0001 ====
0002 VFAT
0003 ====
0004
0005 USING VFAT
0006 ==========
0007
0008 To use the vfat filesystem, use the filesystem type 'vfat'. i.e.::
0009
0010 mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt
0011
0012
0013 No special partition formatter is required,
0014 'mkdosfs' will work fine if you want to format from within Linux.
0015
0016 VFAT MOUNT OPTIONS
0017 ==================
0018
0019 **uid=###**
0020 Set the owner of all files on this filesystem.
0021 The default is the uid of current process.
0022
0023 **gid=###**
0024 Set the group of all files on this filesystem.
0025 The default is the gid of current process.
0026
0027 **umask=###**
0028 The permission mask (for files and directories, see *umask(1)*).
0029 The default is the umask of current process.
0030
0031 **dmask=###**
0032 The permission mask for the directory.
0033 The default is the umask of current process.
0034
0035 **fmask=###**
0036 The permission mask for files.
0037 The default is the umask of current process.
0038
0039 **allow_utime=###**
0040 This option controls the permission check of mtime/atime.
0041
0042 **-20**: If current process is in group of file's group ID,
0043 you can change timestamp.
0044
0045 **-2**: Other users can change timestamp.
0046
0047 The default is set from dmask option. If the directory is
0048 writable, utime(2) is also allowed. i.e. ~dmask & 022.
0049
0050 Normally utime(2) checks current process is owner of
0051 the file, or it has CAP_FOWNER capability. But FAT
0052 filesystem doesn't have uid/gid on disk, so normal
0053 check is too unflexible. With this option you can
0054 relax it.
0055
0056 **codepage=###**
0057 Sets the codepage number for converting to shortname
0058 characters on FAT filesystem.
0059 By default, FAT_DEFAULT_CODEPAGE setting is used.
0060
0061 **iocharset=<name>**
0062 Character set to use for converting between the
0063 encoding is used for user visible filename and 16 bit
0064 Unicode characters. Long filenames are stored on disk
0065 in Unicode format, but Unix for the most part doesn't
0066 know how to deal with Unicode.
0067 By default, FAT_DEFAULT_IOCHARSET setting is used.
0068
0069 There is also an option of doing UTF-8 translations
0070 with the utf8 option.
0071
0072 .. note:: ``iocharset=utf8`` is not recommended. If unsure, you should consider
0073 the utf8 option instead.
0074
0075 **utf8=<bool>**
0076 UTF-8 is the filesystem safe version of Unicode that
0077 is used by the console. It can be enabled or disabled
0078 for the filesystem with this option.
0079 If 'uni_xlate' gets set, UTF-8 gets disabled.
0080 By default, FAT_DEFAULT_UTF8 setting is used.
0081
0082 **uni_xlate=<bool>**
0083 Translate unhandled Unicode characters to special
0084 escaped sequences. This would let you backup and
0085 restore filenames that are created with any Unicode
0086 characters. Until Linux supports Unicode for real,
0087 this gives you an alternative. Without this option,
0088 a '?' is used when no translation is possible. The
0089 escape character is ':' because it is otherwise
0090 illegal on the vfat filesystem. The escape sequence
0091 that gets used is ':' and the four digits of hexadecimal
0092 unicode.
0093
0094 **nonumtail=<bool>**
0095 When creating 8.3 aliases, normally the alias will
0096 end in '~1' or tilde followed by some number. If this
0097 option is set, then if the filename is
0098 "longfilename.txt" and "longfile.txt" does not
0099 currently exist in the directory, longfile.txt will
0100 be the short alias instead of longfi~1.txt.
0101
0102 **usefree**
0103 Use the "free clusters" value stored on FSINFO. It will
0104 be used to determine number of free clusters without
0105 scanning disk. But it's not used by default, because
0106 recent Windows don't update it correctly in some
0107 case. If you are sure the "free clusters" on FSINFO is
0108 correct, by this option you can avoid scanning disk.
