MOUNT_MSDOSFS(8)

💅 MOUNT_MSDOSFS(8) 💅

okay so this is mount_msdosfs from the System Manager's Manual (section 8, the big-boss admin section, iykyk) and honestly? it's giving "let me introduce you to your FAT filesystem" and I am obsessed 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

mount_msdosfs — mount an MS-DOS (FAT) file system 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

mount_msdosfs [-9ls] [-D DOS_codepage] [-g gid] [-L locale] [-M mask]
              [-m mask] [-o options] [-u uid] [-W table] special node

bestie. look at all those flags. it's a whole alphabet soup and every single letter is doing something, no cap 💅

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so what does mount_msdosfs actually do? it attaches the MS-DOS file system that lives on the device special into the global file system namespace, at the location that node points to. simple as that ✨

the tea ☕: this command is normally executed by mount(8) at boot time, but literally any user can use it to mount an MS-DOS file system on any directory that they own — provided, of course, that they have appropriate access to the device that contains the file system. (like, you can't just barge in, you need the right access, periodt 👑)

The options are as follows:

• -o options — use the specified mount options, as described in mount(8). and ooh girl, there are some MSDOS-file-system-specific ones that are so worth knowing about 💜:
  • longnames — force Windows 95 long filenames to be visible 👀
  • shortnames — force only the old MS-DOS 8.3 style filenames to be visible, retro vibes only 🦋
  • nowin95 — completely ignore Windows 95 extended file information. like it never happened 🙈
• -u uid — set the owner of the files in the file system to uid. the default owner is the owner of the directory on which the file system is being mounted. main character inheritance energy 💅
• -g gid — set the group of the files in the file system to gid. the default group is the group of the directory on which the file system is being mounted. same deal, just for the group 🫶
• -m mask — specify the maximum file permissions for files in the file system. (for example, a mask of 755 specifies that, by default, the owner should have read, write, and execute permissions for files, but others should only have read and execute permissions. see chmod(1) for more information about octal file modes. only the nine low-order bits of mask are used. the value of -M is used if it is supplied and -m is omitted. the default mask is taken from the directory on which the file system is being mounted.) okay that was a lot, but you got this 💪
• -M mask — specify the maximum file permissions for directories in the file system. the value of -m is used if it is supplied and -M is omitted. see the previous option's description for details — yeah, they're siblings, they trade off, iconic 🔥
• -s — force behaviour to ignore and not generate Win'95 long filenames. short names only, babe ✨
• -l — force listing and generation of Win'95 long filenames and separate creation/modification/access dates. the full experience 🎀
  • if neither -s nor -l are given, -l is the default. so long names are the vibe unless you say otherwise 💅
• -9 — ignore the special Win'95 directory entries even if deleting or renaming a file. this forces -s. (and yes, it's a little spicy, check CAVEATS below 🌶️)
• -L locale — specify locale name used for file name conversions for DOS and Win'95 names. by default ISO 8859-1 is assumed as local character set 🌈
• -D DOS_codepage — specify the MS-DOS code page (aka IBM/OEM code page) name used for file name conversions for DOS names 🔤
• -W table — okay so this one is preserved for backward compatibility purpose only, and will be removed in the future. please avoid using this option, fr fr 🙏
  • it specifies a text file name with conversion table: iso22dos, iso72dos, koi2dos, koi8u2dos.

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🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

to mount a Russian MS-DOS file system located in /dev/ada1s1:

mount_msdosfs -L ru_RU.KOI8-R -D CP866 /dev/ada1s1 /mnt

to mount a Japanese MS-DOS file system located in /dev/ada1s1:

mount_msdosfs -L ja_JP.eucJP -D CP932 /dev/ada1s1 /mnt

look at those locale + codepage combos matching up like a cute lil outfit 🎀✨

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• mount(2)
• unmount(2)
• msdosfs(4)
• fstab(5)
• mount(8)

List of Localized MS Operating Systems:

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/oslocversion.mspx

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👑 HISTORY 👑

the predecessor to mount_msdos — a utility named mount_pcfs — appeared in NetBSD 0.8. it was rewritten in NetBSD 1.0 and first appeared in FreeBSD 2.0. then mount_msdos was renamed to the more aptly-named mount_msdosfs in FreeBSD 5.0. the character code conversion routine was added in 2003. a whole glow-up timeline, honestly 💜

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💀 AUTHORS 💀

• Initial implementation as mount_pcfs was written by Paul Popelka <paulp@uts.amdahl.com>.
• It was rewritten by Christopher G. Demetriou <cgd@NetBSD.org>.
• The character code conversion routine was added by Ryuichiro Imura <imura@ryu16.org>.

three icons, one utility 🫶

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🙈 CAVEATS 🙈

The use of the -9 flag could result in damaged file systems, albeit the damage is in part taken care of by procedures similar to the ones used in Win'95. like, it's mostly handled, but don't say I didn't warn you 😭

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and that's the whole page, bestie! this one's from the Debian edition, dated May 28, 2017 — go forth and mount responsibly 💅✨🍓