if the primary name clashes, and the
243 secondary name is autorenamed.
244 If a name clash occurs in a Unix directory, mtools only asks whether to
246 overwrite the file, or to skip it.
247 Case sensitivity of the VFAT file system
249 The VFAT file system is able to remember the case of the filenames.
250 However, filenames which differ only in case are not allowed to coexist
251 in the same directory. For example if you store a file called LongFile‐
252 Name on a VFAT file system, mdir shows this file as LongFileName, and
253 not as Longfilename. However, if you then try to add LongFilename to
254 the same directory, it is refused, because case is ignored for clash
255 checks.
256 The VFAT file system allows you to store the case of a filename in the
258 attribute byte, if all letters of the filename are the same case, and
259 if all letters of the extension are the same case too. Mtools uses this
260 information when displaying the files, and also to generate the Unix
261 filename when mcopying to a Unix directory. This may have unexpected
262 results when applied to files written using an pre-7.0 version of DOS:
263 Indeed, the old style filenames map to all upper case. This is differ‐
264 ent from the behavior of the old version of mtools which used to gener‐
265 ate lower case Unix filenames.
266 high capacity formats
268 Mtools supports a number of formats which allow storage of more data on
269 disk than usual. Due to different operating system abilities, these
270 formats are not supported on all operating systems. Mtools recognizes
271 these formats transparently where supported.
272 In order to format these disks, you need to use an operating system
274 specific tool. For Linux, suitable floppy tools can be found in the
275 fdutils package at the following locations~:
276 http://www.fdutils.linux.lu/.
278 See the manual pages included in that package for further detail: Use
282 superformat to format all formats except XDF, and use xdfcopy to format
283 XDF.
284 More sectors
286 The oldest method of fitting more data on a disk is to use more sectors
287 and more cylinders. Although the standard format uses 80 cylinders and
288 18 sectors (on a 3 1/2 high density disk), it is possible to use up to
289 83 cylinders (on most drives) and up to 21 sectors. This method allows
290 to store up to 1743K on a 3 1/2 HD disk. However, 21 sector disks are
291 twice as slow as the standard 18 sector disks because the sectors are
292 packed so close together that we need to interleave them. This problem
293 doesn't exist for 20 sector formats.
294 These formats are supported by numerous DOS shareware utilities such as
296 fdformat and vgacopy. In his infinite hubris, Bill Gate$ believed that
297 he invented this, and called it `DMF disks', or `Windows formatted
298 disks'. But in reality, it has already existed years before! Mtools
299 supports these formats on Linux, on SunOS and on the DELL Unix PC.
300 Bigger sectors
302 By using bigger sectors it is possible to go beyond the capacity which
303 can be obtained by the standard 512-byte sectors. This is because of
304 the sector header. The sector header has the same size, regardless of
305 how many data bytes are in the sector. Thus, we save some space by us‐
306 ing fewer, but bigger sectors. For example, 1 sector of 4K only takes
307 up header space once, whereas 8 sectors of 512 bytes have also 8 head‐
308 ers, for the same amount of useful data.
309 This method permits storage of up to 1992K on a 3 1/2 HD disk.
311 Mtools supports these formats only on Linux.
313 2m
315 The 2m format was originally invented by Ciriaco Garcia de Celis. It
316 also uses bigger sectors than usual in order to fit more data on the
317 disk. However, it uses the standard format (18 sectors of 512 bytes
318 each) on the first cylinder, in order to make these disks easier to
319 handle by DOS. Indeed this method allows you to have a standard sized
320 boot sector, which contains a description of how the rest of the disk
321 should be read.
322 However, the drawback of this is that the first cylinder can hold less
324 data than the others. Unfortunately, DOS can only handle disks where
325 each track contains the same amount of data. Thus 2m hides the fact
326 that the first track contains less data by using a shadow FAT. (Usu‐
327 ally, DOS stores the FAT in two identical copies, for additional
328 safety. XDF stores only one copy, but tells DOS that it stores two.
329 Thus the space that would be taken up by the second FAT copy is saved.)
330 This also means that you should never use a 2m disk to store anything
331 else than a DOS file system.
332 Mtools supports these formats only on Linux.
334 XDF
336 XDF is a high capacity format used by OS/2. It can hold 1840 K per
337 disk. That's lower than the best 2m formats, but its main advantage is
338 that it is fast: 600 milliseconds per track. That's faster than the 21
339 sector format, and almost as fast as the standard 18 sector format. In
340 order to access these disks, make sure mtools has been compiled with
341 XDF support, and set the use_xdf variable for the drive in the configu‐
342 ration file. See section Compiling mtools, and `miscellaneous vari‐
343 ables', for details on how to do this. Fast XDF access is only avail‐
344 able for Linux kernels which are more recent than 1.1.34.
345 Mtools supports this format only on Linux.
347 Caution / Attention distributors: If mtools is compiled on a Linux ker‐
349 nel more recent than 1.3.34, it won't run on an older kernel. However,
350 if it has been compiled on an older kernel, it still runs on a newer
351 kernel, except that XDF access is slower. It is recommended that dis‐
352 tribution authors only include mtools binaries compiled on kernels
353 older than 1.3.34 until 2.0 comes out. When 2.0 will be out, mtools bi‐
354 naries compiled on newer kernels may (and should) be distributed.
355 Mtools binaries compiled on kernels older than 1.3.34 won't run on any
356 2.1 kernel or later.
357 Exit codes
359 All the Mtools commands return 0 on success, 1 on utter failure, or 2
360 on partial failure. All the Mtools commands perform a few sanity
361 checks before going ahead, to make sure that the disk is indeed an MS-
362 DOS disk (as opposed to, say an ext2 or MINIX disk). These checks may
363 reject partially corrupted disks, which might otherwise still be read‐
364 able. To avoid these checks, set the MTOOLS_SKIP_CHECK environmental
365 variable or the corresponding configuration file variable (see section
366 global variables)
367 Bugs
369 An unfortunate side effect of not guessing the proper device (when mul‐
370 tiple disk capacities are supported) is an occasional error message
371 from the device driver. These can be safely ignored.
372 The fat checking code chokes on 1.72 Mb disks mformatted with pre-2.0.7
374 mtools. Set the environmental variable MTOOLS_FAT_COMPATIBILITY (or the
375 corresponding configuration file variable, `global variables') to by‐
376 pass the fat checking.
377
379 floppyd_installtest mattrib mbadblocks mcd mclasserase mcopy mdel mdel‐
380 tree mdir mdu mformat minfo mkmanifest mlabel mmd mmount mmove mrd mren
381 mshortname mshowfat mtoolstest mtype
382mtools-4.0.36 21Nov21 mtools(1)