{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "fatlabel",
    "section": "8",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fatlabel/8/json",
    "generated": "2026-06-02T19:34:33Z",
    "synopsis": "fatlabel [OPTIONS] DEVICE [NEW]",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "fatlabel - set or get MS-DOS filesystem label or volume ID\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SYNOPSIS": {
            "content": "fatlabel [OPTIONS] DEVICE [NEW]\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "fatlabel  will  display  or change the volume label or volume ID on the MS-DOS filesystem lo‐\ncated on DEVICE.  By default it works in label mode.  It can be switched to  volume  ID  mode\nwith the option -i or --volume-id.\n\nIf NEW is omitted, then the existing label or volume ID is written to the standard output.  A\nlabel can't be longer than 11 bytes and should be in all upper case for  best  compatibility.\nAn  empty  string or a label consisting only of white space is not allowed.  A volume ID must\nbe given as a hexadecimal number (no leading \"0x\" or similar) and must fit into 32 bits.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "OPTIONS": {
            "content": "",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "-i --volume-id",
                    "content": "Switch to volume ID mode.\n",
                    "flag": "-i",
                    "long": "--volume-id"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-r --reset",
                    "content": "Remove label in label mode or generate new ID in volume ID mode.\n",
                    "flag": "-r",
                    "long": "--reset"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-c --codepage",
                    "content": "Use DOS codepage PAGE to encode/decode label.  By default codepage 850 is used.\n",
                    "flag": "-c",
                    "long": "--codepage"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-h --help",
                    "content": "Display a help message and terminate.\n",
                    "flag": "-h",
                    "long": "--help"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-V --version",
                    "content": "Show version number and terminate.\n",
                    "flag": "-V",
                    "long": "--version"
                },
                {
                    "name": "COMPATIBILITY and BUGS",
                    "content": "For historic reasons FAT label is stored in two different locations: in the boot  sector  and\nas  a  special  volume  label  entry in the root directory.  MS-DOS 5.00, MS-DOS 6.22, MS-DOS\n7.10, Windows 98, Windows XP and also Windows 10 read FAT label only from the root directory.\nAbsence of the volume label in the root directory is interpreted as empty or none label, even\nif boot sector contains some valid label.\n\nWhen Windows XP or Windows 10 system changes a FAT label it stores it only in the root direc‐\ntory  —  letting  boot  sector unchanged.  Which leads to problems when a label is removed on\nWindows.  Old label is still stored in the boot sector but is removed from  the  root  direc‐\ntory.\n\ndosfslabel  prior  to the version 3.0.7 operated only with FAT labels stored in the boot sec‐\ntor, completely ignoring a volume label in the root directory.\n\ndosfslabel in versions 3.0.7–3.0.15 reads FAT labels from the root directory and in  case  of\nabsence, it fallbacks to a label stored in the boot sector.  Change operation resulted in up‐\ndating a label in the boot sector and sometimes also in the root directory due  to  the  bug.\nThat bug was fixed in dosfslabel version 3.0.16 and since this version dosfslabel updates la‐\nbel in both location.\n\nSince version 4.2, fatlabel reads a FAT label only from the root directory (like  MS-DOS  and\nWindows  systems),  but changes a FAT label in both locations.  In version 4.2 was fixed han‐\ndling of empty labels and labels which starts with a byte 0xE5.  Also  in  this  version  was\nadded  support  for  non-ASCII  labels according to the specified DOS codepage and were added\nchecks if a new label is valid.\n\nIt is strongly suggested to not use dosfslabel prior to version 3.0.16.\n"
                }
            ]
        },
        "DOS CODEPAGES": {
            "content": "MS-DOS and Windows systems use DOS (OEM) codepage for encoding and decoding  FAT  label.   In\nWindows  systems DOS codepage is global for all running applications and cannot be configured\nexplicitly.  It is set implicitly by option Language for non-Unicode  programs  available  in\nRegional  and  Language Options via Control Panel.  Default DOS codepage for fatlabel is 850.\nSee following mapping table between DOS codepage and Language for non-Unicode programs:\n",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "Codepage   Language",
