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mtools.1(3)           DragonFly Library Functions Manual           mtools.1(3)

Name
       mtools - utilities to access DOS disks in Unix.

Introduction
       Mtools is a collection of tools to allow Unix systems to manipulate MS-
       DOS files: read, write, and move around files on an MS-DOS filesystem
       (typically a floppy disk).  Where reasonable, each program attempts to
       emulate the MS-DOS equivalent command. However, unnecessary
       restrictions and oddities of DOS are not emulated. For instance, it is
       possible to move subdirectories from one subdirectory to another.

       Mtools is sufficient to give access to MS-DOS filesystems.  For
       instance, commands such as mdir a: work on the a: floppy without any
       preliminary mounting or initialization (assuming the default
       `/etc/mtools.conf' works on your machine).  With mtools, one can change
       floppies too without unmounting and mounting.

Where to get mtools
       Mtools can be found at the following places (and their mirrors):

          http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mtools/mtools-4.0.10.tar.gz
          http://mtools.linux.lu/mtools-4.0.10.tar.gz
          ftp://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/mtools/mtools-4.0.10.tar.gz
          ftp://ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/mtools-4.0.10.tar.gz

       Before reporting a bug, make sure that it has not yet been fixed in the
       Alpha patches which can be found at:

          http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mtools/
          http://mtools.linux.lu/
          ftp://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/mtools

       These patches are named mtools-version-ddmm.taz, where version stands
       for the base version, dd for the day and mm for the month. Due to a
       lack of space, I usually leave only the most recent patch.

       There is an mtools mailing list at mtools @ tux.org .  Please send all
       bug reports to this list.  You may subscribe to the list by sending a
       message with 'subscribe mtools @ tux.org' in its body to majordomo @
       tux.org . (N.B. Please remove the spaces around the "@" both times. I
       left them there in order to fool spambots.)  Announcements of new
       mtools versions will also be sent to the list, in addition to the linux
       announce newsgroups.  The mailing list is archived at
       http://lists.gnu.org/pipermail/info-mtools/

Common features of all mtools commands
   Options and filenames
       MS-DOS filenames are composed of a drive letter followed by a colon, a
       subdirectory, and a filename. Only the filename part is mandatory, the
       drive letter and the subdirectory are optional. Filenames without a
       drive letter refer to Unix files. Subdirectory names can use either the
       '/' or '\' separator.  The use of the '\' separator or wildcards
       requires the names to be enclosed in quotes to protect them from the
       shell. However, wildcards in Unix filenames should not be enclosed in
       quotes, because here we want the shell to expand them.

       The regular expression "pattern matching" routines follow the Unix-
       style rules.  For example, `*' matches all MS-DOS files in lieu of
       `*.*'.  The archive, hidden, read-only and system attribute bits are
       ignored during pattern matching.

       All options use the - (minus) as their first character, not / as you'd
       expect in MS-DOS.

       Most mtools commands allow multiple filename parameters, which doesn't
       follow MS-DOS conventions, but which is more user-friendly.

       Most mtools commands allow options that instruct them how to handle
       file name clashes. See section name clashes, for more details on these.
       All commands accept the -V flags which prints the version, and most
       accept the -v flag, which switches on verbose mode. In verbose mode,
       these commands print out the name of the MS-DOS files upon which they
       act, unless stated otherwise. See section Commands, for a description
       of the options which are specific to each command.

   Drive letters
       The meaning of the drive letters depends on the target architectures.
       However, on most target architectures, drive A is the first floppy
       drive, drive B is the second floppy drive (if available), drive J is a
       Jaz drive (if available), and drive Z is a Zip drive (if available).
       On those systems where the device name is derived from the SCSI id, the
       Jaz drive is assumed to be at Scsi target 4, and the Zip at Scsi target
       5 (factory default settings).  On Linux, both drives are assumed to be
       the second drive on the Scsi bus (/dev/sdb). The default settings can
       be changes using a configuration file (see section  Configuration).

       The drive letter : (colon) has a special meaning. It is used to access
       image files which are directly specified on the command line using the
       -i options.

       Example:

           mcopy -i my-image-file.bin ::file1 ::file2 .

       This copies file1 and file2 from the image file (my-image-file.bin) to
       the /tmp directory.

       You can also supply an offset within the image file by including
       @@offset into the file name.

       Example:

           mcopy -i my-image-file.bin@@1M ::file1 ::file2 .

       This looks for the image at the offset of 1M in the file, rather than
       at its beginning.

   Current working directory
       The mcd command (`mcd') is used to establish the device and the current
       working directory (relative to the MS-DOS filesystem), otherwise the
       default is assumed to be A:/. However, unlike MS-DOS, there is only one
       working directory for all drives, and not one per drive.

