illumos: manual page: pcfs.4fs

PCFS(4FS) File Systems PCFS(4FS)

NAME

pcfs - FAT formatted file system

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/param.h>
#include <sys/mount.h>
#include <sys/fs/pc_fs.h>

int
mount(const char *spec, const char *dir, int mflag, "pcfs", NULL, 0,
const char *optptr, int optlen);

DESCRIPTION

pcfs is a file system type that enables direct access to files on FAT
formatted disks from within the SunOS operating system.

Once mounted, pcfs provides standard file operations and semantics. Using
pcfs you can create, delete, read, and write files on a FAT formatted disk.
You can also create and delete directories and list files in a directory.

pcfs supports FAT12 (floppies) and FAT16 and FAT32 file systems.

pcfs file systems can be force umounted using the --f argument to
umount(8).

The pcfs file system contained on the block special file identified by spec
is mounted on the directory identified by dir. spec and dir are pointers
to pathnames. mflag specifies the mount options. The MS_DATA bit in mflag
must be set. Mount options can be passed to pcfs using the optptr and
optlen arguments. See mount_pcfs(8) for a list of mount options supported
by pcfs

Because FAT formatted media can record file timestamps between January 1st
1980 and December 31st 2127, it's not possible to fully represent UNIX
time_t in pcfs for 32 bit or 64 bit programs. In particular, if post-2038
timestamps are present on a FAT formatted medium and pcfs returns these,
32bit applications may unexpectedly fail with EOVERFLOW errors. To prevent
this, the default behaviour of pcfs has been modified to clamp post-2038
timestamps to the latest possible value for a 32bit time_t, which is
January 19th 2038, 03:14:06 UTC when setting and retrieving file
timestamps. You can override this behavior using the noclamptime mount
option, as described in mount_pcfs(8).

Timestamps on FAT formatted media are recorded in local time. If the
recording and receiving systems use different timezones, the representation
of timestamps shown on the two systems for the same medium might vary. To
correct this, pcfs provides a timezone mount option to force interpretation
of timestamps as read from a FAT formatted medium in a given timezone (that
of the recorder). By default, the local timezone of the receiver is used.
See mount_pcfs(8) for details.

The root directory of a FAT formatted medium has no timestamps and pcfs
returns the time when the mount was done as timestamp for the root of the
filesystem.

The FAT filesystem doesn't support multiple links. As a result, the link
count for all files and directories in pcfs is hard-coded as "1".

Mounting File Systems

Use the following command to mount pcfs from diskette:

mount -F pcfs device-special directory-name

You can use:

mount directory-name
if the following line is in your /etc/vfstab file:

device-special - directory-name pcfs - no rw

Use the following command to mount pcfs from non-diskette media:

mount -F pcfs device-special:logical-drive directory-name

You can use:

mount directory-name
if the following line is in your /etc/vfstab file:

device-special:logical_drive - directory-name pcfs - no rw

device-special specifies the special block device file for the diskette
(/dev/disketteN) or the entire hard disk (Pa /dev/dsk/cNtNdNp0 for a SCSI,
SATA, NVME disk, and /dev/dsk/cNdNp0 for IDE disks) or the PCMCIA pseudo-
floppy memory card (/dev/dsk/cNtNdNsN).

logical-drive specifies either the DOS logical drive letter (c through z)
or a drive number (1 through 24). Drive letter c is equivalent to drive
number 1 and represents the Primary DOS partition on the disk; drive
letters d through z are equivalent to drive numbers 2 through 24, and
represent DOS drives within the Extended FAT partition. Note that
device-special and logical-drive must be separated by a colon.

directory-name specifies the location where the file system is mounted.

For example, to mount the Primary DOS partition from a SCSI hard disk, use:

mount -F pcfs /dev/dsk/cNtNdNp0:c /pcfs/c

To mount the first logical drive in the Extended DOS partition from an IDE
hard disk, use:

mount -F pcfs /dev/dsk/cNdNp0:d /pcfs/d

To mount a DOS diskette in the first floppy drive when volume management is
not running use:

mount -F pcfs /dev/diskette /pcfs/a

If Volume Management is running, run volcheck(1) to automatically mount the
floppy and some removable disks.

To mount a PCMCIA pseudo-floppy memory card, with Volume Management not
running (or not managing the PCMCIA media), use:

mount -F pcfs /dev/dsk/cNtNdNsN /pcfs

Conventions

Files and directories created through pcfs must comply with either the FAT
short file name convention or the long file name convention introduced with
Windows 95. The FAT short file name convention is of the form
filename[.ext], where filename generally consists of from one to eight
upper-case characters, while the optional ext consists of from one to three
upper-case characters.

The long file name convention is much closer to illumos file names. A long
file name can consist of any characters valid in a short file name,
lowercase letters, non-leading spaces, the characters +,;=[], any number of
periods, and can be up to 255 characters long. Long file names have an
associated short file name for systems that do not support long file names.
The short file name is not visible if the system recognizes long file
names. pcfs generates a unique short name automatically when creating a
long file name.

