Accesing DOS files

Do you need to list the files on a DOS-formatted floppy disk while running Linux? Do you need to copy a file from a DOS disk to your Linux file system, or vice versa? You can use the MTOOLS commands to do these and lots of other DOS-like things with Linux.

The MTOOLS package is a set of Linux commands that mimic the DOS commands DIR, COPY, TYPE, DEL, RENAME, and a few others. They're called the MTOOLS because they all start with the letter m, and they work much like their DOS counterparts.

Here's a list of the MTOOLS commands and what they do:

matttrib Modify the attributes of a file.
mcd Change the current directory.
mcopy Copy a file.
mdel Delete a file.
mdir List the files in the directory.
mformat Format a disk.
mlabel Change the disk label.
mmd Make a new directory.
mrd Remove a directory.
mren Rename a file.
mtype Display the contents of a file.

Okay, pop a DOS disk in the machine and let's try some examples.

Here we see the mdir command in action, listing the files on a disk:

$ mdir A:
Volume in drive A has no label
Volume Serial Number is 1205-1049
Directory of A:\

COMMAND COM 54,645 05-31-94 6:22a
FORMAT COM 22,974 05-31-94 6:22a
SYS COM 9,432 05-31-94 6:22a
MOUSE COM 28,949 04-02-93 4:39p
EDIT COM 413 05-31-94 6:22a
FDISK EXE 29,336 01-01-97 12:39a
6 file(s) 145,749 bytes
1,311,915 bytes free

Now let's copy a file from Linux to the disk, and vice versa:

$ mcopy A:pandavu.tgz /tmp
$ mcopy /tmp/kornmeal.txt A:

The mcopy command figures out in which direction to perform the file transfer by looking for the A: in either the source or the target file name. If you have two floppy drives, you can use B: when referring to the second floppy drive.

Here's an example showing the use of the mdel command to delete a file on the disk:

$ mdel mouse.com

Note that we didn't prefix the name of the file to be deleted with A: this time. All of the MTOOLS commands (except mcopy) assume that you're working with the A drive, so you can omit the A: if you like, but I recommend that you don't, just for safety's sake.