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fdformat(1)

NAME

     fdformat -- format floppy disks

SYNOPSIS

     fdformat [-F fill] [-f fmt] [-s fmtstr] [-nqvy] device

DESCRIPTION

     The fdformat utility formats a floppy disk at device, where device may
     either be given as a full path name of a device node for a floppy disk
     drive (e.g. /dev/fd0), or using an abbreviated name that will be looked
     up under /dev (e.g. ``fd0'').

     The options are as follows:

     -F fill	Use fill as the fill byte for newly formatted sectors.	fill
		must be a number in the range 0 through 255 using common C
		language notation.  The default value is ``0xf5''.

     -f fmt	Specify the density settings for a fmt kilobyte format, as
		described in fdcontrol(8).

     -s fmtstr	Specify the density settings using explicit parameters, as
		described in fdcontrol(8).

     -n 	Do not verify floppy after formatting.

     -q 	Suppress any normal output from the command, and do not ask
		the user for a confirmation whether to format the floppy disk
		at device.

     -v 	Do not format, verify only.

     -y 	Do not ask for confirmation whether to format the floppy disk
		but still report formatting status.

     For non-autoselecting subdevices, neither -f fmt nor -s fmtstr may be
     specified, since the preconfigured media density settings from the kernel
     driver will always be used.  However, if device is a device with auto-
     matic media density selection (see fdc(4)), both methods can be used to
     override the density settings for the newly formatted medium (without
     permanently changing the density settings of device).

     If the -q flag has not been specified, the user is asked for a confirma-
     tion of the intended formatting process.  In order to continue, an answer
     of `y' must be given.

     Note that fdformat does only perform low-level formatting.  In order to
     create a file system on the medium, see the commands newfs(8) for a UFS
     file system, or newfs_msdos(8) for an MS-DOS (FAT) file system.

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 is being formatted, then a `V' while it is being
     verified, and if an error has been detected, it will finally change to
     `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

SEE ALSO

     fdc(4), fdcontrol(8), newfs(8), newfs_msdos(8)

HISTORY

     The fdformat utility has been developed for 386BSD 0.1 and upgraded to
     the new fdc(4) floppy disk driver.  It later became part of the
     FreeBSD 1.1 system.  Starting with FreeBSD 5.0, it uses the unified den-
     sity specifications as described in fdcontrol(8).

AUTHORS

     The program has been contributed by Jorg Wunsch, Dresden, with changes by
     Serge Vakulenko and Andrey A. Chernov, Moscow.

FreeBSD 5.4		       December 25, 2001		   FreeBSD 5.4

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