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Based on kernel version 3.3. Page generated on 2012-03-23 21:31 EST.

1	USING VFAT
2	----------------------------------------------------------------------
3	To use the vfat filesystem, use the filesystem type 'vfat'.  i.e.
4	  mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt
5	
6	No special partition formatter is required.  mkdosfs will work fine
7	if you want to format from within Linux.
8	
9	VFAT MOUNT OPTIONS
10	----------------------------------------------------------------------
11	uid=###       -- Set the owner of all files on this filesystem.
12			 The default is the uid of current process.
13	
14	gid=###       -- Set the group of all files on this filesystem.
15			 The default is the gid of current process.
16	
17	umask=###     -- The permission mask (for files and directories, see umask(1)).
18	                 The default is the umask of current process.
19	
20	dmask=###     -- The permission mask for the directory.
21	                 The default is the umask of current process.
22	
23	fmask=###     -- The permission mask for files.
24	                 The default is the umask of current process.
25	
26	allow_utime=### -- This option controls the permission check of mtime/atime.
27	
28	                  20 - If current process is in group of file's group ID,
29	                       you can change timestamp.
30	                   2 - Other users can change timestamp.
31	
32	                 The default is set from `dmask' option. (If the directory is
33	                 writable, utime(2) is also allowed. I.e. ~dmask & 022)
34	
35	                 Normally utime(2) checks current process is owner of
36	                 the file, or it has CAP_FOWNER capability.  But FAT
37	                 filesystem doesn't have uid/gid on disk, so normal
38	                 check is too unflexible. With this option you can
39	                 relax it.
40	
41	codepage=###  -- Sets the codepage number for converting to shortname
42			 characters on FAT filesystem.
43			 By default, FAT_DEFAULT_CODEPAGE setting is used.
44	
45	iocharset=<name> -- Character set to use for converting between the
46			 encoding is used for user visible filename and 16 bit
47			 Unicode characters. Long filenames are stored on disk
48			 in Unicode format, but Unix for the most part doesn't
49			 know how to deal with Unicode.
50			 By default, FAT_DEFAULT_IOCHARSET setting is used.
51	
52			 There is also an option of doing UTF-8 translations
53			 with the utf8 option.
54	
55			 NOTE: "iocharset=utf8" is not recommended. If unsure,
56			 you should consider the following option instead.
57	
58	utf8=<bool>   -- UTF-8 is the filesystem safe version of Unicode that
59			 is used by the console.  It can be enabled for the
60			 filesystem with this option. If 'uni_xlate' gets set,
61			 UTF-8 gets disabled.
62	
63	uni_xlate=<bool> -- Translate unhandled Unicode characters to special
64			 escaped sequences.  This would let you backup and
65			 restore filenames that are created with any Unicode
66			 characters.  Until Linux supports Unicode for real,
67			 this gives you an alternative.  Without this option,
68			 a '?' is used when no translation is possible.  The
69			 escape character is ':' because it is otherwise
70			 illegal on the vfat filesystem.  The escape sequence
71			 that gets used is ':' and the four digits of hexadecimal
72			 unicode.
73	
74	nonumtail=<bool> -- When creating 8.3 aliases, normally the alias will
75	                 end in '~1' or tilde followed by some number.  If this
76	                 option is set, then if the filename is 
77	                 "longfilename.txt" and "longfile.txt" does not
78	                 currently exist in the directory, 'longfile.txt' will
79	                 be the short alias instead of 'longfi~1.txt'. 
80	                  
81	usefree       -- Use the "free clusters" value stored on FSINFO. It'll
82	                 be used to determine number of free clusters without
83	                 scanning disk. But it's not used by default, because
84	                 recent Windows don't update it correctly in some
85	                 case. If you are sure the "free clusters" on FSINFO is
86	                 correct, by this option you can avoid scanning disk.
87	
88	quiet         -- Stops printing certain warning messages.
89	
90	check=s|r|n   -- Case sensitivity checking setting.
91	                 s: strict, case sensitive
92	                 r: relaxed, case insensitive
93	                 n: normal, default setting, currently case insensitive
94	
95	nocase        -- This was deprecated for vfat. Use shortname=win95 instead.
96	
97	shortname=lower|win95|winnt|mixed
98		      -- Shortname display/create setting.
99			 lower: convert to lowercase for display,
100				emulate the Windows 95 rule for create.