0109
0110 **quiet**
0111 Stops printing certain warning messages.
0112
0113 **check=s|r|n**
0114 Case sensitivity checking setting.
0115
0116 **s**: strict, case sensitive
0117
0118 **r**: relaxed, case insensitive
0119
0120 **n**: normal, default setting, currently case insensitive
0121
0122 **nocase**
0123 This was deprecated for vfat. Use ``shortname=win95`` instead.
0124
0125 **shortname=lower|win95|winnt|mixed**
0126 Shortname display/create setting.
0127
0128 **lower**: convert to lowercase for display,
0129 emulate the Windows 95 rule for create.
0130
0131 **win95**: emulate the Windows 95 rule for display/create.
0132
0133 **winnt**: emulate the Windows NT rule for display/create.
0134
0135 **mixed**: emulate the Windows NT rule for display,
0136 emulate the Windows 95 rule for create.
0137
0138 Default setting is `mixed`.
0139
0140 **tz=UTC**
0141 Interpret timestamps as UTC rather than local time.
0142 This option disables the conversion of timestamps
0143 between local time (as used by Windows on FAT) and UTC
0144 (which Linux uses internally). This is particularly
0145 useful when mounting devices (like digital cameras)
0146 that are set to UTC in order to avoid the pitfalls of
0147 local time.
0148
0149 **time_offset=minutes**
0150 Set offset for conversion of timestamps from local time
0151 used by FAT to UTC. I.e. <minutes> minutes will be subtracted
0152 from each timestamp to convert it to UTC used internally by
0153 Linux. This is useful when time zone set in ``sys_tz`` is
0154 not the time zone used by the filesystem. Note that this
0155 option still does not provide correct time stamps in all
0156 cases in presence of DST - time stamps in a different DST
0157 setting will be off by one hour.
0158
0159 **showexec**
0160 If set, the execute permission bits of the file will be
0161 allowed only if the extension part of the name is .EXE,
0162 .COM, or .BAT. Not set by default.
0163
0164 **debug**
0165 Can be set, but unused by the current implementation.
0166
0167 **sys_immutable**
0168 If set, ATTR_SYS attribute on FAT is handled as
0169 IMMUTABLE flag on Linux. Not set by default.
0170
0171 **flush**
0172 If set, the filesystem will try to flush to disk more
0173 early than normal. Not set by default.
0174
0175 **rodir**
0176 FAT has the ATTR_RO (read-only) attribute. On Windows,
0177 the ATTR_RO of the directory will just be ignored,
0178 and is used only by applications as a flag (e.g. it's set
0179 for the customized folder).
0180
0181 If you want to use ATTR_RO as read-only flag even for
0182 the directory, set this option.
0183
0184 **errors=panic|continue|remount-ro**
0185 specify FAT behavior on critical errors: panic, continue
0186 without doing anything or remount the partition in
0187 read-only mode (default behavior).
0188
0189 **discard**
0190 If set, issues discard/TRIM commands to the block
0191 device when blocks are freed. This is useful for SSD devices
0192 and sparse/thinly-provisioned LUNs.
0193
0194 **nfs=stale_rw|nostale_ro**
0195 Enable this only if you want to export the FAT filesystem
0196 over NFS.
0197
0198 **stale_rw**: This option maintains an index (cache) of directory
0199 *inodes* by *i_logstart* which is used by the nfs-related code to
0200 improve look-ups. Full file operations (read/write) over NFS is
0201 supported but with cache eviction at NFS server, this could
0202 result in ESTALE issues.
0203
0204 **nostale_ro**: This option bases the *inode* number and filehandle
0205 on the on-disk location of a file in the MS-DOS directory entry.
0206 This ensures that ESTALE will not be returned after a file is
0207 evicted from the inode cache. However, it means that operations
0208 such as rename, create and unlink could cause filehandles that
0209 previously pointed at one file to point at a different file,
0210 potentially causing data corruption. For this reason, this
0211 option also mounts the filesystem readonly.
