Configuration Options

There are many options to configure the functions of FatFs for requirement of each project. The configuration options are defined in the ffconf.h.

Function Configurations

FF_FS_READONLY

Read/Write (0) or Read-only (1). Read-only configuration removes writing API functions, f_write, f_sync, f_unlink, f_mkdir, f_chmod, f_rename, f_truncate, f_getfree and optional writing functions as well.

FF_FS_MINIMIZE

This option defines minimization level to remove some basic API functions as follows:

ValueDescription
0All basic API functions are available.
1f_stat, f_getfree, f_unlink, f_mkdir, f_chmod, f_utime, f_truncate and f_rename function are removed.
2f_opendir, f_readdir and f_closedir function are removed in addition to 1.
3f_lseek function is removed in addition to 2.

FF_USE_STRFUNC

This option switches string functions, f_gets, f_putc, f_puts and f_printf.

ValueDescription
0Disable string functions.
1Enable string functions without LF-CRLF conversion.
2Enable string functions with LF-CRLF conversion.

FF_USE_FIND

Disable (0) or Enable (1) filtered directory read functions, f_findfirst and f_findnext. Also FF_FS_MINIMIZE needs to be 0 or 1.

FF_USE_MKFS

Disable (0) or Enable (1) f_mkfs function.

FF_USE_FASTSEEK

Disable (0) or Enable (1) fast seek function to enable accelerated mode for f_lseek, f_read and f_write function. For more information, read here.

FF_USE_EXPAND

Disable (0) or Enable (1) f_expand function.

FF_USE_CHMOD

Disable (0) or Enable (1) metadata control functions, f_chmod and f_utime. Also FF_FS_READONLY needs to be 0.

FF_USE_LABEL

Disable (0) or Enable (1) API functions for volume label, f_getlabel and f_setlabel.

FF_USE_FORWARD

Disable (0) or Enable (1) f_forward function.

Namespace and Locale Configurations

FF_CODE_PAGE

This option specifies the OEM code page to be used on the target system. Incorrect setting of the code page can cause a file open failure. If any non-ASCII character is not used for the path name, there is no difference between any code page settings. Set it 437 anyway.

ValueCode page
0Includes all code pages below and set by f_setcp()
437U.S.
720Arabic
737Greek
771KBL
775Baltic
850Latin 1
852Latin 2
855Cyrillic
857Turkish
860Portuguese
861Icelandic
862Hebrew
863Canadian French
864Arabic
865Nordic
866Russian
869Greek 2
932Japanese (DBCS)
936Simplified Chinese (DBCS)
949Korean (DBCS)
950Traditional Chinese (DBCS)

FF_USE_LFN

This option switches the support for long file name (LFN). When enable the LFN, Unicode support module ffunicode.c need to be added to the project. When use stack for the working buffer, take care on stack overflow. When use heap memory for the working buffer, memory management functions (ff_memalloc and ff_memfree) need to be added to the project.

ValueDescription
0Disable LFN. Path name in only 8.3 format can be used.
1Enable LFN with static working buffer on the BSS. Always NOT thread-safe.
2Enable LFN with dynamic working buffer on the STACK.
3Enable LFN with dynamic working buffer on the HEAP.

FF_MAX_LFN

LFN function requiers certain internal working buffer for the file name. This option defines size of the buffer and the value can be in range of 12 to 255 in UTF-16 encoding unit of the LFN. The buffer occupies (FF_MAX_LFN + 1) * 2 bytes and additional (FF_MAX_LFN + 44) / 15 * 32 bytes when exFAT is enabled. It is recommended to be set 255 to fully support the LFN specification. This option has no effect when LFN is not enabled.

FF_LFN_UNICODE

This option switches character encoding for the file name on the API. When Unicode is selected, FF_CODE_PAGE has actually no meaning except for compatibility with legacy systems, such as MS-DOS and any system without support for LFN. FatFs supports the code point upto U+10FFFF.