   VFAT-style long file names
       This version of mtools supports VFAT style long filenames. If a Unix
       filename is too long to fit in a short DOS name, it is stored as a VFAT
       long name, and a companion short name is generated. This short name is
       what you see when you examine the disk with a pre-7.0 version of DOS.
        The following table shows some examples of short names:

          Long name       MS-DOS name     Reason for the change
          ---------       ----------      ---------------------
          thisisatest     THISIS~1        filename too long
          alain.knaff     ALAIN~1.KNA     extension too long
          prn.txt         PRN~1.TXT       PRN is a device name
          .abc            ABC~1           null filename
          hot+cold        HOT_CO~1        illegal character

        As you see, the following transformations happen to derive a short
       name:

       *      Illegal characters are replaced by underscores. The illegal
              characters are ;+=[]',\"*\\<>/?:|.

       *      Extra dots, which cannot be interpreted as a main name/extension
              separator are removed

       *      A ~n number is generated,

       *      The name is shortened so as to fit in the 8+3 limitation

        The initial Unix-style file name (whether long or short) is also
       called the primary name, and the derived short name is also called the
       secondary name.

        Example:

           mcopy /etc/motd a:Reallylongname

        Mtools creates a VFAT entry for Reallylongname, and uses REALLYLO as a
       short name. Reallylongname is the primary name, and REALLYLO is the
       secondary name.

           mcopy /etc/motd a:motd

        Motd fits into the DOS filename limits. Mtools doesn't need to
       derivate another name. Motd is the primary name, and there is no
       secondary name.

        In a nutshell: The primary name is the long name, if one exists, or
       the short name if there is no long name.

        Although VFAT is much more flexible than FAT, there are still names
       that are not acceptable, even in VFAT. There are still some illegal
       characters left (\"*\\<>/?:|), and device names are still reserved.

          Unix name       Long name       Reason for the change
          ---------       ----------      ---------------------
          prn             prn-1           PRN is a device name
          ab:c            ab_c-1          illegal character

        As you see, the following transformations happen if a long name is
       illegal:

       *      Illegal characters are replaces by underscores,

       *      A -n number is generated,

   Name clashes
       When writing a file to disk, its long name or short name may collide
       with an already existing file or directory. This may happen for all
       commands which create new directory entries, such as mcopy, mmd, mren,
       mmove. When a name clash happens, mtools asks you what it should do. It
       offers several choices:

       overwrite
              Overwrites the existing file. It is not possible to overwrite a
              directory with a file.

       rename
              Renames the newly created file. Mtools prompts for the new
              filename

       autorename
              Renames the newly created file. Mtools chooses a name by itself,
              without prompting

       skip   Gives up on this file, and moves on to the next (if any)

       To chose one of these actions, type its first letter at the prompt. If
       you use a lower case letter, the action only applies for this file
       only, if you use an upper case letter, the action applies to all files,
       and you won't be prompted again.

       You may also chose actions (for all files) on the command line, when
       invoking mtools:

       -D o   Overwrites primary names by default.

       -D O   Overwrites secondary names by default.

       -D r   Renames primary name by default.

       -D R   Renames secondary name by default.

       -D a   Autorenames primary name by default.

       -D A   Autorenames secondary name by default.

       -D s   Skip primary name by default.

       -D S   Skip secondary name by default.

       -D m   Ask user what to do with primary name.

       -D M   Ask user what to do with secondary name.

       Note that for command line switches lower/upper differentiates between
       primary/secondary name whereas for interactive choices, lower/upper
       differentiates between just-this-time/always.

       The primary name is the name as displayed in Windows 95 or Windows NT:
       i.e. the long name if it exists, and the short name otherwise.  The
       secondary name is the "hidden" name, i.e. the short name if a long name
       exists.

       By default, the user is prompted if the primary name clashes, and the
       secondary name is autorenamed.

       If a name clash occurs in a Unix directory, mtools only asks whether to
       overwrite the file, or to skip it.

   Case sensitivity of the VFAT filesystem
       The VFAT filesystem is able to remember the case of the filenames.
       However, filenames which differ only in case are not allowed to coexist
       in the same directory. For example if you store a file called
       LongFileName on a VFAT filesystem, mdir shows this file as
       LongFileName, and not as Longfilename. However, if you then try to add
       LongFilename to the same directory, it is refused, because case is
       ignored for clash checks.

       The VFAT filesystem allows to store the case of a filename in the
       attribute byte, if all letters of the filename are the same case, and
       if all letters of the extension are the same case too. Mtools uses this
       information when displaying the files, and also to generate the Unix
       filename when mcopying to a Unix directory. This may have unexpected
       results when applied to files written using an pre-7.0 version of DOS:
       Indeed, the old style filenames map to all upper case. This is
       different from the behavior of the old version of mtools which used to
       generate lower case Unix filenames.

   high capacity formats
       Mtools supports a number of formats which allow to store more data on
       disk as usual. Due to different operating system abilities, these
       formats are not supported on all OS'es. Mtools recognizes these formats
       transparently where supported.