0212
0213 To maintain backward compatibility, ``'-o nfs'`` is also accepted,
0214 defaulting to "stale_rw".
0215
0216 **dos1xfloppy <bool>: 0,1,yes,no,true,false**
0217 If set, use a fallback default BIOS Parameter Block
0218 configuration, determined by backing device size. These static
0219 parameters match defaults assumed by DOS 1.x for 160 kiB,
0220 180 kiB, 320 kiB, and 360 kiB floppies and floppy images.
0221
0222
0223
0224 LIMITATION
0225 ==========
0226
0227 The fallocated region of file is discarded at umount/evict time
0228 when using fallocate with FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE.
0229 So, User should assume that fallocated region can be discarded at
0230 last close if there is memory pressure resulting in eviction of
0231 the inode from the memory. As a result, for any dependency on
0232 the fallocated region, user should make sure to recheck fallocate
0233 after reopening the file.
0234
0235 TODO
0236 ====
0237 Need to get rid of the raw scanning stuff. Instead, always use
0238 a get next directory entry approach. The only thing left that uses
0239 raw scanning is the directory renaming code.
0240
0241
0242 POSSIBLE PROBLEMS
0243 =================
0244
0245 - vfat_valid_longname does not properly checked reserved names.
0246 - When a volume name is the same as a directory name in the root
0247 directory of the filesystem, the directory name sometimes shows
0248 up as an empty file.
0249 - autoconv option does not work correctly.
0250
0251
0252 TEST SUITE
0253 ==========
0254 If you plan to make any modifications to the vfat filesystem, please
0255 get the test suite that comes with the vfat distribution at
0256
0257 `<http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/vfat.html>`_
0258
0259 This tests quite a few parts of the vfat filesystem and additional
0260 tests for new features or untested features would be appreciated.
0261
0262 NOTES ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE VFAT FILESYSTEM
0263 =============================================
0264 This documentation was provided by Galen C. Hunt gchunt@cs.rochester.edu and
0265 lightly annotated by Gordon Chaffee.
0266
0267 This document presents a very rough, technical overview of my
0268 knowledge of the extended FAT file system used in Windows NT 3.5 and
0269 Windows 95. I don't guarantee that any of the following is correct,
0270 but it appears to be so.
0271
0272 The extended FAT file system is almost identical to the FAT
0273 file system used in DOS versions up to and including *6.223410239847*
0274 :-). The significant change has been the addition of long file names.
0275 These names support up to 255 characters including spaces and lower
0276 case characters as opposed to the traditional 8.3 short names.
0277
0278 Here is the description of the traditional FAT entry in the current
0279 Windows 95 filesystem::
0280
0281 struct directory { // Short 8.3 names
0282 unsigned char name[8]; // file name
0283 unsigned char ext[3]; // file extension
0284 unsigned char attr; // attribute byte
0285 unsigned char lcase; // Case for base and extension
0286 unsigned char ctime_ms; // Creation time, milliseconds
0287 unsigned char ctime[2]; // Creation time
0288 unsigned char cdate[2]; // Creation date
0289 unsigned char adate[2]; // Last access date
0290 unsigned char reserved[2]; // reserved values (ignored)
0291 unsigned char time[2]; // time stamp
0292 unsigned char date[2]; // date stamp
0293 unsigned char start[2]; // starting cluster number
0294 unsigned char size[4]; // size of the file
0295 };
0296
0297
0298 The lcase field specifies if the base and/or the extension of an 8.3
0299 name should be capitalized. This field does not seem to be used by
0300 Windows 95 but it is used by Windows NT. The case of filenames is not
0301 completely compatible from Windows NT to Windows 95. It is not completely
0302 compatible in the reverse direction, however. Filenames that fit in
0303 the 8.3 namespace and are written on Windows NT to be lowercase will
0304 show up as uppercase on Windows 95.
