xref: /dragonfly/usr.sbin/fdformat/fdformat.1 (revision 25a2db75)
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25.\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.sbin/fdformat/fdformat.1,v 1.17.2.6 2002/06/21 16:40:26 charnier Exp $
26.\"
27.Dd July 2, 2001
28.Dt FDFORMAT 1
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm fdformat
32.Nd format floppy disks
33.Sh SYNOPSIS
34.Nm
35.Op Fl q
36.Op Fl y
37.Op Fl v | Fl n
38.Op Fl f Ar capacity
39.Op Fl c Ar cyls
40.Op Fl s Ar secs
41.Op Fl h Ar heads
42.Nm
43.Op Fl r Ar rate
44.Op Fl g Ar gap3len
45.Op Fl i Ar intleave
46.Op Fl S Ar secshft
47.Op Fl F Ar fillbyte
48.Op Fl t Ar steps_per_track
49.Ar device_name
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Nm
53utility formats a floppy disk at device
54.Ar device_name .
55.Ar Device_name
56may be given either with a full path
57name of a device node for a floppy disk drive
58(e.g.\&
59.Pa /dev/fd0 ) ,
60or a default name in an abbreviated form
61(e.g.\&
62.Em fd0 ) .
63In the latter case, the name is constructed by prepending
64.Pa /dev/
65and appending a
66.Em .capacity
67to the
68.Ar device_name .
69Note that any geometry constraints of the device node
70(minor device number)
71are meaningless, since they're overridden by
72.Nm .
73.Pp
74The options are as follows:
75.Bl -tag -width 10n -offset indent
76.It Fl q
77Suppress any normal output from the command, and don't ask the
78user for a confirmation whether to format the floppy disk at
79.Ar device_name .
80.It Fl y
81Suppress confirmation request by automagically responding "yes", but still
82report format status.
83.It Fl f Ar capacity
84The normal way to specify the desired formatting parameters.
85.Ar Capacity
86is the number of kilobytes to format.
87Valid choices are 360, 720, 800, 820,
881200, 1440, 1480 or 1720.
89.It Fl n
90Don't verify floppy after formatting.
91.It Fl v
92Don't format, verify only.
93.It Fl c Ar cyls
94Number of cylinders: 40 or 80.
95.It Fl s Ar secs
96Number of sectors per track: 9, 10, 15 or 18.
97.It Fl h Ar heads
98Number of floppy heads: 1 or 2.
99.It Fl r Ar rate
100Data rate: 250, 300 or 500 kbps.
101.It Fl g Ar gap3len
102Gap length.
103.It Fl i Ar intleave
104Interleave factor.
105.It Fl S Ar secshft
106Sector size: 0=128, 1=256, 2=512 bytes.
107.It Fl F Ar fillbyte
108Fill byte.
109.It Fl t Ar steps_per_track
110Number of steps per track.
111An alternate method to specify the geometry data to write to the floppy disk.
112.El
113.Pp
114If the
115.Fl q
116flag has not been specified, the user is asked for a confirmation
117of the intended formatting process.
118In order to continue, an answer
119of
120.Dq y
121must be given.
122.Pp
123Note that
124.Nm
125does only perform low-level formatting.  In case you wish to create
126a file system on the medium, see the commands
127.Xr newfs 8
128for an
129.Em ufs
130file system, or
131.Xr newfs_msdos 8
132for an
133.Em MS-DOS (FAT)
134file system.
135.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
136Unless
137.Fl q
138has been specified, a single letter is printed to standard output
139to inform the user about the progress of work.
140First, an
141.Sq Em F
142is printed when the track(s) is being formatted, then a
143.Sq Em V
144while it's being verified, and if an error has been detected, it
145will finally change to
146.Sq Em E .
147Detailed status information (cylinder, head and sector number, and the
148exact cause of the error) will then be printed for up to 10 errors.
149.Pp
150An exit status of 0 is returned upon successful operation.
151Exit status
1521 is returned on any errors during floppy formatting, and an exit status
153of 2 reflects invalid arguments given to the program (along with an
154appropriate information written to diagnostic output).
155.Sh SEE ALSO
156.Xr fdc 4 ,
157.Xr newfs 8 ,
158.Xr newfs_msdos 8
159.Sh HISTORY
160The
161.Nm
162utility has been developed for
163.Bx 386 0.1
164and upgraded to the new
165.Xr fdc 4
166floppy disk driver.
167It later became part of the
168.Fx 1.1
169system.
170.Sh AUTHORS
171.An -nosplit
172The program has been contributed by
173.An J\(:org Wunsch ,
174Dresden, with changes by
175.An Serge Vakulenko
176and
177.An Andrey A. Chernov ,
178Moscow.
179