       In order to format these disks, you need to use an operating system
       specific tool. For Linux, suitable floppy tools can be found in the
       fdutils package at the following locations~:

          ftp://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/fdutils/.
          ftp://ibiblio.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/fdutils-*

       See the manpages included in that package for further detail: Use
       superformat to format all formats except XDF, and use xdfcopy to format
       XDF.

     More sectors
       The oldest method of fitting more data on a disk is to use more sectors
       and more cylinders. Although the standard format uses 80 cylinders and
       18 sectors (on a 3 1/2 high density disk), it is possible to use up to
       83 cylinders (on most drives) and up to 21 sectors. This method allows
       to store up to 1743K on a 3 1/2 HD disk. However, 21 sector disks are
       twice as slow as the standard 18 sector disks because the sectors are
       packed so close together that we need to interleave them. This problem
       doesn't exist for 20 sector formats.

       These formats are supported by numerous DOS shareware utilities such as
       fdformat and vgacopy. In his infinite hybris, Bill Gate$ believed that
       he invented this, and called it `DMF disks', or `Windows formatted
       disks'. But in reality, it has already existed years before! Mtools
       supports these formats on Linux, on SunOs and on the DELL Unix PC.

     Bigger sectors
       By using bigger sectors it is possible to go beyond the capacity which
       can be obtained by the standard 512-byte sectors. This is because of
       the sector header. The sector header has the same size, regardless of
       how many data bytes are in the sector. Thus, we save some space by
       using fewer, but bigger sectors. For example, 1 sector of 4K only takes
       up header space once, whereas 8 sectors of 512 bytes have also 8
       headers, for the same amount of useful data.

       This method allows to store up to 1992K on a 3 1/2 HD disk.

       Mtools supports these formats only on Linux.

     2m
       The 2m format was originally invented by Ciriaco Garcia de Celis. It
       also uses bigger sectors than usual in order to fit more data on the
       disk.  However, it uses the standard format (18 sectors of 512 bytes
       each) on the first cylinder, in order to make these disks easyer to
       handle by DOS. Indeed this method allows to have a standard sized
       bootsector, which contains a description of how the rest of the disk
       should be read.

       However, the drawback of this is that the first cylinder can hold less
       data than the others. Unfortunately, DOS can only handle disks where
       each track contains the same amount of data. Thus 2m hides the fact
       that the first track contains less data by using a shadow FAT.
       (Usually, DOS stores the FAT in two identical copies, for additional
       safety.  XDF stores only one copy, and it tells DOS that it stores two.
       Thus the same that would be taken up by the second FAT copy is saved.)
       This also means that your should never use a 2m disk to store anything
       else than a DOS fs.

       Mtools supports these format only on Linux.

     XDF
       XDF is a high capacity format used by OS/2. It can hold 1840 K per
       disk. That's lower than the best 2m formats, but its main advantage is
       that it is fast: 600 milliseconds per track. That's faster than the 21
       sector format, and almost as fast as the standard 18 sector format. In
       order to access these disks, make sure mtools has been compiled with
       XDF support, and set the use_xdf variable for the drive in the
       configuration file. See section Compiling mtools, and `misc variables',
       for details on how to do this. Fast XDF access is only available for
       Linux kernels which are more recent than 1.1.34.

       Mtools supports this format only on Linux.

       Caution / Attention distributors: If mtools is compiled on a Linux
       kernel more recent than 1.3.34, it won't run on an older kernel.
       However, if it has been compiled on an older kernel, it still runs on a
       newer kernel, except that XDF access is slower. It is recommended that
       distribution authors only include mtools binaries compiled on kernels
       older than 1.3.34 until 2.0 comes out. When 2.0 will be out, mtools
       binaries compiled on newer kernels may (and should) be distributed.
       Mtools binaries compiled on kernels older than 1.3.34 won't run on any
       2.1 kernel or later.

   Exit codes
       All the Mtools commands return 0 on success, 1 on utter failure, or 2
       on partial failure.  All the Mtools commands perform a few sanity
       checks before going ahead, to make sure that the disk is indeed an MS-
       DOS disk (as opposed to, say an ext2 or minix disk). These checks may
       reject partially corrupted disks, which might otherwise still be
       readable. To avoid these checks, set the MTOOLS_SKIP_CHECK
       environmental variable or the corresponding configuration file variable
       (see section  global variables)

   Bugs
       An unfortunate side effect of not guessing the proper device (when
       multiple disk capacities are supported) is an occasional error message
       from the device driver.  These can be safely ignored.

       The fat checking code chokes on 1.72 Mb disks mformatted with pre-2.0.7
       mtools. Set the environmental variable MTOOLS_FAT_COMPATIBILITY (or the
       corresponding configuration file variable, `global variables') to
       bypass the fat checking.

See also
       floppyd_installtest mattrib mbadblocks mcd mcopy mdel mdeltree mdir mdu
       mformat minfo mkmanifest mlabel mmd mmount mmove mrd mren mtoolstest
       mtype

mtools-4.0.10                       10Mar09                        mtools.1(3)

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