0305
0306 .. note:: Note that the ``start`` and ``size`` values are actually little
0307 endian integer values. The descriptions of the fields in this
0308 structure are public knowledge and can be found elsewhere.
0309
0310 With the extended FAT system, Microsoft has inserted extra
0311 directory entries for any files with extended names. (Any name which
0312 legally fits within the old 8.3 encoding scheme does not have extra
0313 entries.) I call these extra entries slots. Basically, a slot is a
0314 specially formatted directory entry which holds up to 13 characters of
0315 a file's extended name. Think of slots as additional labeling for the
0316 directory entry of the file to which they correspond. Microsoft
0317 prefers to refer to the 8.3 entry for a file as its alias and the
0318 extended slot directory entries as the file name.
0319
0320 The C structure for a slot directory entry follows::
0321
0322 struct slot { // Up to 13 characters of a long name
0323 unsigned char id; // sequence number for slot
0324 unsigned char name0_4[10]; // first 5 characters in name
0325 unsigned char attr; // attribute byte
0326 unsigned char reserved; // always 0
0327 unsigned char alias_checksum; // checksum for 8.3 alias
0328 unsigned char name5_10[12]; // 6 more characters in name
0329 unsigned char start[2]; // starting cluster number
0330 unsigned char name11_12[4]; // last 2 characters in name
0331 };
0332
0333
0334 If the layout of the slots looks a little odd, it's only
0335 because of Microsoft's efforts to maintain compatibility with old
0336 software. The slots must be disguised to prevent old software from
0337 panicking. To this end, a number of measures are taken:
0338
0339 1) The attribute byte for a slot directory entry is always set
0340 to 0x0f. This corresponds to an old directory entry with
0341 attributes of "hidden", "system", "read-only", and "volume
0342 label". Most old software will ignore any directory
0343 entries with the "volume label" bit set. Real volume label
0344 entries don't have the other three bits set.
0345
0346 2) The starting cluster is always set to 0, an impossible
0347 value for a DOS file.
0348
0349 Because the extended FAT system is backward compatible, it is
0350 possible for old software to modify directory entries. Measures must
0351 be taken to ensure the validity of slots. An extended FAT system can
0352 verify that a slot does in fact belong to an 8.3 directory entry by
0353 the following:
0354
0355 1) Positioning. Slots for a file always immediately proceed
0356 their corresponding 8.3 directory entry. In addition, each
0357 slot has an id which marks its order in the extended file
0358 name. Here is a very abbreviated view of an 8.3 directory
0359 entry and its corresponding long name slots for the file
0360 "My Big File.Extension which is long"::
0361
0362 <proceeding files...>
0363 <slot #3, id = 0x43, characters = "h is long">
0364 <slot #2, id = 0x02, characters = "xtension whic">
0365 <slot #1, id = 0x01, characters = "My Big File.E">
0366 <directory entry, name = "MYBIGFIL.EXT">
0367
0368
0369 .. note:: Note that the slots are stored from last to first. Slots
0370 are numbered from 1 to N. The Nth slot is ``or'ed`` with
0371 0x40 to mark it as the last one.
0372
0373 2) Checksum. Each slot has an alias_checksum value. The
0374 checksum is calculated from the 8.3 name using the
0375 following algorithm::
0376
0377 for (sum = i = 0; i < 11; i++) {
0378 sum = (((sum&1)<<7)|((sum&0xfe)>>1)) + name[i]
0379 }
0380
0381
0382 3) If there is free space in the final slot, a Unicode ``NULL (0x0000)``
0383 is stored after the final character. After that, all unused
0384 characters in the final slot are set to Unicode 0xFFFF.
0385
0386 Finally, note that the extended name is stored in Unicode. Each Unicode
0387 character takes either two or four bytes, UTF-16LE encoded.