Msdos hidden files viewable from linux?

[albert at ccs.neu.edu (Albert Cahalan)]

> Ok folks, yes I had mounted the partition with dos, so I could see all
> the viewable dos files; I found that the 1.3.21 kernel in msods/dir.c
> has a test to say if the file is hidden or system dont return it; in
> 1.2.x all hidden and sytem files are displayed. (I am running 1.3.21
> with no problems that I know of).

I've noticed, and it seems broken.

> I did get a patch for 1.2.x kernels from Albert Cahalan which puts a
> '.' in front of hidden files. 
> 
> I was hoping I could backup the dos partition by tar'ing it off and 
> then compressing it; But the sys/hidden bits arent restored; 

Do I have any beta testers?  Alpha testers?  I want to update my patch
to 1.3.xx and make a small speed improvement that Linus requested.
Since it seems OK to mess with files that are hidden (what happened in
1.3.xx) I would make the behavior default - but what about umsdos?
I need some umsdos testers too.

Note that my patches have never caused data loss, but alpha versions can
make files seem to be missing or inaccessable.