Command: vbsf / vbados

  VBSF.EXE allows you to mount VirtualBox shared folders as drive
  letters. It is an "MS-DOS network redirector", so the new letters
  behave as network drives, not real drives.
  Most redirector functionality is supported, including write support,
  except changing file attributes (like setting a file to read-only...).
  The drives can also be accessed from within Windows 3.x .
  It uses around 17KiB of memory, and auto-installs to an UMB if avai-
  lable. This is still less memory than a SMB client and network stack!

Syntax:

  VBSF <ACTION> <ARGS..> [<OPTIONS..>]

Actions / Options:

  Supported actions and options:
  install                 Install the driver (default).
  low                     Install in conventional memory (otherwise UMB).
  uninstall               Uninstall the driver from memory.
  list                    List available shared folders.
  mount <FOLD> <X:> ...   Mount a shared folder into drive X:.
  /hash <n>               Number of hash chars following the "˜"
                          for generated DOS short filenames.
                          (between 2 and 6; default 3; 0 to disable)
  /host                   Use short file names from Windows hosts.
  /upper                  Require uppercase host filenames.
  remount <X:> ...        Change mount options for mounted drive X:.
  umount <X:>             Unmount shared folder from drive X:.
  rescan                  Unmount everything and recreate automounts.

Comments:

  For more information, see:
  https://git.javispedro.com/cgit/vbados.git/about/#usage
  The description there contains additional screenshots that make it
  easier to understand what has to be done.

Usage:

  First, you need to configure some shared folders in the Virtual Machine
  settings from VirtualBox (right click on the shared folders icon, or
  just open VM Settings).

  In the add share dialog:
  * Folder Path is the actual host directory you want to mount in the
    guest.
  * Folder Name is just a given name for this shared folder, can be any-
    thing you want. When using VBSF, this will become the volume label.
  * Mount point is the drive letter VBSF is going to use for this folder.
  * Use "Automount" if you want VBSF to automatically mount this folder
    once the driver is loaded; otherwise, you will need to use "vbsf
    mount". See screenshot
    https://git.javispedro.com/cgit/vbados.git/about/
    #vbsfexe-shared-folderson
    on the website.

  Second, remember to add LASTDRIVE=Z to your CONFIG.SYS / FDCONFIG.SYS
  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONFIG.SYS#LASTDRIVE) OR:
  LASTDRIVE

  Third, to install the driver, just run "VBSF". The driver will auto-
  matically mount all the directories marked as "Automount".

  The driver supports the following actions, too:
  * "install" installs the driver (i.e. the same as if you run "VBSF").
    "VBSF install low" can be used to force installation in conventional
     memory; by default, it tries to use a DOS UMB block.
  * "uninstall" uninstalls the driver.
  * "list" shows currently mounted drives as well as all available
     shared folders.
  * "mount FOLDER X: [<OPTIONS...>]" can be used to mount a non-automatic
    shared folder at a specific drive, or to mount a specific shared fol-
    der on multiple drives. This command supports the following mount
    options:
    * "/hash <n>" enables the automatic generation of short/hashed DOS
      filenames for long filenames from the host, and uses "n" as the
      number of digits reserved for the hash portion of short filenames.  
      By default, generation of short filenames is enabled using 3 digits
      for the hash, so long filenames will look like "LONG~20B.TXT" in
      DOS. Use "/nohash" to disable, in which case long filenames from
      the host will not appear in DOS.
    * "/upper" will also generate short/hashed filenames for any file in
      host whose filename has any lowercase character.  
      This may be useful for host OSes with case sensitive filesystems,
      where there are two or more files with filenames that differ only
      in case.
      Without this option, the two files cannot be distinguished and may
      be accidentally overwritten by DOS.
    * "/host" uses short filenames directly from the host OS, without any
      translations.  
      This is only useful in host OSes that support storing short file-
      names separately, like Windows hosts, and usually only if you ex-
      pect to use the same filesystem with a different OS later on.
  * "remount X: [<OPTIONS...>]" changes the options of a currently moun-
    ted drive. See the "mount" command for details on options. Any
    option set previously can be disabled with a corresponding "/noopt",
    e.g., "/nohost".
  * "unmount X:" unmounts a specific drive.
  * "rescan" unmounts all shared folders, gets the new list of shared
    folders from VirtualBox and performs automounts again. YOU MUST RUN
    this command if you change the shared folder definitions while
    the driver is running, otherwise you are likely to get mysterious
    failures.

See also:

  config.sys/fdconfig.sys
  lastdrive
  vmsmount

  Copyright © 2022-2024 Javier S. Pedro, help version 2025 W. Spiegl.

  This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
  See the file H2Cpying for copying conditions.