MOUNT_NTFS(8) BSD System Manager's Manual MOUNT_NTFS(8)
mount_ntfs - mount an NTFS filesystem
mount_ntfs [-a] [-i] [-u uid] [-g gid] [-m mask] special node
The mount_ntfs command attaches the NTFS filesystem residing on the dev-
ice special to the global filesystem namespace at the location indicated
by node. This command is normally executed by mount(8) at boot time, but
can be used by any user to mount an NTFS filesystem on any directory that
they own (provided, of course, that they have appropriate access to the
device that contains the filesystem).
The special device must correspond to a partition registered in the
disklabel(5).
The supported NTFS versions include both NTFS4, as used by Microsoft Win-
dows NT 4.0, and NTFS5, as used by Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP.
The options are as follows:
-a Force behaviour to return MS-DOS 8.3 names also on readdir().
-i Make name lookup case insensitive for all names except POSIX
names.
-u uid Set the owner of the files in the filesystem to uid. The default
owner is the owner of the directory on which the filesystem is
being mounted.
-g gid Set the group of the files in the filesystem to gid. The default
group is the group of the directory on which the filesystem is
being mounted.
-m mask
Specify the maximum file permissions for files in the filesystem.
NTFS file attributes can be accessed in the following way:
foo[[:ATTRTYPE]:ATTRNAME]
'ATTRTYPE' is one of identifier listed in $AttrDef file of volume. De-
fault is $DATA. 'ATTRNAME' is an attribute name. Default is none.
Examples:
To get volume name (in Unicode):
# cat /mnt/\$Volume:\$VOLUME_NAME
To read directory raw data:
# cat /mnt/foodir:\$INDEX_ROOT:\$I30
There is limited writing ability for files. Limitations:
• file must be non-resident
• file must not contain any holes (uninitialized areas)
• file can't be compressed
Note that it's not currently possible to create or remove files on NTFS
filesystems.
Warning: do not mount NTFS filesystems read-write. The write support is
not very useful and is not tested well. It's not safe to write to any
file on NTFS; you might damage the filesystem. Unless you want to debug
NTFS filesystem code, mount the NTFS filesystem read-only.
mount(2), unmount(2), disklabel(5), fstab(5), disklabel(8), mount(8)
Support for NTFS first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0. It was later ported to
OpenBSD and first appeared in OpenBSD 3.4.
NTFS kernel implementation, mount_ntfs, and this manual were originally
written by Semen Ustimenko <semenu@FreeBSD.org>.
The OpenBSD port was done by
Julien Bordet <zejames@greyhats.org>.
The write support should be enhanced to actually be able to change file
size, and to create and remove files and directories. It's not very use-
ful right now.
If the attempt to mount NTFS gives you an error like this:
# mount -t ntfs /dev/wd0k /mnt
mount_ntfs: /dev/wd0k on /mnt: Invalid argument
make sure that the appropriate partition has the correct entry in the
disk label, particularly that the partition offset is correct. If the
NTFS partition is the first partition on the disk, the offset should be
'63' on i386 (see disklabel(8)).
If the NTFS partition is marked as 'dynamic' under Microsoft NT, it won't
be possible to access it under OpenBSD anymore, because its type and lay-
out change.
MirBSD #10-current October 31, 2001 1