FDFORMAT(1)                  UNIX Reference Manual                 FDFORMAT(1)

NAME
     fdformat - format floppy disks

SYNOPSIS
     fdformat [-q] [-v | -n] [-f capacity] [-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/rfd0), or default
     name in an abbreviated form (e. g. fd0). In the latter case, the name is
     constructed by prepending /dev/r and appending a .capacity to the
     device_name. Note that any geometry constraints 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 a confirmation whether to format the
                       floppy disk at device_name.

           -f capacity
                       The normal way to specify the desired formatting param-
                       eters.  Capacity is the number of kilobytes to format.
                       Valid choices are 360, 720, 800, 820, 1200, 1440, 1480
                       or 1720.

           -n          Don't verify floppy after formatting.

           -v          Don't format, verify only.

           -c cyls     Number of cylinders: 40 or 80.

           -s secs     Number of sectors per track: 9, 10, 15 or 18.

           -h heads    Number of floppy heads: 1 or 2.

           -r rate     Data rate: 250, 300 or 500 kbps.

           -g gap3len  Gap length.

           -i intleave
                       Interleave factor.

           -S secshft  Sector size: 0=128, 1=256, 2=512 bytes.

           -F fillbyte
                       Fill byte.

           -t steps_per_track
                       Number of 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 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 case you
     wish to create a file system on the medium, see the commands newfs(8) for
     an 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(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 an appro-
     priate information written to diagnostic output).

SEE ALSO
     fdc(4),  newfs(8),  newfs_msdos(8)

HISTORY
     Fdformat has been developed for 386BSD 0.1 and upgraded to the new fdc(4)
     floppy disk driver. It later became part of the system.

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

BSD Experimental              September 16, 1993                             1