fat16.txt

Some notes on the FAT16 filesystem in EmuTOS
============================================
These notes apply to the filesystem code as of September 2011, after
the "big partition fix".

EmuTOS supports both the Atari and the DOS versions of the FAT16
filesystem.  The following are the critical parameters in each:

Parameter                         Atari                    DOS
---------                         -----                    ---
Record (logical sector) size      512-16384 bytes          512 bytes
Cluster size                      2 logical sectors        2-64 records
Maximum cluster size              32768 bytes              32768 bytes
Maximum records in a partition    65535                    4193536
Limiting factor on records        Max value in halfword    Max cluster size
                                   in boot sector           * Max clusters
Maximum clusters in a partition   32766 (2-32767)          65524 (2-65525)
Maximum partition size            Approx 1GB               Approx 2GB

Internal structures
-------------------
The main internal structures used by the filesystem code are
defined in fs.h.  They include the following:

DMD (Drive Media Block)
    One for every TOS drive, i.e. floppy or hard disk partition.
    Pointed to by a global array drvtbl[]. Contains the relevant
    parameters for that particular drive, including pointers to
    the root DND (see below).  When a drive is logged in, the
    filesystem code allocates four structures: a DMD to describe
    the drive, a DND for the root directory, and OFDs (see below)
    for the root directory and the FAT.

DND (Directory Node Descriptor)
    One per active directory.  Contains the name and attributes
    of the directory, pointers to parent and child directories,
    and pointers to the directory's OFD (see below).

OFD (Open File Descriptor)
    One per open file or directory.  Contains time, date, attributes,
    current position etc of a file, as well as pointers to the
    related DMD & DND.

BCB (Buffer Control Block)
    One per sector buffer.  Contains info describing the sector
    currently in the buffer.  Currently there are four sector
    buffers, each of the maximum sector size (16384 bytes), in
    two chains of two each (this could easily be expanded if
    desired).  One of the chains contains FAT sectors, the other
    everything else (i.e. root directory and data area sectors).

Pseudo-clusters: an important concept
-------------------------------------
When handling requests for the next piece of data for a normal
file, the filesystem code follows the normal FAT chain, keeping
track of the current cluster etc in the corresponding OFD.
Special OFDs exist for the root directory and the FAT to keep
track of the current position in each; for these, the filesystem
code uses a pseudo-cluster number, starting at 0 and incrementing
by 1 for each logical sector within each area.

Some data items of note
-----------------------
m_recoff[] in the DMD: contains the offsets to the first record of
each of the FAT, the root directory, and the data area.

o_currec, o_curcl, o_curbyt in the OFD: the current record number,
cluster number, and byte number within the file.