4.3BSD-UWisc/man/cat8/rxformat.8v

RXFORMAT(8V)        UNIX Programmer's Manual         RXFORMAT(8V)



NAME
     rxformat - format floppy disks

SYNOPSIS
     /etc/rxformat [ -d ] special

DESCRIPTION
     The _r_x_f_o_r_m_a_t program formats a diskette in the specified
     drive associated with the special device _s_p_e_c_i_a_l.  ( _S_p_e_c_i_a_l
     is normally /dev/rx0, for drive 0, or /dev/rx1, for drive
     1.) By default, the diskette is formatted single density; a
     -d flag may be supplied to force double density formatting.
     Single density is compatible with the IBM 3740 standard (128
     bytes/sector). In double density, each sector contains 256
     bytes of data.

     Before formatting a diskette _r_x_f_o_r_m_a_t prompts for verifica-
     tion 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.

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.

FILES
     /dev/rx?

SEE ALSO
     rx(4V)

AUTHOR
     Helge Skrivervik

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.)














Printed 12/27/86          June 3, 1986                          1