ValueCharacter EncodingTCHAR
0ANSI/OEM in current CPchar
1Unicode in UTF-16WCHAR
2Unicode in UTF-8char
3Unicode in UTF-32DWORD

This option also affects behavior of string I/O functions (see FF_STRF_ENCODE). When LFN is not enabled, this option has no effect and FatFs works at ANSI/OEM code on the API. For more information, read here.

FF_LFN_BUF, FF_SFN_BUF

This set of options defines size of file name members, fname[] and altname[], in the FILINFO structure which is used to read out the directory items. These values should be suffcient for the file names to read. The maximum possible length of read file name depends on the character encoding on the API as follows:

EncodingLFN lengthSFN length
ANSI/OEM at SBCS255 items12 items
ANSI/OEM at DBCS510 items12 items
Unicode in UTF-16/32255 items12 items
Unicode in UTF-8765 items34 items

If the size of name member is insufficient for the LFN, the item is treated as without LFN. When LFN is not enabled, these options have no effect.

FF_STRF_ENCODE

When character encoding on the API is Unicode (FF_LFN_UNICODE >= 1), string I/O functions, f_gets, f_putc, f_puts and f_printf, convert the character encoding in it. This option defines the assumption of character encoding on the file to be read/written via those functions. When LFN is not enabled or FF_LFN_UNICODE == 0, the string functions work without any encoding conversion and this option has no effect.

ValueCharacter encoding on the file
0ANSI/OEM in current code page
1Unicode in UTF-16LE
2Unicode in UTF-16BE
3Unicode in UTF-8

FF_FS_RPATH

This option configures relative path function. For more information, read here.

ValueDescription
0Disable relative path function and remove related functions.
1Enable relative path function. f_chdir and f_chdrive function is available.
2f_getcwd function is available in addition to 1

Volume/Drive Configurations

FF_VOLUMES

This option configures number of volumes (logical drives upto 10) to be used.

FF_STR_VOLUME_ID

This option switches the support for string volume ID. When arbitrary string for the volume ID is enabled for the drive prefix, also pre-defined strings by FF_VOLUME_STRS or user defined strings can be used as drive prefix in the path name. Numeric drive number is always valid regardless of this option, and also either format of drive prefix can be enabled by this option.

ValueDescriptionExample
0Only DOS/Windows style drive prefix in numeric ID can be used.0:/filename
1Also DOS/Windows style drive prefix in string ID can be used.flash:/filename
2Also Unix style drive prefix in string ID can be used./flash/filename

FF_VOLUME_STRS

This option defines the volume ID strings for each logical drives. Number of items must not be less than FF_VOLUMES. Valid characters for the volume ID string are A-Z, a-z and 0-9, however, they are compared in case-insensitive. If FF_STR_VOLUME_ID == 0, this option has no effect. If FF_STR_VOLUME_ID >= 1 and this option is not defined, a user defined volume string table needs to be defined as shown below. The table should not be modified on the fly.

/* User defined volume ID strings for 0:    1:      2:    3:   ... */
const char* VolumeStr[FF_VOLUMES] = {"ram","flash","sdc","usb"};

FF_MULTI_PARTITION

Disable (0) or Enable (1). This option switches multi-partition function. By default (0), each logical drive number is bound to the same physical drive number and only a volume in the physical drive is mounted. When enabled, each logical drive is bound to the partition on the physical drive listed in the user defined partition resolution table VolToPart[]. Also f_fdisk funciton will be available. For more information, read here.

FF_MIN_SS, FF_MAX_SS

This set of options defines the extent of sector size used on the low level disk I/O interface, disk_read and disk_write function. Valid values are 512, 1024, 2048 and 4096. FF_MIN_SS defines minimum sector size and FF_MAX_SS defines the maximum sector size. Always set both 512 for memory card and harddisk. But a larger value may be required for on-board flash memory and some type of optical media. When FF_MAX_SS > FF_MIN_SS, support of variable sector size is enabled and GET_SECTOR_SIZE command needs to be implemented to the disk_ioctl function.

