mtools

Mtools is a public domain collection of tools to allow Unix systems to manipulate MS-DOS files: read, write, and move around files on an MS-DOS filesystem

Mtools are typically used to manipulate FAT formatted floppy disks. Each program attempts to emulate the MS-DOS equivalent command, these are different from Windows NT/2000 commands.

Mtools is sufficient to give access to MS-DOS filesystems. For instance, commands such as `mdir a:' work on the `a:' floppy without any preliminary mounting or initialization (assuming the default `/etc/mtools.conf' works on your machine). With mtools, one can change floppies too without unmounting and mounting.

MTOOLS Programs

floppyd           floppy daemon to run on your X server box
floppyd_installtest small utility to check for the presence of floppyd
mattrib           change MS-DOS file attribute flags
mbadblocks        tests a floppy disk, and marks the bad blocks in the FAT
mcat              same as cat. Only useful with floppyd.
mcd               change MS-DOS directory
mcopy             copy MS-DOS files to/from Unix
mdel              delete an MS-DOS file
mdeltree          recursively delete an MS-DOS directory
mdir              display an MS-DOS directory
mdu               list space occupied by directory and its contents
mformat           add an MS-DOS filesystem to a low-level formatted floppy disk
minfo             get information about an MS-DOS filesystem.
mlabel            make an MS-DOS volume label
mkmanifest        makes a list of short name equivalents
mmd               make an MS-DOS subdirectory
mmount            mount an MS-DOS disk
mpartition        create an MS-DOS as a partition
mrd               remove an MS-DOS subdirectory
mmove             move or rename an MS-DOS file or subdirectory
mren              rename an existing MS-DOS file
mshowfat          shows the FAT map of a file
mtoolstest        tests and displays the configuration
mtype             display contents of an MS-DOS file
mzip              zip disk specific commands
xcopy             recursively copy a dos directory into another

Equivalent Windows NT commands:

In the same way that `mtools' are DOS/NT commands ported to run under UNIX, most UNIX commands have been ported to run under NT.

A very limited selection of POSIX tools are included in the NT resource kits, more can be found on the net:
e.g.
http://www.weihenstephan.de/~syring/win32/UnxUtils.html

A recurrent problem with all UNIX commands running on NT is that they are mostly case sensitive. (Under NT you have little or no control over the case of any filename.)