unflatten

Adjust one or more directed graphs to improve the layout aspect ratio

$ unflatten [path/to/input1.gv path/to/input2.gv ...] > [path/to/output.gv]

$ unflatten [path/to/input.gv] | dot -T [png] [path/to/output.png]

$ unflatten -?

unflatten input_image [output_prefix]

input_image
    Path to the FAT disk image file that needs to be unflattened into individual sector files.

[output_prefix]
    An optional prefix or directory path for the generated individual sector files. If not specified, a default naming convention (e.g., 'sector_0000') in the current directory is often used.

The unflatten command is a specialized utility primarily found within the GNU mtools package, which provides tools for manipulating MS-DOS filesystem images from Unix-like systems. Unlike most common user-facing commands, unflatten is often an internal or development tool, and is not typically installed into standard user executable paths for direct end-user execution.

Its main purpose is to convert a contiguous FAT (File Allocation Table) disk image into a collection of individual sector files. This process 'unflattens' the single image file into its constituent sector components. This can be highly useful for debugging, detailed analysis, or specific low-level manipulation of disk images, allowing developers and advanced users to inspect or modify individual sectors more easily. It is important to note that unflatten is a niche utility specific to disk image manipulation and is not a widely available or general-purpose command for 'unflattening' hierarchical data in other contexts, such as converting a flat file into a structured format.

This command is not a standard or widely distributed user command on most Linux systems. It is primarily an internal development utility of the GNU mtools package and may not be present in a user's PATH or installed by default. Its usage is highly specialized, typically for low-level FAT image manipulation, and it is not intended for general data unflattening or hierarchical data transformation.

The unflatten command is generally not available as a standalone executable in typical Linux distributions' default installations. It is usually compiled as an internal component of the GNU mtools suite and might not be installed into standard user executable paths. Users interested in its specific functionality would likely need to compile mtools from source or examine its source code directly.

When unflatten processes a FAT disk image, it extracts each logical sector and saves it as a separate file. For instance, if a 1.44MB floppy disk image contains 2880 sectors, unflatten would create 2880 individual files, each representing one 512-byte sector, often named sequentially (e.g., 'sector_0000', 'sector_0001', etc.) if an output_prefix is not specified.

The unflatten utility is part of the GNU mtools project, a suite of utilities that has been under development for decades, providing tools to access MS-DOS filesystems from Unix-like systems. unflatten specifically emerged as a low-level tool to aid in the development and debugging of mtools itself, by allowing the detailed inspection of disk image layouts. It was designed to facilitate internal development rather than being a command intended for general user interaction.

mtools(1), mkfs.fat(8), dd(1), losetup(8)