FF_USE_TRIM

Disable (0) or Enable (1). This option switches ATA-TRIM function. To enable Trim function, also CTRL_TRIM command should be implemented to the disk_ioctl function.

FF_FS_NOFSINFO

0 to 3. If you need to know correct free space on the FAT32 volume, set bit 0 of this option, and f_getfree function at first time after volume mount will force a full FAT scan. Bit 1 controls the use of last allocated cluster number.

ValueDescription
bit0=0Use free cluster count in the FSINFO if available.
bit0=1Do not trust free cluster count in the FSINFO.
bit1=0Use last allocated cluster number in the FSINFO to find a free cluster if available.
bit1=1Do not trust last allocated cluster number in the FSINFO.

System Configurations

FF_FS_TINY

Normal (0) or Tiny (1). At the tiny configuration, size of the file object FIL is reduced FF_MAX_SS bytes. Instead of private data buffer eliminated from the file object, common sector buffer in the filesystem object FATFS is used for the file data transfer.

FF_FS_EXFAT

This option switches support for the exFAT filesystem in addition to the FAT/FAT32 filesystem, Enabled (1) or Disabled (0). To enable exFAT, also LFN must be enabled and configureing FF_LFN_UNICODE >= 1 and FF_MAX_LFN == 255 is recommended for full-featured exFAT function. Note that enabling exFAT discards ANSI C (C89) compatibility because of need for 64-bit integer type.

FF_FS_NORTC

Use RTC (0) or Do not use RTC (1). This option controls timestamp function. If the system does not have any RTC function or valid timestamp is not needed, set FF_FS_NORTC to 1 to disable the timestamp function. Every objects modified by FatFs will have a fixed timestamp defined by FF_NORTC_MON, FF_NORTC_MDAY and FF_NORTC_YEAR. To use the timestamp function, set FF_FS_NORTC == 0 and add get_fattime function to the project to get current time form the RTC. This option has no effect at read-only configuration.

FF_NORTC_MON, FF_NORTC_MDAY, FF_NORTC_YEAR

This set of options defines the time to be used at no RTC systems. This option has no effect at read-only configuration or FF_FS_NORTC == 0.

FF_FS_LOCK

This option switches file lock function to control duplicated file open and illegal operations to open objects. Note that the file lock function is independent of re-entrancy. This option must be 0 at read-only configuration.

ValueDescription
0Disable file lock function. To avoid collapsing file by wrong file operation, application program needs to avoid illegal open, remove and rename to the open objects.
>0Enable file lock function. The value defines how many files/sub-directories can be opened simultaneously under the file lock control. Illigal operations to the open object will be rejected with FR_LOCKED.

FF_FS_REENTRANT

Disable (0) or Enable (1). This option switches the re-entrancy (thread safe) of the FatFs module itself. Note that file/directory access to the different volume is always re-entrant and it can work simultaneously regardless of this option, however, volume management functions, f_mount, f_mkfs and f_fdisk, are always not re-entrant. Only file/directory access to the same volume, in other words, exclusive use of each filesystem object, is under control of this function. To enable this feature, also user provided synchronization handlers, ff_req_grant, ff_rel_grant, ff_del_syncobj and ff_cre_syncobj, need to be added to the project. Sample code is available in ffsystem.c.

FF_FS_TIMEOUT

Number of time ticks to abort the file function with FR_TIMEOUT when wait time is too long. This option has no effect when FF_FS_REENTRANT == 0.

FF_SYNC_t

This option defines O/S dependent sync object type. e.g. HANDLE, ID, OS_EVENT*, SemaphoreHandle_t and etc. A header file for O/S definitions needs to be included somewhere in the scope of ff.c. This option has no effect when FF_FS_REENTRANT == 0.

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