MirBSD manpage: fdformat(1)

FDFORMAT(1)                  BSD Reference Manual                  FDFORMAT(1)

NAME

     fdformat - format floppy disks

SYNOPSIS

     fdformat [-q] [-n | -v] [-c cyls] [-s secs] [-h heads] [-r rate]
              [-g gap3len] [-i intleave] [-S secshft] [-F fillbyte]
              [-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 con-
     straints of the device node (minor device number) are meaningless, since
     they're overridden by fdformat.

     The options are as follows:

     -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.

     -n      Don't verify floppy after formatting.

     -v      Don't format; verify only.

     -c cyls
     -s secs
     -h heads
     -r rate
     -g gap3len
     -i intleave
     -S secshft
     -F fillbyte
     -t steps_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 out-
     put 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

     fdc(4)

HISTORY

     fdformat was developed for 386BSD 0.1 and upgraded to the new fd(4) flop-
     py 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.

MirBSD #10-current            September 16, 1993                             1