mkmanifest(1)

🌸 NAME 🌸

hey bestie, welcome to mkmanifest(1) 💖 this lil cutie lives in the General Commands Manual section, and what she does is: makes list of file names and their DOS 8+3 equivalent. that's it, that's the job, and she ate 💅

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⚠️ NOTE OF WARNING ⚠️

okay so real talk before we get into it: this manpage has been automatically generated from mtools's texinfo documentation 😭 which means it may not be entirely accurate or complete. so don't come for her if something's off. see the end of this man page for details, i gotchu 🫶

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

the mkmanifest command is used to create a shell script (a packing list) to restore Unix filenames. her syntax is:

mkmanifest [ files ]

so what's actually happening here 👀 mkmanifest creates a shell script that aids in the restoration of Unix filenames that got clobbered by the MS-DOS filename restrictions. and girl, those restrictions are strict 💀 MS-DOS filenames are restricted to:

• 8 character names
• 3 character extensions
• upper case only
• no device names
• no illegal characters

the mkmanifest program is compatible with the methods used in pcomm, arc, and mtools to change perfectly good Unix filenames to fit the MS-DOS restrictions. lowkey iconic lineage ngl 👑

heads up bestie: this command is only useful if the target system which will read the diskette cannot handle VFAT long names. like, if it can, this whole thing is unnecessary, no cap.

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🦋 EXAMPLE 🦋

say you want to copy the following Unix files to a MS-DOS diskette (using the mcopy command).

very_long_name
2.many.dots
illegal:
good.c
prn.dev
Capital

ASCII converts the names to:

very_lon
2xmany.dot
illegalx
good.c
xprn.dev
capital

then the command:

mkmanifest very_long_name 2.many.dots illegal: good.c prn.dev Capital >manifest

would produce the following:

mv very_lon very_long_name
mv 2xmany.dot 2.many.dots
mv illegalx illegal:
mv xprn.dev prn.dev
mv capital Capital

notice that "good.c" did not require any conversion, so it did not appear in the output. she was already perfect, no glow-up needed 💅✨

now suppose i've copied these files from the diskette to another Unix system, and i now want the files back to their original names. if the file "manifest" (the output captured above) was sent along with those files, it could be used to convert the filenames. it's giving ✨receipts✨ — keep the manifest, bestie, it's your proof of who these files used to be 😭

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💀 BUGS 💀

the short names generated by mkmanifest follow the old convention (from mtools-2.0.7) and not the one from Windows 95 and mtools-3.0. so yeah, she's stuck in her old era a lil bit, not the Windows 95 glow-up 🙈 just so you know before you come for her.

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

Mtools' texinfo doc

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🎀 VIEWING THE TEXI DOC 🎀

okay so this manpage has been automatically generated from mtools's texinfo documentation. however, this process is only approximative, and some items, such as crossreferences, footnotes and indices are lost in this translation process. indeed, these items have no appropriate representation in the manpage format 😭 moreover, not all information has been translated into the manpage version. thus I strongly advise you to use the original texinfo doc. see the end of this manpage for instructions how to view the texinfo doc.

• To generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the following commands:

./configure; make dvi; dvips mtools.dvi

• To generate a html copy, run:

./configure; make html

A premade html can be found at http://www.gnu.org/software/mtools/manual/mtools.html

• To generate an info copy (browsable using emacs' info mode), run:

./configure; make info

the texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as html ✨ indeed, in the info version certain examples are difficult to read due to the quoting conventions used in info. so if you're here for the aesthetic, go printed or html, trust 🫶

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was mtools-4.0.49, dated 14Jun25 — the version and the date, right there at the bottom like a lil signature 💖 k bye, go restore some filenames, slay 🌈💅