NAME
fdformat —
format floppy disks
SYNOPSIS
fdformat |
[-nqv]
[-c cyls]
[-F fillbyte]
[-g gap3len]
[-h heads]
[-i intleave]
[-r rate]
[-S secshft]
[-s secs]
[-t steps_per_track] device_name |
DESCRIPTION
fdformat formats a floppy disk at device
device_name. device_name should
be a character device; it may be given either with a full path name of a raw
device node for a floppy disk drive (e.g.,
/dev/rfd0c), or default name in an abbreviated form,
(e.g., fd0).
Note that any geometry constraints of the device node (minor device number)
are meaningless, since they're overridden by
fdformat.
The options are as follows:
-n- Don't verify floppy after formatting.
-q- Suppress any normal output from the command, and don't ask the user for confirmation whether to format the floppy disk at device_name.
-v- Don't format; verify only.
-ccyls-Ffillbyte-ggap3len-hheads-iintleave-rrate-Ssecshft-ssecs-tsteps_per_track- An alternate method to specify the geometry data to write to the floppy disk.
If the -q flag has not been specified, the
user is asked for confirmation of the intended formatting process. In order
to continue, an answer of “y” must be given.
DIAGNOSTICS
Unless -q has been specified, a single
letter is printed to standard output to inform the user about the progress
of work. First, an “F” is printed when the track(s) is being
formatted, then a “V” while it's being verified, and if an
error has been detected, it will finally change to “E”.
An exit status of 0 is returned upon successful operation. Exit status 1 is returned on any errors during floppy formatting, and an exit status of 2 reflects invalid arguments given to the program (along with appropriate information written to diagnostic output).
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
fdformat was developed for 386BSD 0.1 and
upgraded to the new fdc(4) floppy disk driver. It later became part of
FreeBSD 1.1, and was then ported to
OpenBSD 1.2.
AUTHORS
The program was contributed by Joerg Wunsch, Dresden, with changes by Serge Vakulenko and Andrew A. Chernov, Moscow.