rmformat
User Commands rmformat(1)NAME
rmformat - removable rewritable media format utilitySYNOPSIS
rmformat [ -DeHpUv ] [ -b label ] [ -c blockno ] [ -Fquick | long | force ] [ -R enable | disable ] -s filename [ -V read | write ] [ -w enable | disable ] [ -W enable | disable ] [ devname ]DESCRIPTION
The rmformat utility is used to format, label, partition and and perform other miscellaneous functions on removable rewritable media. These removable rewritable media include floppy diskette, IOMEGA ZIP/Jaz and the PCMCIA memory cards. This utility can also be used for the verification and sur- face analysis and for repair of the bad sectors found during verification if the drive or the driver supports bad block management. rmformat provides functionality to read/write protect the media with or without password. The password protection ena- bling or disabling is possible only with selective rewrit- able media such as the IOMEGA ZIP/JAZ products. After formatting, rmformat writes the label which covers the full capacity of the media as one slice on floppy and PCMCIA devices to maintain compatibility with the behavior of fdformat. On ZIP/JAZ devices, the driver exports one slice covering the full capacity of the disk as default. rmformat does not write the label on ZIP/JAZ media, unless explicitly requested. The partition information can be changed with help of other options provided by rmformat.OPTIONS
The following options are supported: -b label Label the media with SUNOS label. A SUNOS volume label name is restricted to 8 characters. For writing DOS Volume label user should use mkfs_pcfs(1M). -c blockno Correct and repair the given block. This correct and repair option may not be applicable to all devices supported by rmformat as some device may have bad block management done by the drive and others may have this implemented in the driver. If the drive supports bad block management or the driver supports bad block management, a best effort is made to rectify the bad block. If the bad block cannot be rectified despite the best effort mechanism, a message is displayed to indicate the failure to repair. The block number can SunOS 5.8 Last change: 16 Mar 2000 1 User Commands rmformat(1) be provided in decimal or octal or hexadecimal format. The normal floppy and PCMCIA memory cards do not sup- port bad block management. -D Format a 720KB (3.5 inch) double density diskette.This is the default for double density type drives. This is needed if the drive is high or extended-density type. -e Eject the media when done. This feature may not be available if the drive does not support motorized eject. -F quick | long | force Format the media. The quick option starts a format without certification or format with limited certification of certain tracks on the media. The long option starts a complete format. For some devices this might include the certification of the whole media by the drive itself. The force option to format is provided to start a long format without user confirmation before the format is started. For drives which have a password protection mechanism, it clears the password while formatting. This feature is useful when a password is no longer available. On those media which do not have such password protection on the media, force starts a long format. In legacy media such as floppy all options start a long format epending on the mode (Extended density mode or High density mode or Double Density mode) with which the floppy drive operates by default. On PCMCIA devices, all options start a long format. -H Format a 1.44 MB (3.5 inch) high density diskette. This is the default for high density type drives. It is needed if the drive is the extended density type. -p Print the protection status of the media. This option prints information whether the media is write, read, or password protected. -R enable | disable Enable read/write protect with password or to disable the password read/write protect. This always works in interactive mode, as the password is requested from the user in a interactive manner maintaining the SunOS 5.8 Last change: 16 Mar 2000 2 User Commands rmformat(1) security required. A password length of 32 bytes (maximum) is allowed for the IOMEGA products which support this feature. This option is applicable only for IOMEGA products. IOMEGA products do not allow read/write protect without pass- word. On the devices which do not have such software read/write protect facility, warnings indicating the non-availability of this feature are provided. -s filename Enable user to layout the partition information in the SUNOS label. The user should provide a file as input with informa- tion about each slice in the form of byte offset, size required, tags and flags in a file. The format of representing each slice is given below. slices: n = offset, size [, flags, tags] where n is the slice number, offset is the byte offset at which the slice n starts and size is the required size for slice n. Both offset and size must be a mul- tiple of 512 bytes. These numbers can be represented as decimal, hexadecimal or octal numbers. No floating point numbers shall be accepted. Details about maximum number of slices can be obtained from System Adminis- tration Guide, Volume 1. To specify the size or offset in kilo bytes or mega bytes or giga bytes, add KB, MB, GB, respectively. A number without a suffix is assumed to be a byte offset. The flags are represented as follows: wm = read-write, mountable, wu = read-write, unmountable rm = read-only, mountable, ru = read-only, unmount- able. The tags are represented as follows: