Msdos hidden files viewable from linux?

[worley at world.std.com (Dale R Worley)]

   From: Albert Cahalan <albert at ccs.neu.edu>

   >    WRT: DOS bits.
   > 
   >    Albert, how do you plan to preserve the hidden and system bits in
   >    the case where files are backed up and them restored. Maybe,
   >    instead of (or in addition to) using the leading '.', maybe you
   >    could set the setuid, and setgid bits which otherwise have no
   >    meaning for a umsdos partition.
   > 
   > Perhaps the names of files that have special bits should get prefixed
   > by '.'  followed by a character that encodes the special bits.

   Files with the hidden bit become dotfiles - easy.

   For the archive and system bits, I plan to use the ext2fs
   attributes d (not dumpable) and i (immutable).  See the
   chattr man page for an explanation.  Any better ideas?

   Note that it is _impossible_ to correctly backup and restore DOS system
   files without low-level disk access (read: dangerous).  The system bit
   means that the file is sensitive to it's physical position on disk.
   As far as I know, you can't back up and restore /boot or the kernel
   either, because lilo gets confused.  The same goes for msdos.sys and
   io.sys.  Maybe someone could write a program to fix the boot sector to
   point to these files.

What's really needed is an FAQ that explains all of this stuff, and
how all the elements interact.

BTW, is there a document that explains how all of the different bits
and pieces of the Linux boot sequence work?  I've seen only the
sketchiest descriptions.

Dale