101			 win95: emulate the Windows 95 rule for display/create.
102			 winnt: emulate the Windows NT rule for display/create.
103			 mixed: emulate the Windows NT rule for display,
104				emulate the Windows 95 rule for create.
105			 Default setting is `mixed'.
106	
107	tz=UTC        -- Interpret timestamps as UTC rather than local time.
108	                 This option disables the conversion of timestamps
109	                 between local time (as used by Windows on FAT) and UTC
110	                 (which Linux uses internally).  This is particularly
111	                 useful when mounting devices (like digital cameras)
112	                 that are set to UTC in order to avoid the pitfalls of
113	                 local time.
114	
115	showexec      -- If set, the execute permission bits of the file will be
116			 allowed only if the extension part of the name is .EXE,
117			 .COM, or .BAT. Not set by default.
118	
119	debug         -- Can be set, but unused by the current implementation.
120	
121	sys_immutable -- If set, ATTR_SYS attribute on FAT is handled as
122			 IMMUTABLE flag on Linux. Not set by default.
123	
124	flush         -- If set, the filesystem will try to flush to disk more
125			 early than normal. Not set by default.
126	
127	rodir	      -- FAT has the ATTR_RO (read-only) attribute. On Windows,
128			 the ATTR_RO of the directory will just be ignored,
129			 and is used only by applications as a flag (e.g. it's set
130			 for the customized folder).
131	
132			 If you want to use ATTR_RO as read-only flag even for
133			 the directory, set this option.
134	
135	errors=panic|continue|remount-ro
136		      -- specify FAT behavior on critical errors: panic, continue
137			 without doing anything or remount the partition in
138			 read-only mode (default behavior).
139	
140	<bool>: 0,1,yes,no,true,false
141	
142	TODO
143	----------------------------------------------------------------------
144	* Need to get rid of the raw scanning stuff.  Instead, always use
145	  a get next directory entry approach.  The only thing left that uses
146	  raw scanning is the directory renaming code.
147	
148	
149	POSSIBLE PROBLEMS
150	----------------------------------------------------------------------
151	* vfat_valid_longname does not properly checked reserved names.
152	* When a volume name is the same as a directory name in the root
153	  directory of the filesystem, the directory name sometimes shows
154	  up as an empty file.
155	* autoconv option does not work correctly.
156	
157	BUG REPORTS
158	----------------------------------------------------------------------
159	If you have trouble with the VFAT filesystem, mail bug reports to
160	chaffee@bmrc.cs.berkeley.edu.  Please specify the filename
161	and the operation that gave you trouble.
162	
163	TEST SUITE
164	----------------------------------------------------------------------
165	If you plan to make any modifications to the vfat filesystem, please
166	get the test suite that comes with the vfat distribution at
167	
168	  http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/
169	  people/chaffee/vfat.html
170	
171	This tests quite a few parts of the vfat filesystem and additional
172	tests for new features or untested features would be appreciated.
173	
174	NOTES ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE VFAT FILESYSTEM
175	----------------------------------------------------------------------
176	(This documentation was provided by Galen C. Hunt <gchunt@cs.rochester.edu>
177	 and lightly annotated by Gordon Chaffee).
178	
179	This document presents a very rough, technical overview of my
180	knowledge of the extended FAT file system used in Windows NT 3.5 and
181	Windows 95.  I don't guarantee that any of the following is correct,
182	but it appears to be so.
183	
184	The extended FAT file system is almost identical to the FAT
185	file system used in DOS versions up to and including 6.223410239847
186	:-).  The significant change has been the addition of long file names.
187	These names support up to 255 characters including spaces and lower
188	case characters as opposed to the traditional 8.3 short names.
189	
190	Here is the description of the traditional FAT entry in the current
191	Windows 95 filesystem:
192	
193	        struct directory { // Short 8.3 names 
194	                unsigned char name[8];          // file name 
195	                unsigned char ext[3];           // file extension 
196	                unsigned char attr;             // attribute byte 
197			unsigned char lcase;		// Case for base and extension
198			unsigned char ctime_ms;		// Creation time, milliseconds
199			unsigned char ctime[2];		// Creation time
200			unsigned char cdate[2];		// Creation date
201			unsigned char adate[2];		// Last access date
202			unsigned char reserved[2];	// reserved values (ignored) 
203	                unsigned char time[2];          // time stamp 
204	                unsigned char date[2];          // date stamp 
205	                unsigned char start[2];         // starting cluster number 
206	                unsigned char size[4];          // size of the file 
207	        };
208	
209	The lcase field specifies if the base and/or the extension of an 8.3
210	name should be capitalized.  This field does not seem to be used by
211	Windows 95 but it is used by Windows NT.  The case of filenames is not
212	completely compatible from Windows NT to Windows 95.  It is not completely
213	compatible in the reverse direction, however.  Filenames that fit in
214	the 8.3 namespace and are written on Windows NT to be lowercase will
215	show up as uppercase on Windows 95.