                    "content": "437      English (India), English (Malaysia), English (Republic of the  Philippines),  Eng‐\nlish  (Singapore),  English (South Africa), English (United States), English (Zim‐\nbabwe), Filipino, Hausa, Igbo, Inuktitut, Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, Yoruba\n720      Arabic, Dari, Persian, Urdu, Uyghur\n737      Greek\n775      Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian\n850      Afrikaans, Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan,  Corsican,  Danish,  Dutch,  English\n(Australia),  English  (Belize),  English  (Canada),  English (Caribbean), English\n(Ireland), English (Jamaica), English (New Zealand),  English  (Trinidad  and  To‐\nbago), English (United Kingdom), Faroese, Finnish, French, Frisian, Galician, Ger‐\nman,  Greenlandic,  Icelandic,  Indonesian,  Irish,  isiXhosa,  isiZulu,  Italian,\nK'iche,  Lower Sorbian, Luxembourgish, Malay, Mapudungun, Mohawk, Norwegian, Occi‐\ntan, Portuguese, Quechua,  Romansh,  Sami,  Scottish  Gaelic,  Sesotho  sa  Leboa,\nSetswana, Spanish, Swedish, Tamazight, Upper Sorbian, Welsh, Wolof\n852      Albanian,  Bosnian  (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian\n(Latin), Slovak, Slovenian, Turkmen\n855      Bosnian (Cyrillic), Serbian (Cyrillic)\n857      Azeri (Latin), Turkish, Uzbek (Latin)\n862      Hebrew\n866      Azeri (Cyrillic), Bashkir, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Kyrgyz,  Macedonian,  Mongolian,\nRussian, Tajik, Tatar, Ukrainian, Uzbek (Cyrillic), Yakut\n874      Thai\n932      Japanese\n936      Chinese (Simplified)\n949      Korean\n950      Chinese (Traditional)\n1258     Vietnamese\n"
                }
            ]
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "fsck.fat(8), mkfs.fat(8)\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "HOMEPAGE": {
            "content": "The     home    for    the    dosfstools    project    is    its    GitHub    project    page\n⟨https://github.com/dosfstools/dosfstools⟩.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "AUTHORS": {
            "content": "dosfstools were written  by  Werner  Almesberger  ⟨werner.almesberger@lrc.di.epfl.ch⟩,  Roman\nHodek  ⟨Roman.Hodek@informatik.uni-erlangen.de⟩, and others.  Current maintainers are Andreas\nBombe ⟨aeb@debian.org⟩ and Pali Rohár ⟨pali.rohar@gmail.com⟩.\n\n\n\ndosfstools 4.2                               2021-01-31                                  FATLABEL(8)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "fatlabel - set or get MS-DOS filesystem label or volume ID",
    "flags": [
        {
            "flag": "-i",
            "long": "--volume-id",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Switch to volume ID mode."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-r",
            "long": "--reset",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Remove label in label mode or generate new ID in volume ID mode."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-c",
            "long": "--codepage",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Use DOS codepage PAGE to encode/decode label. By default codepage 850 is used."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-h",
            "long": "--help",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Display a help message and terminate."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-V",
            "long": "--version",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Show version number and terminate."
        }
    ],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": [
        {
            "name": "fsck.fat",
            "section": "8",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/fsck.fat/8/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "mkfs.fat",
            "section": "8",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mkfs.fat/8/json"
        }
    ],
    "tldr": {
        "source": "official",
        "description": "Get or set the label of a FAT32 partition.",
        "examples": [
            {
                "description": "Get the label of a FAT32 partition",
                "command": "fatlabel {{/dev/sda1}}"
            },
            {
                "description": "Set the label of a FAT32 partition",
                "command": "fatlabel {{/dev/sdc3}} \"{{new_label}}\""
            }
        ]
    }
}