fdformat.8

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.Dd May 23, 2020
.Dt FDFORMAT 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm fdformat
.Nd format floppy disks
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl F Ar fill
.Op Fl f Ar fmt
.Op Fl s Ar fmtstr
.Op Fl nqvy
.Ar device
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility formats a floppy disk at
.Ar device ,
where
.Ar device
may either be given as a full path
name of a device node for a floppy disk drive
(e.g.,\&
.Pa /dev/fd0 ) ,
or using an abbreviated name that will be looked up
under
.Pa /dev
(e.g.,\&
.Dq Li fd0 ) .
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width ".Fl s Ar fmtstr"
.It Fl F Ar fill
Use
.Ar fill
as the fill byte for newly formatted sectors.
The
.Ar fill
argument
must be a number in the range 0 through 255 using common C
language notation.
The default value is
.Dq Li 0xf6 .
.It Fl f Ar fmt
Specify the density settings for a
.Ar fmt
kilobyte format, as described in
.Xr fdcontrol 8 .
.It Fl s Ar fmtstr
Specify the density settings using explicit parameters, as
described in
.Xr fdcontrol 8 .
.It Fl n
Do not verify floppy after formatting.
.It Fl q
Suppress any normal output from the command, and do not ask the
user for a confirmation whether to format the floppy disk at
.Ar device .
.It Fl v
Do not format, verify only.
.It Fl y
Do not ask for confirmation whether to format the floppy disk but
still report formatting status.
.El
.Pp
For non-autoselecting subdevices, neither
.Fl f Ar fmt
nor
.Fl s Ar fmtstr
may be specified, since the preconfigured media density settings
from the kernel driver will always be used.
However, if
.Ar device
is a device with automatic media density selection (see
.Xr fdc 4 ) ,
both methods can be used to override the density settings for the
newly formatted medium (without permanently changing the density
settings of
.Ar device ) .
.Pp
If the
.Fl q
flag has not been specified, the user is asked for a confirmation
of the intended formatting process.
In order to continue, an answer
of
.Ql y
must be given.
.Pp
Note that
.Nm
does only perform low-level formatting.
In order to create
a file system on the medium, see the commands
.Xr newfs 8
for a
.Tn UFS
file system, or
.Xr newfs_msdos 8
for an
.Tn MS-DOS
(FAT)
file system.
.Sh EXIT STATUS
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 an
appropriate information written to diagnostic output).
.Sh EXAMPLES
To format a new double-sided, high-density (HD) 1.44 MB disk
inserted in the first floppy disk drive, issue:
.Pp
.Dl "/usr/sbin/fdformat -f 1440 /dev/fd0"
.Pp
After low-level formatting the disk with
.Nm ,
create a disk label so that the system can determine the size and
geometry of the disk.
The supported geometry values are listed in
.Pa /etc/disktab ,
and we will use
.Va fd1440
for this example.
To write the disk label, use
.Xr bsdlabel 8 :
.Pp
.Dl "/sbin/bsdlabel -B -w /dev/fd0 fd1440"
.Pp
The floppy is now ready to be high-level formatted with a file system.
To format the floppy disk with FAT, issue:
.Pp
.Dl "/sbin/newfs_msdos /dev/fd0"
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
Unless
.Fl q
has been specified, a single letter is printed to standard output
to inform the user about the progress of work.
First, an
.Ql F
is printed when the track is being formatted, then a
.Ql V
while it is being verified, and if an error has been detected, it
will finally change to
.Ql E .
Detailed status information (cylinder, head and sector number, and the
exact cause of the error) will be printed for up to 10 errors after the
entire formatting process has completed.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr fdc 4 ,
.Xr bsdlabel 8 ,
.Xr fdcontrol 8 ,
.Xr newfs 8 ,
.Xr newfs_msdos 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility
has been developed for
.Bx 386 0.1
and upgraded to the new
.Xr fdc 4
floppy disk driver.
It later became part of the
.Fx 1.1
system.
Starting with
.Fx 5.0 ,
it uses the unified density specifications as described in
.Xr fdcontrol 8 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
The program has been contributed by
.An J\(:org Wunsch ,
Dresden, with changes by
.An Serge Vakulenko
and
.An Andrey A. Chernov ,
Moscow.