Firstly, let me say that UMSDOS is going through some major code changes, and has some KNOWN BUGS (and quite a few unknown :-). Please read fs/umsdos/README-WIP.txt for more information on current status. Thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Very short explanation for the impatient! Umsdos is a file system driver that run on top the MSDOS fs driver. It is written by Jacques Gelinas (jacques@solucorp.qc.ca) and is currently maintained by Matija Nalis (mnalis@jagor.srce.hr) Umsdos is not a file system per se, but a twist to make a boring one into a useful one. It gives you: long file names Permissions and owners Links Special files (devices, pipes...) All that is needed to be a linux root fs. There is plenty of documentation on it in the source. A formatted document made from those comments is available from sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/system/Filesystems/umsdos. You mount a DOS partition like this: mount -t umsdos /dev/hda3 /mnt ^ ---------| All options are passed to the msdos drivers. Option like uid,gid etc are given to msdos. The default behavior of Umsdos is to do the same thing as the msdos driver mostly passing commands to it without much processing. Again, this is the default. After doing the mount on a DOS partition, nothing special happens. This is why all mount options are passed to the msdos fs driver. Umsdos uses a special DOS file --linux-.--- to store the information which can't be handled by the normal MS-DOS filesystem. This is the trick. --linux-.--- is optional. There is one per directory. **** If --linux-.--- is missing, then Umsdos process the directory the same way the msdos driver does. Short file names, no goodies, default owner and permissions. So each directory may have or not this --linux-.--- Now, how to get those --linux-.---. \begin joke_section Well send me a directory content and I will send you one customised for you. $5 per directory. Add any applicable taxes. \end joke_section A utility umssync creates those. The kernel maintains them. It is available from the same directory above (sunsite) in the file umsdos_progs-0.7.tar.gz. A compiled version is available in umsdos_progs-0.7.bin.tar.gz. So in our example, after mounting mnt, we do umssync . This will promote this directory (a recursive option is available) to full umsdos capabilities (long name, etc.). However, an "ls -l" before and after won't show much difference. The files which were there are still there, but now you can do all this: chmod 644 * chown you.your_group * ls >THIS_IS.A.VERY.LONG.NAME ln -s toto tata ls -l Once a directory is promoted, all subdirectories created will inherit that promotion. What happens if you boot DOS and create files in those promoted directories ? Umsdos won't notice new files, but will signal removed files (it won't crash). Using umssync in /etc/rc will make sure the DOS directory is in sync with the --linux-.---. It is a good idea to put the following command in your RC file just after the "mount -a": mount -a /sbin/umssync -i+ -c+ -r99 /umsdos_mount_point (You put one for each umsdos mount point in the fstab) This will ensure nice operation. A umsdos.fsck is in the making, so you will be allowed to manage umsdos partitions in the same way other filesystems are, using the generic fsck front end. Hope this helps!