1mtools.1(3) Library Functions Manual mtools.1(3)
2
6 mtools - utilities to access DOS disks in Unix.
7
11 Mtools is a public domain collection of tools to allow Unix systems to
12 manipulate MS-DOS files: read, write, and move around files on an MS-
13 DOS filesystem (typically a floppy disk). Where reasonable, each pro‐
14 gram attempts to emulate the MS-DOS equivalent command. However, unnec‐
15 essary restrictions and oddities of DOS are not emulated. For instance,
16 it is possible 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://mtools.linux.lu/mtools-3.9.10.tar.gz
28 ftp://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/mtools/mtools-3.9.10.tar.gz
29 ftp://ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/mtools-3.9.10.tar.gz
30 Before reporting a bug, make sure that it has not yet been fixed in the
34 Alpha patches which can be found at:
35 http://mtools.linux.lu/
37 ftp://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/mtools
38 These patches are named mtools-version-ddmm.taz, where version stands
42 for the base version, dd for the day and mm for the month. Due to a
43 lack of space, I usually leave only the most recent patch.
44 There is an mtools mailing list at mtools @ tux.org . Please send all
46 bug reports to this list. You may subscribe to the list by sending a
47 message with 'subscribe mtools @ tux.org' in its body to majordomo @
48 tux.org . (N.B. Please remove the spaces around the "@" both times. I
49 left them there in order to fool spambots.) Announcements of new
50 mtools versions will also be sent to the list, in addition to the linux
51 announce newsgroups. The mailing list is archived at
52 http://www.tux.org/hypermail/mtools/latest
53
55 Options and filenames
56 MS-DOS filenames are composed of a drive letter followed by a colon, a
57 subdirectory, and a filename. Only the filename part is mandatory, the
58 drive letter and the subdirectory are optional. Filenames without a
59 drive letter refer to Unix files. Subdirectory names can use either the
60 '/' or '\' separator. The use of the '\' separator or wildcards
61 requires the names to be enclosed in quotes to protect them from the
62 shell. However, wildcards in Unix filenames should not be enclosed in
63 quotes, because here we want the shell to expand them.
64 The regular expression "pattern matching" routines follow the Unix-
66 style rules. For example, `*' matches all MS-DOS files in lieu of
67 `*.*'. The archive, hidden, read-only and system attribute bits are
68 ignored during pattern matching.
69 All options use the - (minus) as their first character, not / as you'd
71 expect in MS-DOS.
72 Most mtools commands allow multiple filename parameters, which doesn't
74 follow MS-DOS conventions, but which is more user-friendly.
75 Most mtools commands allow options that instruct them how to handle
77 file name clashes. See section name clashes, for more details on these.
78 All commands accept the -V flags which prints the version, and most
79 accept the -v flag, which switches on verbose mode. In verbose mode,
80 these commands print out the name of the MS-DOS files upon which they
81 act, unless stated otherwise. See section Commands, for a description
82 of the options which are specific to each command.
83 Drive letters
85 The meaning of the drive letters depends on the target architectures.
86 However, on most target architectures, drive A is the first floppy
87 drive, drive B is the second floppy drive (if available), drive J is a
88 Jaz drive (if available), and drive Z is a Zip drive (if available).
89 On those systems where the device name is derived from the SCSI id, the
90 Jaz drive is assumed to be at Scsi target 4, and the Zip at Scsi target
91 5 (factory default settings). On Linux, both drives are assumed to be
92 the second drive on the Scsi bus (/dev/sdb). The default settings can
93 be changes using a configuration file (see section Configuration).
94 The drive letter : (colon) has a special meaning. It is used to access
96 image files which are directly specified on the command line using the
97 -i options.
98 Example:
100 mcopy -i my-image-file.bin ::file1 ::file2 .
102 This copies file1 and file2 from the image file (my-image-file.bin) to
106 the /tmp directory.
107 Current working directory
109 The mcd command (`mcd') is used to establish the device and the current
110 working directory (relative to the MS-DOS filesystem), otherwise the
111 default is assumed to be A:/. However, unlike MS-DOS, there is only one
112 working directory for all drives, and not one per drive.
113 VFAT-style long file names
115 This version of mtools supports VFAT style long filenames. If a Unix
116 filename is too long to fit in a short DOS name, it is stored as a VFAT
117 long name, and a companion short name is generated. This short name is
118 what you see when you examine the disk with a pre-7.0 version of DOS.
119 The following table shows some examples of short names:
120 Long name MS-DOS name Reason for the change
122 --------- ---------- ---------------------
123 thisisatest THISIS~1 filename too long
124 alain.knaff ALAIN~1.KNA extension too long
125 prn.txt PRN~1.TXT PRN is a device name
126 .abc ABC~1 null filename
127 hot+cold HOT_CO~1 illegal character
128 As you see, the following transformations happen to derive a short
132 name:
133 * Illegal characters are replaced by underscores. The illegal
135 characters are ;+=[]',\"*\\<>/?:|.
