xref: /dragonfly/usr.sbin/fdformat/fdformat.1 (revision 36a3d1d6)
1.\" Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 2001 by Joerg Wunsch, Dresden
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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.\" $DragonFly: src/usr.sbin/fdformat/fdformat.1,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:29:53 dillon Exp $
27.\"
28.Dd July 2, 2001
29.Os
30.Dt FDFORMAT 1
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm fdformat
33.Nd format floppy disks
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Nm
36.Op Fl q
37.Op Fl y
38.Op Fl v | Fl n
39.Op Fl f Ar capacity
40.Op Fl c Ar cyls
41.Op Fl s Ar secs
42.Op Fl h Ar heads
43.Nm
44.Op Fl r Ar rate
45.Op Fl g Ar gap3len
46.Op Fl i Ar intleave
47.Op Fl S Ar secshft
48.Op Fl F Ar fillbyte
49.Op Fl t Ar steps_per_track
50.Ar device_name
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The
53.Nm
54utility formats a floppy disk at device
55.Ar device_name .
56.Ar Device_name
57may be given either with a full path
58name of a device node for a floppy disk drive
59(e.g.\&
60.Pa /dev/fd0 ) ,
61or a default name in an abbreviated form
62(e.g.\&
63.Em fd0 ) .
64In the latter case, the name is constructed by prepending
65.Pa /dev/
66and appending a
67.Em .capacity
68to the
69.Ar device_name .
70Note that any geometry constraints of the device node
71(minor device number)
72are meaningless, since they're overridden by
73.Nm .
74.Pp
75The options are as follows:
76.Bl -tag -width 10n -offset indent
77.It Fl q
78Suppress any normal output from the command, and don't ask the
79user for a confirmation whether to format the floppy disk at
80.Ar device_name .
81.It Fl y
82Suppress confirmation request by automagically responding "yes", but still
83report format status.
84.It Fl f Ar capacity
85The normal way to specify the desired formatting parameters.
86.Ar Capacity
87is the number of kilobytes to format.
88Valid choices are 360, 720, 800, 820,
891200, 1440, 1480 or 1720.
90.It Fl n
91Don't verify floppy after formatting.
92.It Fl v
93Don't format, verify only.
94.It Fl c Ar cyls
95Number of cylinders: 40 or 80.
96.It Fl s Ar secs
97Number of sectors per track: 9, 10, 15 or 18.
98.It Fl h Ar heads
99Number of floppy heads: 1 or 2.
100.It Fl r Ar rate
101Data rate: 250, 300 or 500 kbps.
102.It Fl g Ar gap3len
103Gap length.
104.It Fl i Ar intleave
105Interleave factor.
106.It Fl S Ar secshft
107Sector size: 0=128, 1=256, 2=512 bytes.
108.It Fl F Ar fillbyte
109Fill byte.
110.It Fl t Ar steps_per_track
111Number of steps per track.
112An alternate method to specify the geometry data to write to the floppy disk.
113.El
114.Pp
115If the
116.Fl q
117flag has not been specified, the user is asked for a confirmation
118of the intended formatting process.
119In order to continue, an answer
120of
121.Dq y
122must be given.
123.Pp
124Note that
125.Nm
126does only perform low-level formatting.  In case you wish to create
127a file system on the medium, see the commands
128.Xr newfs 8
129for an
130.Em ufs
131file system, or
132.Xr newfs_msdos 8
133for an
134.Em MS-DOS (FAT)
135file system.
136.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
137Unless
138.Fl q
139has been specified, a single letter is printed to standard output
140to inform the user about the progress of work.
141First, an
142.Sq Em F
143is printed when the track(s) is being formatted, then a
144.Sq Em V
145while it's being verified, and if an error has been detected, it
146will finally change to
147.Sq Em E .
148Detailed status information (cylinder, head and sector number, and the
149exact cause of the error) will then be printed for up to 10 errors.
150.Pp
151An exit status of 0 is returned upon successful operation.
152Exit status
1531 is returned on any errors during floppy formatting, and an exit status
154of 2 reflects invalid arguments given to the program (along with an
155appropriate information written to diagnostic output).
156.Sh SEE ALSO
157.Xr fdc 4 ,
158.Xr newfs 8 ,
159.Xr newfs_msdos 8
160.Sh HISTORY
161The
162.Nm
163utility has been developed for
164.Bx 386 0.1
165and upgraded to the new
166.Xr fdc 4
167floppy disk driver.
168It later became part of the
169.Fx 1.1
170system.
171.Sh AUTHORS
172.An -nosplit
173The program has been contributed by
174.An J\(:org Wunsch ,
175Dresden, with changes by
176.An Serge Vakulenko
177and
178.An Andrey A. Chernov ,
179Moscow.
180