Given a long file name such as This is a really long filename.TXT, the
short file name will generally be of the form THISIS~N.TXT, where N is a
number. The long file name will probably get the short name THISIS~1.TXT,
or THISIS~2.TXT if THISIS~1.TXT already exits (or THISIS~3.TXT if both
exist, and so forth). If you use pcfs file systems on systems that do not
support long file names, you may want to continue following the short file
name conventions. See EXAMPLES.

When creating a file name, pcfs creates a short file name if it fits the
FAT short file name format, otherwise it creates a long file name. This is
because long file names take more directory space. Because the root
directory of a pcfs file system is fixed size, long file names in the root
directory should be avoided if possible.

When displaying file names, pcfs shows them exactly as they are on the
media. This means that short names are displayed as uppercase and long
file names retain their case. Earlier versions of pcfs folded all names to
lowercase, which can be forced with the PCFS_MNT_FOLDCASE mount option.
All file name searches within pcfs, however, are treated as if they were
uppercase, so readme.txt and ReAdMe.TxT refer to the same file.

To format a diskette or a PCMCIA pseudo-floppy memory card in FAT format in
the SunOS system, use either the fdformat(1) --d or the DOS FORMAT command.

Boot Partitions

On x86 systems, hard drives may contain an fdisk partition reserved for the
boot utilities. The most common case is the EFI system partition. These
partitions are special instances of pcfs. You can mount an x86 boot
partition with the command:

mount -F pcfs device-special:boot directory-name
or you can use:

mount directory-name
if the following line is in your /etc/vfstab file:

device-special:boot - directory-name pcfs - no rw

device-special specifies the special block device file for the entire hard
disk (/dev/dsk/cNtNdNp0)

directory-name specifies the location where the file system is mounted.

All files on a boot partition are owned by super-user. Only the super-user
may create, delete, or modify files on a boot partition.

ENVIRONMENT

See environ(7) for descriptions of the following environment variables for
the current locale setting: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LC_COLLATE.

FILES

/usr/lib/fs/pcfs/mount pcfs mount command.

/usr/kernel/fs/amd64/pcfs 64-bit kernel module (x86).

EXAMPLES

Example 1 Sample Displays of File Names

If you copy a file financial.data from a UNIX file system to pcfs, it
displays as financial.data in pcfs but may show up as FINANC~1.DAT in
systems that do not support long file names.

The following are legal long file names. They are also illegal short file
names:

test.sh.orig

data+

Other systems that do not support long file names may see:

TESTSH~1.ORI

DATA~1

LOGIN~1
The short file name is generated from the initial characters of the long
file name, so differentiate names in the first few characters. For
example, these names:

WorkReport.January.Data

WorkReport.February.Data

WorkReport.March.Data
result in these short names, which are not distinguishable:

WORKRE~1.DAT

WORKRE~2.DAT

WORKRE~2.DAT

WORKRE~2.DAT

WORKRE~13.DAT

These names, however:

January.WorkReport.Data

February.WorkReport.Data

March.WorkReport.Data
result in the more descriptive short names:

JANUAR~1.DAT

FEBRUA~1.DAT

MARCHW~1.DAT

WARNINGS

Do not physically eject a FAT floppy while the device is mounted as pcfs If
Volume Management is managing a device, use the eject(1) command before
physically removing media.

When mounting pcfs on a hard disk, make sure the first block on that device
contains a valid fdisk partition table.

Because pcfs has no provision for handling owner-IDs or group-IDs on files,
chown(1) or chgrp(1) may generate various errors. This is a limitation of
pcfs but it should not cause problems other than error messages.

NOTES

Only the following characters are allowed in pcfs short file names and
extensions:

0-9

A-Z

$#&@!%()-{}<>`_^~|'

illumos and FAT use different character sets and have different
requirements for the text file format. Use the dos2unix(1) and unix2dos(1)
commands to convert files between them.

pcfs offers a convenient transportation vehicle for files between multiple
systems. Because the FAT disk format was designed for use under DOS, it
does not operate efficiently under illumos and should not be used as the
format for a regular local storage. Instead, use ZFS for local storage
within an illumos system.

Although long file names can contain spaces (just as in UNIX file names) ,
some utilities may be confused by them.

When pcfs encounters long file names with non-ASCII characters, it converts
such long file names in Unicode scalar values into UTF-8 encoded filenames
so that they are legible and usable with any of illumos UTF-8 locales. In
the same context, when new file names with non-ASCII characters are
created, pcfs expects that such file names are in UTF-8. This feature
increases the interoperability of pcfs on illumos with other operating
systems.

BUGS

pcfs should handle the disk change condition in the same way that DOS does,
so you do not need to unmount the file system to change floppies.

illumos November 29, 2021 illumos