- UMSDOS
UMSDOS is an
overlay filesystem driver forLinux that provides traditionalUnix filesystem semantics in a FAT volume, such as those used byDOS ,MS-DOS orMicrosoft Windows for floppy disks. It works by storingUnix file properties for directory entries, like "mode" and "owner", in a special file named --linux-.---.The project was started in 1992 by
Jacques Gelinas and made available to the net in January 1994 as a patch. It was included in the standard distribution starting with kernel 1.1.36.UMSDOS was removed from the
Linux 2.6.11 kernel for lack of maintenance, andUVFAT for FAT32 filesystems was discontinued before release. They should work in 2.4.x kernels.In early
Slackware distributions, UMSDOS allowed making a Linux system without repartitioning thehard disk . The disadvantage was that it was slower than an ext file system and it was vulnerable to corruption from within DOS or Windows (for instance, by viruses). UMSDOS generally fell into disuse, although in Summer2002 , plans were announced to update it for the newer generation of FAT features that appeared since1995 . It does contain some support for FATlong filenames .Currently, a special edition of Slackware Linux known as
ZipSlack still uses the UMSDOS file system in the aforementioned manner. As suggested in its name, it is convenient for use withZip drive s. Earlier Linux distributions which used UMSDOS areMuLinux , Monkey Linux [ [http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Linux-Distributions/Monkey-Linux-3975.shtml Download Monkey Linux 06 for Linux - Monkey Linux is a minimal Linux ELF distribution in 7.5MB archive (5 diskettes) - Softpedia ] ] and Winlinux 2000 [ [http://www.spinn.net/linux/winlinux-review.html Review of WinLinux 2000 ] ] .See also
*
File Allocation Table External links
* [http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/UMSDOS-HOWTO.html UMSDOS-HOWTO] - by
Jacques Gelinas
* [http://linux.voyager.hr/umsdos/ UMSDOS developer’s page]
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