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-4.0.43.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 -i flag which allows to specify an image file
69 (See section drive letters).
70 All commands accept the -V flag which prints the version, and most ac‐
72 cept the -v flag, which switches on verbose mode. In verbose mode,
73 these commands print out the name of the MS-DOS files upon which they
74 act, unless stated otherwise. See section Commands, for a description
75 of the options which are specific to each command.
76 Drive letters
78 The meaning of the drive letters depends on the target architectures.
79 However, on most target architectures, drive A is the first floppy
80 drive, drive B is the second floppy drive (if available), drive J is a
81 Jaz drive (if available), and drive Z is a Zip drive (if available).
82 On those systems where the device name is derived from the SCSI id, the
83 Jaz drive is assumed to be at SCSI target 4, and the Zip at SCSI target
84 5 (factory default settings). On Linux, both drives are assumed to be
85 the second drive on the SCSI bus (/dev/sdb). The default settings can
86 be changes using a configuration file (see section Configuration).
87 The drive letter : (colon) has a special meaning. It is used to access
89 image files which are directly specified on the command line using the
90 -i options.
91 Example:
93 mcopy -i my-image-file.bin ::file1 ::file2 .
95 This copies file1 and file2 from the image file (my-image-file.bin) to
99 the /tmp directory.
100 You can also supply an offset within the image file by including @@off‐
102 set into the file name.
103 Example:
105 mcopy -i my-image-file.bin@@1M ::file1 ::file2 .
107 This looks for the image at the offset of 1M in the file, rather than
111 at its beginning.
112 Current working directory
114 The mcd command (`mcd') is used to establish the device and the current
115 working directory (relative to the MS-DOS file system), otherwise the
116 default is assumed to be A:/. However, unlike MS-DOS, there is only one
117 working directory for all drives, and not one per drive.
118 VFAT-style long file names
120 This version of mtools supports VFAT style long filenames. If a Unix
121 filename is too long to fit in a short DOS name, it is stored as a VFAT
122 long name, and a companion short name is generated. This short name is
123 what you see when you examine the disk with a pre-7.0 version of DOS.
124 The following table shows some examples of short names:
125 Long name MS-DOS name Reason for the change
127 --------- ---------- ---------------------
128 thisisatest THISIS~1 filename too long
129 alain.knaff ALAIN~1.KNA extension too long
130 prn.txt PRN~1.TXT PRN is a device name
131 .abc ABC~1 null filename
132 hot+cold HOT_CO~1 illegal character
133 As you see, the following transformations happen to derive a short
137 name:
138 * Illegal characters are replaced by underscores. The illegal
140 characters are ;+=[]',\"*\\<>/?:|.
141 * Extra dots, which cannot be interpreted as a main name/extension
143 separator are removed
144 * A ~n number is generated,
146 * The name is shortened so as to fit in the 8+3 limitation
148 The initial Unix-style file name (whether long or short) is also
150 called the primary name, and the derived short name is also called the
151 secondary name.
152 Example:
154 mcopy /etc/motd a:Reallylongname
156 Mtools creates a VFAT entry for Reallylongname, and uses REALLYLO as a
158 short name. Reallylongname is the primary name, and REALLYLO is the
159 secondary name.
160 mcopy /etc/motd a:motd
162 Motd fits into the DOS filename limits. Mtools doesn't need to
164 derivate another name. Motd is the primary name, and there is no sec‐
165 ondary name.
166 In a nutshell: The primary name is the long name, if one exists, or
168 the short name if there is no long name.
169 Although VFAT is much more flexible than FAT, there are still names
171 that are not acceptable, even in VFAT. There are still some illegal
172 characters left (\"*\\<>/?:|), and device names are still reserved.
173 Unix name Long name Reason for the change
175 --------- ---------- ---------------------
176 prn prn-1 PRN is a device name
177 ab:c ab_c-1 illegal character
178 As you see, the following transformations happen if a long name is il‐
182 legal:
183 * Illegal characters are replaces by underscores,
185 * A -n number is generated,
187 Name clashes
189 When writing a file to disk, its long name or short name may collide
190 with an already existing file or directory. This may happen for all
191 commands which create new directory entries, such as mcopy, mmd, mren,
192 mmove. When a name clash happens, mtools asks you what it should do. It
193 offers several choices:
194 overwrite
196 Overwrites the existing file. It is not possible to overwrite a
197 directory with a file.
