2.11BSD/src/usr.sbin/rxformat/rxformat.8

.\" Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.  The Berkeley software License Agreement
.\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
.\"
.\"	@(#)rxformat.8	6.4.1 (2.11BSD) 1996/11/17
.\"
.TH RXFORMAT 8 "November 17, 1996"
.UC 2
.SH NAME
rxformat \- format floppy disks (2.11BSD)
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B rxformat
special
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.I rxformat
program formats a diskette in the specified drive
associated with the special device
.IR special .
.I Special
is normally /dev/rrx0?, for drive 0, or /dev/rrx1?,
for drive 1,
where ``?'' is either "a" or "b" to indicate single or double density
access.  The ``raw'' device must be used.
Single density is compatible 
with the IBM 3740 standard (128 bytes/sector). 
In double density, each sector
contains 256 bytes of data.
.PP
Before formatting a diskette
.I rxformat
prompts for verification if standard input is a tty
(this allows a user to cleanly
abort the operation; note that
formatting a diskette will destroy any existing data).
Formatting is done by the hardware.
All sectors are zero-filled.
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
`No such device' means that the drive is not ready, 
usually because no disk is in the drive or the drive door is open.
Other error messages are selfexplanatory.
.SH FILES
/dev/rrx??
.SH SEE ALSO
rx(4)
.SH AUTHOR
Helge Skrivervik
.SH BUGS
A floppy may not be formatted if the
header info on sector 1, track 0 has been damaged.  Hence, it is not
possible to format a completely degaussed disk. 
(This is actually a problem in the hardware.)