The mkmanifest command is used to create a shell script (packing
list) to restore Unix filenames. Its syntax is:
mkmanifest [ files ]
Mkmanifest creates a shell script that aids in the restoration of
Unix filenames that got clobbered by the MS-DOS filename restrictions.
MS-DOS filenames are restricted to 8 character names, 3 character
extensions, upper case only, no device names, and no illegal characters.
The mkmanifest program is compatible with the methods used in
pcomm, arc, and mtools to change perfectly good Unix
filenames to fit the MS-DOS restrictions. This command is only useful if
the target system which will read the diskette cannot handle VFAT long
names.
You want to copy the following Unix files to a MS-DOS diskette (using the
mcopy command).
very_long_name 2.many.dots illegal: good.c prn.dev Capital
ASCII
converts the names to:
very_lon 2xmany.dot illegalx good.c xprn.dev capital
The command:
mkmanifest very_long_name 2.many.dots illegal: good.c prn.dev Capital >manifest
would produce the following:
mv very_lon very_long_name mv 2xmany.dot 2.many.dots mv illegalx illegal: mv xprn.dev prn.dev mv capital Capital
Notice that "good.c" did not require any conversion, so it did not appear in the output.
Suppose I’ve copied these files from the diskette to another Unix system, and I now want the files back to their original names. If the file "manifest" (the output captured above) was sent along with those files, it could be used to convert the filenames.
The short names generated by mkmanifest follow the old convention
(from mtools-2.0.7) and not the one from Windows 95 and mtools-3.0.