Beyond Linux® From Scratch (systemd Edition) - Version r12.0-816

Chapter 5. File Systems and Disk Management

dosfstools-4.2

Introduction to dosfstools

The dosfstools package contains various utilities for use with the FAT family of file systems.

[Note]

Note

Development versions of BLFS may not build or run some packages properly if LFS or dependencies have been updated since the most recent stable versions of the books.

Package Information

Kernel Configuration

Enable the following option in the kernel configuration and recompile the kernel if you need to mount a FAT-family filesystem: 

File systems --->
  DOS/FAT/EXFAT/NT Filesystems --->
    < /*/M> MSDOS fs support                                          [MSDOS_FS]
    <*/M>   VFAT (Windows-95) fs support                               [VFAT_FS]

Note that CONFIG_MSDOS_FS deliberately unsupport long file names. CONFIG_VFAT_FS should be used instead unless you really want to enforce the DOS-style “8.3” file names.

You can mount a FAT-family filesystem once the kernel supports it. If you don't need to create, check, or relabel a FAT-family system, you may skip this package.

Installation of dosfstools

Install dosfstools by running the following commands: 

./configure --prefix=/usr            \
            --enable-compat-symlinks \
            --mandir=/usr/share/man  \
            --docdir=/usr/share/doc/dosfstools-4.2 &&
make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Now, as the root user: 

make install

Command Explanations

--enable-compat-symlinks: This switch creates the dosfsck, dosfslabel, fsck.msdos, fsck.vfat, mkdosfs, mkfs.msdos, and mkfs.vfat symlinks required by some programs.

Contents

Installed Programs: fatlabel, fsck.fat, and mkfs.fat

Short Descriptions

fatlabel

sets or gets a MS-DOS filesystem label from a given device

fsck.fat

checks and repairs MS-DOS filesystems

mkfs.fat

creates an MS-DOS filesystem under Linux