136 * Extra dots, which cannot be interpreted as a main name/extension
138 separator are removed
139 * A ~n number is generated,
141 * The name is shortened so as to fit in the 8+3 limitation
143 The initial Unix-style file name (whether long or short) is also
145 called the primary name, and the derived short name is also called the
146 secondary name.
147 Example:
149 mcopy /etc/motd a:Reallylongname
151 Mtools creates a VFAT entry for Reallylongname, and uses REALLYLO as a
153 short name. Reallylongname is the primary name, and REALLYLO is the
154 secondary name.
155 mcopy /etc/motd a:motd
157 Motd fits into the DOS filename limits. Mtools doesn't need to
159 derivate another name. Motd is the primary name, and there is no sec‐
160 ondary name.
161 In a nutshell: The primary name is the long name, if one exists, or
163 the short name if there is no long name.
164 Although VFAT is much more flexible than FAT, there are still names
166 that are not acceptable, even in VFAT. There are still some illegal
167 characters left (\"*\\<>/?:|), and device names are still reserved.
168 Unix name Long name Reason for the change
170 --------- ---------- ---------------------
171 prn prn-1 PRN is a device name
172 ab:c ab_c-1 illegal character
173 As you see, the following transformations happen if a long name is
177 illegal:
178 * Illegal characters are replaces by underscores,
180 * A -n number is generated,
182 Name clashes
184 When writing a file to disk, its long name or short name may collide
185 with an already existing file or directory. This may happen for all
186 commands which create new directory entries, such as mcopy, mmd, mren,
187 mmove. When a name clash happens, mtools asks you what it should do. It
188 offers several choices:
189 overwrite
191 Overwrites the existing file. It is not possible to overwrite a
192 directory with a file.
193 rename
195 Renames the newly created file. Mtools prompts for the new file‐
196 name
197 autorename
199 Renames the newly created file. Mtools chooses a name by itself,
200 without prompting
201 skip Gives up on this file, and moves on to the next (if any)
203 To chose one of these actions, type its first letter at the prompt. If
205 you use a lower case letter, the action only applies for this file
206 only, if you use an upper case letter, the action applies to all files,
207 and you won't be prompted again.
208 You may also chose actions (for all files) on the command line, when
210 invoking mtools:
211 -D o Overwrites primary names by default.
213 -D O Overwrites secondary names by default.
215 -D r Renames primary name by default.
217 -D R Renames secondary name by default.
219 -D a Autorenames primary name by default.
221 -D A Autorenames secondary name by default.
223 -D s Skip primary name by default.
225 -D S Skip secondary name by default.
227 -D m Ask user what to do with primary name.
229 -D M Ask user what to do with secondary name.
231 Note that for command line switches lower/upper differentiates between
233 primary/secondary name whereas for interactive choices, lower/upper
234 differentiates between just-this-time/always.
235 The primary name is the name as displayed in Windows 95 or Windows NT:
237 i.e. the long name if it exists, and the short name otherwise. The
238 secondary name is the "hidden" name, i.e. the short name if a long name
239 exists.
240 By default, the user is prompted if the primary name clashes, and the
242 secondary name is autorenamed.
243 If a name clash occurs in a Unix directory, mtools only asks whether to
245 overwrite the file, or to skip it.
246 Case sensitivity of the VFAT filesystem
248 The VFAT filesystem is able to remember the case of the filenames. How‐
249 ever, filenames which differ only in case are not allowed to coexist in
250 the same directory. For example if you store a file called LongFileName
251 on a VFAT filesystem, mdir shows this file as LongFileName, and not as
252 Longfilename. However, if you then try to add LongFilename to the same
253 directory, it is refused, because case is ignored for clash checks.
254 The VFAT filesystem allows to store the case of a filename in the
256 attribute byte, if all letters of the filename are the same case, and
257 if all letters of the extension are the same case too. Mtools uses this
258 information when displaying the files, and also to generate the Unix
259 filename when mcopying to a Unix directory. This may have unexpected
260 results when applied to files written using an pre-7.0 version of DOS:
261 Indeed, the old style filenames map to all upper case. This is differ‐
262 ent from the behavior of the old version of mtools which used to gener‐
263 ate lower case Unix filenames.
264 high capacity formats
266 Mtools supports a number of formats which allow to store more data on
267 disk as usual. Due to different operating system abilities, these for‐
268 mats are not supported on all OS'es. Mtools recognizes these formats
269 transparently where supported.
270 In order to format these disks, you need to use an operating system
272 specific tool. For Linux, suitable floppy tools can be found in the
273 fdutils package at the following locations~:
274 ftp://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/fdutils/.