198 rename
200 Renames the newly created file. Mtools prompts for the new file‐
201 name
202 autorename
204 Renames the newly created file. Mtools chooses a name by itself,
205 without prompting
206 skip Gives up on this file, and moves on to the next (if any)
208 To chose one of these actions, type its first letter at the prompt. If
210 you use a lower case letter, the action only applies for this file
211 only, if you use an upper case letter, the action applies to all files,
212 and you won't be prompted again.
213 You may also chose actions (for all files) on the command line, when
215 invoking mtools:
216 -D o Overwrites primary names by default.
218 -D O Overwrites secondary names by default.
220 -D r Renames primary name by default.
222 -D R Renames secondary name by default.
224 -D a Autorenames primary name by default.
226 -D A Autorenames secondary name by default.
228 -D s Skip primary name by default.
230 -D S Skip secondary name by default.
232 -D m Ask user what to do with primary name.
234 -D M Ask user what to do with secondary name.
236 Note that for command line switches lower/upper differentiates between
238 primary/secondary name whereas for interactive choices, lower/upper
239 differentiates between just-this-time/always.
240 The primary name is the name as displayed in Windows 95 or Windows NT:
242 i.e. the long name if it exists, and the short name otherwise. The
243 secondary name is the "hidden" name, i.e. the short name if a long name
244 exists.
245 By default, the user is prompted if the primary name clashes, and the
247 secondary name is autorenamed.
248 If a name clash occurs in a Unix directory, mtools only asks whether to
250 overwrite the file, or to skip it.
251 Case sensitivity of the VFAT file system
253 The VFAT file system is able to remember the case of the filenames.
254 However, filenames which differ only in case are not allowed to coexist
255 in the same directory. For example if you store a file called LongFile‐
256 Name on a VFAT file system, mdir shows this file as LongFileName, and
257 not as Longfilename. However, if you then try to add LongFilename to
258 the same directory, it is refused, because case is ignored for clash
259 checks.
260 The VFAT file system allows you to store the case of a filename in the
262 attribute byte, if all letters of the filename are the same case, and
263 if all letters of the extension are the same case too. Mtools uses this
264 information when displaying the files, and also to generate the Unix
265 filename when mcopying to a Unix directory. This may have unexpected
266 results when applied to files written using an pre-7.0 version of DOS:
267 Indeed, the old style filenames map to all upper case. This is differ‐
268 ent from the behavior of the old version of mtools which used to gener‐
269 ate lower case Unix filenames.
270 high capacity formats
272 Mtools supports a number of formats which allow storage of more data on
273 disk than usual. Due to different operating system abilities, these
274 formats are not supported on all operating systems. Mtools recognizes
275 these formats transparently where supported.
276 In order to format these disks, you need to use an operating system
278 specific tool. For Linux, suitable floppy tools can be found in the
279 fdutils package at the following locations~:
280 http://www.fdutils.linux.lu/.
282 See the manual pages included in that package for further detail: Use
286 superformat to format all formats except XDF, and use xdfcopy to format
287 XDF.
288 More sectors
290 The oldest method of fitting more data on a disk is to use more sectors
291 and more cylinders. Although the standard format uses 80 cylinders and
292 18 sectors (on a 3 1/2 high density disk), it is possible to use up to
293 83 cylinders (on most drives) and up to 21 sectors. This method allows
294 to store up to 1743K on a 3 1/2 HD disk. However, 21 sector disks are
295 twice as slow as the standard 18 sector disks because the sectors are
296 packed so close together that we need to interleave them. This problem
297 doesn't exist for 20 sector formats.
298 These formats are supported by numerous DOS shareware utilities such as
300 fdformat and vgacopy. In his infinite hubris, Bill Gate$ believed that
301 he invented this, and called it `DMF disks', or `Windows formatted
302 disks'. But in reality, it has already existed years before! Mtools
303 supports these formats on Linux, on SunOS and on the DELL Unix PC.
