NTFS

Not to be confused with NFS.

Resources

NTFS

NTFS-3G

Official documentation

NTFS (New Technology File System) is a proprietary disk filesystem by Microsoft for Windows and Windows-based operating systems.

There are two primary methods to achieve NTFS support when using Linux. The kernel itself includes limited write support for the NTFS filesystem. This can be seen in the native support section below. There is also a FUSE filesystem driver called NTFS-3G that includes better write support. Because of this, most users who need NTFS support opt for the FUSE implementation over the rather limited built-in support.

Installation

Kernel

Be aware: as of November, 2017, the mainlined NTFS kernel driver has very limited functional support for NTFS. The kernel configuration information defines support as "partial, but safe". This driver can overwrite existing files but is not capable of file or directory creation, deletion, or renaming. Most NTFS users will want to enable the FUSE powered version.

Native support

KERNEL Enabling built-in NTFS (limited write support) via CONFIG_NTFS_RW

File systems  --->
    DOS/FAT/NT Filesystems  --->
        <*> NTFS file system support
        <*>   NTFS write support

FUSE support (NTFS-3G)

The following kernel options must be enabled for NTFS read/write capabilities over FUSE in Linux:

KERNEL Enabling NTFS over FUSE using NTFS-3G

File systems  --->
    <*> FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) support

The sys-fs/ntfs3g package is also required (see the emerge section below).

USE flags

Because NTFS-3G is a FUSE-based filesystem, it requires user space utilities. It is currently the best implementation of NTFS for Linux and the only FUSE-based implementation available in the main Gentoo repository. Make sure you enable USE flag suid, otherwise you get an error "read only filesystem".

USE flags for sys-fs/ntfs3g Open source read-write NTFS driver that runs under FUSE

+fuse	Enable ntfs-3g FUSE driver
+mount-ntfs	Install mount.ntfs symlink
+ntfsprogs	Enable ntfsprogs
acl	Add support for Access Control Lists
debug	Enable extra debug codepaths, like asserts and extra output. If you want to get meaningful backtraces see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Quality_Assurance/Backtraces
ntfsdecrypt	Build and install the ntfsdecrypt application.
static-libs	Build static versions of dynamic libraries as well
suid	Enable setuid root program(s)
xattr	Add support for extended attributes (filesystem-stored metadata)

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2024-01-07 00:19 More information about USE flags

Emerge

After reviewing USE flags and making adjustments as necessary, install the FUSE user space tools in order to manipulate NTFS filesystems:

root #emerge --ask sys-fs/ntfs3g

Usage

Creation

Warning
The mkfs.ntfs command irreversibly destroys the contents of the partition it is told to format. Be sure to select the right partition before running this command!

To create an NTFS filesystem on the /dev/sda1 partition (needs ntfsprogs USE flag):

root #mkfs.ntfs /dev/sdyX

Please replace /dev/sdyX with the actual partition you want to format.

Mount

There are several ways to mount a NTFS filesystem:

• mount - Manual mounting.
• fstab - Automatic mount at boot time.
• removable media - Automatic mount at demand.
• AutoFS - Automatic mount on access.

See also

• FAT — originally created for use with MS-DOS (and later pre-NT Microsoft Windows)
• dislocker — FUSE-based filesystem driver capable of reading NTFS BitLocker encrypted partitions.
• ext4 — an open source disk filesystem and most recent version of the extended series of filesystems.
• Btrfs — a copy-on-write (CoW) filesystem for Linux aimed at implementing advanced features while focusing on fault tolerance, repair, and easy administration.
• tmpfs — a virtual filesystem created to store files in dynamic (volatile) memory.

External resources

• NTFS at Microsoft's TechNet