unassigned, boot, root, swap, usr, backup, stand, var, home, alternates. The tags and flags can be omitted from the four tuple when finer control on those values is not required. It is required to omit both or include both. If the tags and flags are omitted from the four tuple for a par- ticular slice then a default value for each is assumed. The default value for flags is wm and the default value for tags is unassigned. Either full tag names can be provided or an abbrevia- tion for the tags can be used. The abbreviations can be first two or more letter from the standard tag SunOS 5.8 Last change: 16 Mar 2000 3 User Commands rmformat(1) names. rmformat is case insensitive in handling the defined tags & flags. Slice specifications are separated by : For example: slices: 0 = 0, 30MB, "wm", "home" : 1 = 30MB, 51MB : 2 = 0, 100MB, "wm", "backup" : 6 = 81MB, 19MB rmformat does the necessary checking to detect any overlapping partitions or illegal request to address beyond the capacity of the media under consideration. There can be only one slice information for each slice n, if multiple slice information for the same slice n is provided an approriate error message is displayed. The slice 2 be the backup slice covering the whole disk capacity. The character # can be used to describe a line of comments in the input file. If the line starts with character #, then rmformat ignores all the characters following # until the end of the line. Partitioning some of the media which has very small capacity works, but caution is recommended using this option on such devices. -U Perform umount on any file systems and then formats. See mount(1M). This option unmounts all the mounted slices and issues a long format on the device requested. -V read | write Verify each block of media after format. The write verification is a destructive mechanism. The user is queried for confirmation before the verification is started. The output of this option is a list of block numbers, which are identified to be bad. The read verification only verifies the blocks and report the blocks which are prone to errors. The list of block numbers displayed can be used with the -c option for repairing.OPERANDS
The following operands are supported: devname SunOS 5.8 Last change: 16 Mar 2000 4 User Commands rmformat(1) devname can be provided as absolute device pathname or relative pathname for the device from the current working directory or the nickname as exported by Sys- tem Volume manager. See vold(1M). For floppy device /dev/rdiskette0 (for system without volume management) or floppy0 system( with volume management) can be used. To use the first drive, specify /dev/rdiskette1 (for system without volume management), or floppy1 system( with volume manage- ment) to use the second drive. For system without volume management running, user can also provide the absolute device pathname as /dev/rdsk/c?t?d?s? or the appropriate relative device pathname from the current working directory.FILES
/vol/dev/diskette0 Directory providing block device access for the media in floppy drive 0. /vol/dev/rdiskette0 Directory providing character device access for the media in floppy drive 0. /vol/dev/aliases" Directory providing symbolic links to the character devices for the different media under the control of volume management using appropriate alias. /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0 Symbolic link to the character device for the media in floppy drive 0. /vol/dev/aliases/zip0 Symbolic link to the character device for the media in Zip drive 0. /vol/dev/aliases/jaz0 Symbolic link to the character device for the media in Jaz drive 0 /dev/rdiskette Symbolic link providing character device access for the media in the primary floppy drive, usually drive 0. /vol/dev/dsk Directory providing block device access for the PCMCIA memory card and removable media devices. SunOS 5.8 Last change: 16 Mar 2000 5 User Commands rmformat(1) /vol/dev/rdsk Directory providing character device access for the PCMCIA memory card and removable media devices. /vol/dev/aliases/pcmemS Symbolic link to the character device for the PCMCIA memory card in socket S, where S represents a PCMCIA socket number. /dev/rdsk Directory providing character device access for the PCMCIA memory card and other removable devices. /dev/dsk Directory providing block device access for the PCMCIA memory card and other removable media devices.ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri- butes: ____________________________________________________________ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | |_____________________________|_____________________________| | Availability | SUNWcsu | |_____________________________|_____________________________|SEE ALSO
cpio(1), eject(1), fdformat(1), tar(1), volcancel(1), vol- check(1), volmissing(1), volrmmount(1), format(1M), mkfs_pcfs(1M), mount(1M), newfs(1M), prtvtoc(1M), rmmount(1M), vold(1M),rmmount.conf(4), vold.conf(4), attri- butes(5),NOTES
A rewritable media or PCMCIA memory card containing a ufs file system created on a SPARC based system ( using newfs(1M)) is not identical to a rewritable media or PCMCIA memory card containing a ufs file system created on an x86 based system. Do not interchange ufs diskettes or memory cards between these platforms; use cpio(1) or tar(1) to transfer files on diskettes or memory cards between them. For interchangeable filesystem refer pcfs(7FS) and udfs(7FS). BUGS Currently, bad sector mapping is not supported on floppy diskettes or PCMCIA memory cards. Therefore, a diskette or memory cards is unusable if rmformat finds an error (bad sector). SunOS 5.8 Last change: 16 Mar 2000 6