304 Bigger sectors
306 By using bigger sectors it is possible to go beyond the capacity which
307 can be obtained by the standard 512-byte sectors. This is because of
308 the sector header. The sector header has the same size, regardless of
309 how many data bytes are in the sector. Thus, we save some space by us‐
310 ing fewer, but bigger sectors. For example, 1 sector of 4K only takes
311 up header space once, whereas 8 sectors of 512 bytes have also 8 head‐
312 ers, for the same amount of useful data.
313 This method permits storage of up to 1992K on a 3 1/2 HD disk.
315 Mtools supports these formats only on Linux.
317 2m
319 The 2m format was originally invented by Ciriaco Garcia de Celis. It
320 also uses bigger sectors than usual in order to fit more data on the
321 disk. However, it uses the standard format (18 sectors of 512 bytes
322 each) on the first cylinder, in order to make these disks easier to
323 handle by DOS. Indeed this method allows you to have a standard sized
324 boot sector, which contains a description of how the rest of the disk
325 should be read.
326 However, the drawback of this is that the first cylinder can hold less
328 data than the others. Unfortunately, DOS can only handle disks where
329 each track contains the same amount of data. Thus 2m hides the fact
330 that the first track contains less data by using a shadow FAT. (Usu‐
331 ally, DOS stores the FAT in two identical copies, for additional
332 safety. XDF stores only one copy, but tells DOS that it stores two.
333 Thus the space that would be taken up by the second FAT copy is saved.)
334 This also means that you should never use a 2m disk to store anything
335 else than a DOS file system.
336 Mtools supports these formats only on Linux.
338 XDF
340 XDF is a high capacity format used by OS/2. It can hold 1840 K per
341 disk. That's lower than the best 2m formats, but its main advantage is
342 that it is fast: 600 milliseconds per track. That's faster than the 21
343 sector format, and almost as fast as the standard 18 sector format. In
344 order to access these disks, make sure mtools has been compiled with
345 XDF support, and set the use_xdf variable for the drive in the configu‐
346 ration file. See section Compiling mtools, and `miscellaneous vari‐
347 ables', for details on how to do this. Fast XDF access is only avail‐
348 able for Linux kernels which are more recent than 1.1.34.
349 Mtools supports this format only on Linux.
351 Caution / Attention distributors: If mtools is compiled on a Linux ker‐
353 nel more recent than 1.3.34, it won't run on an older kernel. However,
354 if it has been compiled on an older kernel, it still runs on a newer
355 kernel, except that XDF access is slower. It is recommended that dis‐
356 tribution authors only include mtools binaries compiled on kernels
357 older than 1.3.34 until 2.0 comes out. When 2.0 will be out, mtools bi‐
358 naries compiled on newer kernels may (and should) be distributed.
359 Mtools binaries compiled on kernels older than 1.3.34 won't run on any
360 2.1 kernel or later.
361 Exit codes
363 All the Mtools commands return 0 on success, 1 on utter failure, or 2
364 on partial failure. All the Mtools commands perform a few sanity
365 checks before going ahead, to make sure that the disk is indeed an MS-
366 DOS disk (as opposed to, say an ext2 or MINIX disk). These checks may
367 reject partially corrupted disks, which might otherwise still be read‐
368 able. To avoid these checks, set the MTOOLS_SKIP_CHECK environmental
369 variable or the corresponding configuration file variable (see section
370 global variables)
371 Bugs
373 An unfortunate side effect of not guessing the proper device (when mul‐
374 tiple disk capacities are supported) is an occasional error message
375 from the device driver. These can be safely ignored.
376 The fat checking code chokes on 1.72 Mb disks mformatted with pre-2.0.7
378 mtools. Set the environmental variable MTOOLS_FAT_COMPATIBILITY (or the
379 corresponding configuration file variable, `global variables') to by‐
380 pass the fat checking.
381
383 floppyd_installtest mattrib mbadblocks mcd mcopy mdel mdeltree mdir mdu
384 mformat minfo mkmanifest mlabel mmd mmount mmove mrd mren mshortname
385 mshowfat mtoolstest mtype
386mtools-4.0.43 21Mar23 mtools(1)