xref: /openbsd/usr.sbin/fdformat/fdformat.1 (revision 4cfece93)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: fdformat.1,v 1.21 2018/09/17 15:44:16 jmc Exp $
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3.\" Copyright (C) 1993, 1994 by Joerg Wunsch, Dresden
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27.Dd $Mdocdate: September 17 2018 $
28.Dt FDFORMAT 1
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm fdformat
32.Nd format floppy disks
33.Sh SYNOPSIS
34.Nm fdformat
35.Bk -words
36.Op Fl nqv
37.Op Fl c Ar cyls
38.Op Fl F Ar fillbyte
39.Op Fl g Ar gap3len
40.Op Fl h Ar heads
41.Op Fl i Ar intleave
42.Op Fl r Ar rate
43.Op Fl S Ar secshft
44.Op Fl s Ar secs
45.Op Fl t Ar steps_per_track
46.Ar device_name
47.Ek
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49.Nm fdformat
50formats a floppy disk at device
51.Ar device_name .
52.Ar device_name
53should be a character device; it may be given either with a full path
54name of a raw device node for a floppy disk drive
55.Pq e.g., Pa /dev/rfd0c ,
56or default name in an abbreviated form,
57.Pq e.g., Em fd0 .
58Note that any geometry constraints of the device node
59.Pq minor device number
60are meaningless, since they're overridden by
61.Nm fdformat .
62.Pp
63The options are as follows:
64.Bl -tag -width Ds
65.It Fl c Ar cyls
66Number of cylinders
67.Pq 40 or 80 .
68.It Fl F Ar fillbyte
69Use
70.Ar fillbyte
71as fill byte.
72.It Fl g Ar gap3len
73Length of gap at the end of any sector
74.Pq Dq gap 3 .
75.It Fl h Ar heads
76Number of floppy heads
77.Pq 1 or 2 .
78.It Fl i Ar intleave
79Sector interleave to be used.
80.It Fl n
81Don't verify floppy after formatting.
82.It Fl q
83Suppress any normal output from the command, and don't ask the
84user for confirmation whether to format the floppy disk at
85.Ar device_name .
86.It Fl r Ar rate
87Data transfer rate in kilobyte/sec
88.Pq 250, 300, or 500 .
89.It Fl S Ar secshft
90Sector size code: 0 for 128, 1 for 256, and 2 for 512 byte
91sectors.
92.It Fl s Ar secs
93Number of sectors per track
94.Pq 9, 10, 15, or 18 .
95.It Fl t Ar steps_per_track
96Number of steps per track.
97An alternate method to specify the
98geometry data to write to the floppy disk.
99.It Fl v
100Don't format; verify only.
101.El
102.Pp
103If the
104.Fl q
105flag has not been specified, the user is asked for confirmation
106of the intended formatting process.
107In order to continue, an answer of
108.Dq y
109must be given.
110.Sh EXIT STATUS
111An exit status of 0 is returned upon successful operation.
112Exit status
1131 is returned on any errors during floppy formatting, and an exit status
114of 2 reflects invalid arguments given to the program (along with
115appropriate information written to diagnostic output).
116.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
117Unless
118.Fl q
119has been specified, a single letter is printed to standard output
120to inform the user about the progress of work.
121First, an
122.Dq F
123is printed when the track(s) is being formatted, then a
124.Dq V
125while it's being verified, and if an error has been detected, it
126will finally change to
127.Dq E .
128.Sh SEE ALSO
129.Xr fdc 4
130.Sh HISTORY
131.Nm fdformat
132was developed for 386BSD 0.1 and upgraded to the new
133.Xr fdc 4
134floppy disk driver.
135It later became part of
136.Fx 1.1 ,
137and was then ported to
138.Ox 1.2 .
139.Sh AUTHORS
140.An -nosplit
141The program was contributed by
142.An Joerg Wunsch ,
143Dresden, with changes by
144.An Serge Vakulenko
145and
146.An Andrew A. Chernov ,
147Moscow.
148