writable file system for windows

[Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.]

Kevin Smith wrote:

> Hi--  My question is really directed at which type of file system I 
> should
> choose for the shared area (bsd/windows) when I do the partitioning,
> rather than access.  I seem to be able to mount NTFS partitions and
> read them, but my understanding is that they are unsafe to write to
> from bsd.  At least on Linux this is the case.  I want to be able to 
> write
> files from bsd and read them in windows.  The ext2fs system seems like
> one way, but I was hoping that I could use a native windows/dos file 
> system
> that would not require any special mounting on the windows side.
>
> -K
>
>
> Olivier Gautherot wrote:
>
>> If you have no restrictions regarding ACL, this is the quickest way 
>> to do so.
>>
>> You can also create an ext2fs file system, that can be mounted 
>> read-only under Windows using Cygwin ;-)
>>
>> Cheers
>>    Olivier
>

Kevin,

I don't *think*, (but am having a little trouble verifying) that
mount_msdosfs(8) will have any trouble with FAT 32; I know
I've read 'em; can't remember whether I had to write 'em or
not (I stick 'em in a FBSD box to backup before "flattening"
winboxen).  I am sure FAT (FAT16?) would be OK.  Maybe
Olivier or someone else can say.

[ BTW, I think he was simply giving options, not suggesting
that ext2fs would be the best way. ]

I did a small bit of perusal of the CVS commit logs and
the source for the mount utilities in question, but it's a
good bit over my head --- I can't determine (other than
reading the manpage) exactly how dangerous it would be,
(heck, I've not even figured out exactly how they do it *at all*)
but I agree that it seems risky to try it with NTFS based
on what we can see.  Is there any way to try it as FAT32?
Like I said, I'm *pretty* sure I've done this often.

Kevin Kinsey