Re: PATCH to access old-style FAT fs

["H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>]

Followup to:  <20040129105624.GA1072@frodo.local>
By author:    Frodo Looijaard <frodol@dds.nl>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
> 
> I have run a small test in MS-DOS 5.00:
> 
>   1) Create a new directory
>   2) Create five files in it
>   3) Change the first character of the second filename to 0x00 with an editor
>   4) Do a DIR listing: only one file is seen
>      Linux shows four files!
>   5) Create a new file
>   6) Do a DIR listing: there are five files
> 
> So MS-DOS 5.00 at least does stop when a 0x00 marker is found, but does
> not write new 0x00 markers when a 0x00 marker is overwritten. 
> 

This is of course dangerous, since it could create conflicts.

Thus, I suggest we do write new 0x00 markers; even though it's not
required (it only matters if the filesystem is out of spec and
therefore by definition corrupt), it would help the Psion, and
wouldn't cause any problems for in-spec filesystems.

	-hpa