276 ftp://ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/fdutils-*
277 See the manpages included in that package for further detail: Use
281 superformat to format all formats except XDF, and use xdfcopy to format
282 XDF.
283 More sectors
285 The oldest method of fitting more data on a disk is to use more sectors
286 and more cylinders. Although the standard format uses 80 cylinders and
287 18 sectors (on a 3 1/2 high density disk), it is possible to use up to
288 83 cylinders (on most drives) and up to 21 sectors. This method allows
289 to store up to 1743K on a 3 1/2 HD disk. However, 21 sector disks are
290 twice as slow as the standard 18 sector disks because the sectors are
291 packed so close together that we need to interleave them. This problem
292 doesn't exist for 20 sector formats.
293 These formats are supported by numerous DOS shareware utilities such as
295 fdformat and vgacopy. In his infinite hybris, Bill Gate$ believed that
296 he invented this, and called it `DMF disks', or `Windows formatted
297 disks'. But in reality, it has already existed years before! Mtools
298 supports these formats on Linux, on SunOs and on the DELL Unix PC.
299 Bigger sectors
301 By using bigger sectors it is possible to go beyond the capacity which
302 can be obtained by the standard 512-byte sectors. This is because of
303 the sector header. The sector header has the same size, regardless of
304 how many data bytes are in the sector. Thus, we save some space by
305 using fewer, but bigger sectors. For example, 1 sector of 4K only takes
306 up header space once, whereas 8 sectors of 512 bytes have also 8 head‐
307 ers, for the same amount of useful data.
308 This method allows to store up to 1992K on a 3 1/2 HD disk.
310 Mtools supports these formats only on Linux.
312 2m
314 The 2m format was originally invented by Ciriaco Garcia de Celis. It
315 also uses bigger sectors than usual in order to fit more data on the
316 disk. However, it uses the standard format (18 sectors of 512 bytes
317 each) on the first cylinder, in order to make these disks easyer to
318 handle by DOS. Indeed this method allows to have a standard sized boot‐
319 sector, which contains a description of how the rest of the disk should
320 be read.
321 However, the drawback of this is that the first cylinder can hold less
323 data than the others. Unfortunately, DOS can only handle disks where
324 each track contains the same amount of data. Thus 2m hides the fact
325 that the first track contains less data by using a shadow FAT. (Usu‐
326 ally, DOS stores the FAT in two identical copies, for additional
327 safety. XDF stores only one copy, and it tells DOS that it stores two.
328 Thus the same that would be taken up by the second FAT copy is saved.)
329 This also means that your should never use a 2m disk to store anything
330 else than a DOS fs.
331 Mtools supports these format only on Linux.
333 XDF
335 XDF is a high capacity format used by OS/2. It can hold 1840 K per
336 disk. That's lower than the best 2m formats, but its main advantage is
337 that it is fast: 600 milliseconds per track. That's faster than the 21
338 sector format, and almost as fast as the standard 18 sector format. In
339 order to access these disks, make sure mtools has been compiled with
340 XDF support, and set the use_xdf variable for the drive in the configu‐
341 ration file. See section Compiling mtools, and `misc variables', for
342 details on how to do this. Fast XDF access is only available for Linux
343 kernels which are more recent than 1.1.34.
344 Mtools supports this format only on Linux.
346 Caution / Attention distributors: If mtools is compiled on a Linux ker‐
348 nel more recent than 1.3.34, it won't run on an older kernel. However,
349 if it has been compiled on an older kernel, it still runs on a newer
350 kernel, except that XDF access is slower. It is recommended that dis‐
351 tribution authors only include mtools binaries compiled on kernels
352 older than 1.3.34 until 2.0 comes out. When 2.0 will be out, mtools
353 binaries compiled on newer kernels may (and should) be distributed.
354 Mtools binaries compiled on kernels older than 1.3.34 won't run on any
355 2.1 kernel or later.
356 Exit codes
358 All the Mtools commands return 0 on success, 1 on utter failure, or 2
359 on partial failure. All the Mtools commands perform a few sanity
360 checks before going ahead, to make sure that the disk is indeed an MS-
361 DOS disk (as opposed to, say an ext2 or minix disk). These checks may
362 reject partially corrupted disks, which might otherwise still be read‐
363 able. To avoid these checks, set the MTOOLS_SKIP_CHECK environmental
364 variable or the corresponding configuration file variable (see section
365 global variables)
366 Bugs
368 An unfortunate side effect of not guessing the proper device (when mul‐
369 tiple disk capacities are supported) is an occasional error message
370 from the device driver. These can be safely ignored.
371 The fat checking code chokes on 1.72 Mb disks mformatted with pre-2.0.7
373 mtools. Set the environmental variable MTOOLS_FAT_COMPATIBILITY (or the
374 corresponding configuration file variable, `global variables') to
375 bypass the fat checking.
376
378 floppyd_installtest mattrib mbadblocks mcd mcopy mdel mdeltree mdir mdu
379 mformat minfo mkmanifest mlabel mmd mmount mmove mrd mren mtoolstest
380 mtype
381mtools-3.9.10 28Feb05 mtools.1(3)