ntfscat - Man Page

print NTFS files and streams on the standard output

Synopsis

[options] device [file]

Description

ntfscat will read a file or stream from an NTFS volume and display the contents on the standard output.

The case of the filename passed to ntfscat is ignored.

Options

Below is a summary of all the options that ntfscat accepts.  Nearly all options have two equivalent names.  The short name is preceded by - and the long name is preceded by --. Any single letter options, that don't take an argument, can be combined into a single command, e.g. -fv is equivalent to -f -v. Long named options can be abbreviated to any unique prefix of their name.

-a,  --attribute TYPE

Display the contents of a particular attribute type.  By default, the unnamed $DATA attribute will be shown.  The attribute can be specified by a number in decimal or hexadecimal, or by name.

HexDecimalName
0x1016"$STANDARD_INFORMATION"
0x2032"$ATTRIBUTE_LIST"
0x3048"$FILE_NAME"
0x4064"$OBJECT_ID"
0x5080"$SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR"
0x6096"$VOLUME_NAME"
0x70112"$VOLUME_INFORMATION"
0x80128"$DATA"
0x90144"$INDEX_ROOT"
0xA0160"$INDEX_ALLOCATION"
0xB0176"$BITMAP"
0xC0192"$REPARSE_POINT"
0xD0208"$EA_INFORMATION"
0xE0224"$EA"
0xF0240"$PROPERTY_SET"
0x100256"$LOGGED_UTILITY_STREAM"

Notes The attribute names may be given without the leading $ symbol.
If you use the $ symbol, you must quote the name to prevent the shell interpreting the name.

-n,  --attribute-name NAME

Display this named attribute, stream.

-i,  --inode NUM

Specify a file by its inode number instead of its name.

-f,  --force

This will override some sensible defaults, such as not using a mounted volume. Use this option with caution.

-h,  --help

Show a list of options with a brief description of each one.

-q,  --quiet

Suppress some debug/warning/error messages.

-V,  --version

Show the version number, copyright and license ntfscat.

-v,  --verbose

Display more debug/warning/error messages.

Examples

Display the contents of a file in the root of an NTFS volume.

ntfscat /dev/hda1 boot.ini

Display the contents of a file in a subdirectory of an NTFS volume.

ntfscat /dev/hda1 /winnt/system32/drivers/etc/hosts

Display the contents of the $INDEX_ROOT attribute of the root directory (inode 5).

ntfscat /dev/hda1 -a INDEX_ROOT -i 5 | hexdump -C

Bugs

There are no known problems with ntfscat. If you find a bug please send an email describing the problem to the development team:
ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net

Authors

ntfscat was written by Richard Russon, Anton Altaparmakov and Szabolcs Szakacsits. It was ported to ntfs-3g by Erik Larsson.

Availability

ntfscat is part of the ntfs-3g package and is available from:
https://github.com/tuxera/ntfs-3g/wiki/

See Also

Read libntfs(8) for details how to access encrypted files.

libntfs(8), ntfsls(8), ntfsprogs(8)

Referenced By

ntfscmp(8), ntfsdecrypt(8), ntfsprogs(8).

September 2007 ntfs-3g 2022.10.3