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filesystem.md

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Direct filesystem access

FluxEngine will let you read and write files directly, in many cases. This will allow you to pull files directly off a disk, or flux image, or disk image, without needing to image it first. You can also write, and make other modifications, including formatting blank disks, if the filesystem supports it. The GUI even has a reasonably competent file manager.

screenshot of the GUI in action

The following file systems are supported so far.

Filesystem Read? Write? Notes
Acorn DFS Y
Amiga FFS Y Y Both OFS and FFS
AppleDOS / ProDOS Y Y With a choice of sector remapping
Brother 120kB Y Y
Commodore CbmFS Y Only 1541 disks so far
CP/M Y Requires configuration for each machine
FatFS (a.k.a. MS-DOS) Y Y FAT12, FAT16, FAT32; not Atari (AFAIK!)
Hewlett-Packard LIF Y
Macintosh HFS Y Y Only AppleDouble files may be written
pSOS' PHILE Y Probably unreliable due to lack of documentation
Smaky 6 Y
Zilog MCZ RIO's ZDOS Y
{: .datatable }

Please not that Atari disks do not use standard FatFS, and the library I'm using for the heavy lifting (ChaN's FatFS doesn't seem to support it. If you know different, please get in touch.

Using it

To use, try syntax like this:

fluxengine ls ibm --180 -f drive:0

ibm --180 is the format, which selects the most common filesystem automatically. -f drive:0 specifies a flux source/sink, in this case a real disk. You may also specify a flux file (read only). Disk images may be specified with -i disk.img (read/write).

Commands which take filename paramaters typically use -p to indicate the path on the disk, and -l for the local filename. For example:

fluxengine putfile ibm --180 -f drive:0 -p ondisk.pcx -l z.pcx

This will copy the file z.pcx onto the disk and call it ONDISK.PCX.

The directory separator character is always /, even if you're using Macintosh HFS, where it's usually :.

The command line interface is pretty clunky, and is intended for scripts. For everyday use, I'd suggest using the GUI (see the screenshot above).

The supported commands are:

  • ls: list files (including in a directory)
  • getfile: pull a file off a disk
  • putfile: put a file onto a disk
  • format: create a new filesystem and format a disk
  • getfileinfo: retrieves metadata about a file.
  • getdiskinfo: retrieves metadata about the file system.
  • rm: deletes a file or empty directory
  • mv: renames a file (use --path and --path2 for the old and new paths)
  • mkdir: creates a directory

There are commands missing here; this is all a work in progress.

Overriding the filesystem type

Sometimes you might want to use a different filesystem on the disk than the default; for example, Macintosh HFS filesystems are common on 3.5" floppies. You can do this as follows:

fluxengine format ibm --1440 -f drive:1 --filesystem.type=MACHFS

Some filesystems won't work on some disks --- don't try this with Amiga FFS, for example.