VFAT

VFAT is a updated version of the FAT filesystem for Windows. VFAT's updates are mainly support for longer file names, better performance, and better disk management.

= Comparison = VFAT is commonly used on small devices, like floppies, or temporary drives, like a flash memory drive. Its main use is being fully supported by Linux, and Windows, making it important as a in-between for people that dual boot both Windows and Linux. Its limitations when compared to ext3 and ntfs include that you cannot store a file that is bigger than 2GB.

= Difference to msdos = The difference between the msdos and vfat file system is that vfat can hold long file names. In the follwing example, the partition /dev/mmcblk0p1 is first mounted as vfat, then as msdos. Note that the file name length differs: Nokia-N810-23-14:/home/user# mount ... /dev/mmcblk1p1 on /media/card type msdos (rw,fmask=0000,dmask=0000,codepage=cp437) /dev/mmcblk0p1 on /media/mmc2 type vfat (rw,fmask=0000,dmask=0000,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1) Nokia-N810-23-14:/home/user# ls /media/mmc2 | head karm kdelibs5_4.1.62~svn862211-0maemo1_armel.deb libQt3Support.so.4 Nokia-N810-23-14:/home/user# umount /media/mmc2 Now we mount the same partition as msdos. Nokia-N810-23-14:/home/user# mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/mmc2 Nokia-N810-23-14:/home/user# mount ... /dev/mmcblk0p1 on /media/mmc2 type msdos (rw,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437) Nokia-N810-23-14:/home/user# ls /media/mmc2 ab~1.b       libkab~1.4    libkim~1.4    libkpt~1.4    libsol~1.4 apt-ar~1     libkca~1.4    libkio~1.5    libkre~1.4    libstr~1.0 backups      libkca~2.4    libkld~1.4    libkut~1.4    libstr~2.0 karm         libkde~1.4    libkmi~1.4    libqt3~1.4    map

= How to... =

Mount a vfat partition
The problem is that if you do not tell the file system type, the partition will be mounted as msdos file system, so, issue the type like this: Nokia-N810-23-14:/home/user# mount -t vfat /dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/mmc2 Verify it is mounted as vfat: Nokia-N810-23-14:/home/user# mount ... /dev/mmcblk0p1 on /media/mmc2 type vfat (rw,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1)

Execute files on a vfat partition
To execute a file on a vfat partition, you need to have the file execution priviledges set. To do this, umount the partition and remount it like this: Nokia-N810-23-14:/home/user# mount -o umask=000 -t vfat /dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/mmc2 Then your file permissions will be rwxrwxrwx: Nokia-N810-23-14:/home/user# ls -l /media/mmc2 drwxrwxrwx   2 root     root         4096 Jan 31  2008 Video -rwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            3 Jan 19 07:43 a.b.b drwxrwxrwx    4 root     root         4096 Oct 10 21:34 backups -rwxrwxrwx   1 root     root       169402 Jan 19 07:43 karm Then you can execute files on this partition.

= See also =
 * Filesystems