RE: Can't create symbolic links in mounted vfat partition

[Thomas Fortner <thomas fortner sbcglobal net>]

Hi Marcus,

VFAT is a Windows file system. Symbolic links (or any other kind of links except Windows shortcuts) are not within the file system's capabilities. When Linux creates a link on a ext file system, it must link to the target. If the target is on a FAT file system, a corresponding entry into the table cannot be created because FAT has no Super Block. So, an attempt to link will fail every time because of the design limitations of FAT.

Tom

Thomas S. Fortner
Burleson, Texas
thomas fortner sbcglobal net
"but we preach Christ crucified..."  1 Corinthians 1:23

Message: 1
Subject: Can't create symbolic links in mounted vfat partition
From: Marcus Claesson <m claesson student ucc ie>
To: redhat-list redhat com
Organization: 
Date: 24 Oct 2003 14:57:59 +0100
Reply-To: redhat-list redhat com

Hi,

I'm having problem doing certain things to my vfat (WinXP,FAT32)
partition from RedHat 9.

It's mounted like this

/dev/hda5 on /mnt/windows type vfat (rw,fmask=777,dmask=777,user=marcus)

It looks like this:

[marcus miah marcus]$ ll /mnt/
total 36
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         4096 Oct 17 14:26 cdrom
drwxrwxrwx   12 root     root        32768 Jan  1  1970 windows

I can write to it as root, and as another user I can read but not write
to it,
not even as 'marcus'.

I think it has to do with the same thing as that I can't create links on
this
partition:

[root miah windows]# ln -s file.txt file_link
ln: creating symbolic link `file_link' to `file.txt': Operation not
permitted

Does anyone out there know how I should mount this partition so these
things
will work. Really appreciate any help!

Regards,
Marcus