216	
217	Note that the "start" and "size" values are actually little
218	endian integer values.  The descriptions of the fields in this
219	structure are public knowledge and can be found elsewhere.
220	
221	With the extended FAT system, Microsoft has inserted extra
222	directory entries for any files with extended names.  (Any name which
223	legally fits within the old 8.3 encoding scheme does not have extra
224	entries.)  I call these extra entries slots.  Basically, a slot is a
225	specially formatted directory entry which holds up to 13 characters of
226	a file's extended name.  Think of slots as additional labeling for the
227	directory entry of the file to which they correspond.  Microsoft
228	prefers to refer to the 8.3 entry for a file as its alias and the
229	extended slot directory entries as the file name. 
230	
231	The C structure for a slot directory entry follows:
232	
233	        struct slot { // Up to 13 characters of a long name 
234	                unsigned char id;               // sequence number for slot 
235	                unsigned char name0_4[10];      // first 5 characters in name 
236	                unsigned char attr;             // attribute byte
237	                unsigned char reserved;         // always 0 
238	                unsigned char alias_checksum;   // checksum for 8.3 alias 
239	                unsigned char name5_10[12];     // 6 more characters in name
240	                unsigned char start[2];         // starting cluster number
241	                unsigned char name11_12[4];     // last 2 characters in name
242	        };
243	
244	If the layout of the slots looks a little odd, it's only
245	because of Microsoft's efforts to maintain compatibility with old
246	software.  The slots must be disguised to prevent old software from
247	panicking.  To this end, a number of measures are taken:
248	
249	        1) The attribute byte for a slot directory entry is always set
250	           to 0x0f.  This corresponds to an old directory entry with
251	           attributes of "hidden", "system", "read-only", and "volume
252	           label".  Most old software will ignore any directory
253	           entries with the "volume label" bit set.  Real volume label
254	           entries don't have the other three bits set.
255	
256	        2) The starting cluster is always set to 0, an impossible
257	           value for a DOS file.
258	
259	Because the extended FAT system is backward compatible, it is
260	possible for old software to modify directory entries.  Measures must
261	be taken to ensure the validity of slots.  An extended FAT system can
262	verify that a slot does in fact belong to an 8.3 directory entry by
263	the following:
264	
265	        1) Positioning.  Slots for a file always immediately proceed
266	           their corresponding 8.3 directory entry.  In addition, each
267	           slot has an id which marks its order in the extended file
268	           name.  Here is a very abbreviated view of an 8.3 directory
269	           entry and its corresponding long name slots for the file
270	           "My Big File.Extension which is long":
271	
272	                <proceeding files...>
273	                <slot #3, id = 0x43, characters = "h is long">
274	                <slot #2, id = 0x02, characters = "xtension whic">
275	                <slot #1, id = 0x01, characters = "My Big File.E">
276	                <directory entry, name = "MYBIGFIL.EXT">
277	
278	           Note that the slots are stored from last to first.  Slots
279	           are numbered from 1 to N.  The Nth slot is or'ed with 0x40
280	           to mark it as the last one.
281	
282	        2) Checksum.  Each slot has an "alias_checksum" value.  The
283	           checksum is calculated from the 8.3 name using the
284	           following algorithm:
285	
286	                for (sum = i = 0; i < 11; i++) {
287	                        sum = (((sum&1)<<7)|((sum&0xfe)>>1)) + name[i]
288	                }
289	
290		3) If there is free space in the final slot, a Unicode NULL (0x0000) 
291		   is stored after the final character.  After that, all unused 
292		   characters in the final slot are set to Unicode 0xFFFF.
293	
294	Finally, note that the extended name is stored in Unicode.  Each Unicode
295	character takes two bytes.
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