FFD(8)

NAME
ffd - format micro diskette.

SYNOPSIS
/usr/acorn/ffd [-f] [-F] [-w] [-n] [-a|b] [fd-type]
/usr/acorn/ffd512 [-f] [-F] [-w] [-n] [-a|b]
/usr/acorn/ffd256 [-f] [-F] [-w] [-n] [-a|b]

DESCRIPTION
Ffd formats a micro diskette using the specified floppy device type if one is given. If no type is specified, then a type name is looked for as the value of the environment variable FLOPPY; if this is not defined then the type f1024 is assumed. The possible types are [vf]1024, [vf]512, [vf]256, adfs and msdos. The prefix v or f on the numeric types is optional, and selects between the variable and fixed format floppy disc devices; if it is omitted, f is assumed. Any other type name will be rejected as invalid.

The disc will be physically formatted according to the basic parameters of the device accessed as /dev/rfd{v,f}type (see fd(4)); the types adfs and msdos are equivalent respectively to f1024 and f512 for this purpose. One of the suffices "a" or "b" will be added if the flag -a or -b was supplied; this allows access to the second drive in a twin drive system, for example /dev/rfdf1024a for the built-in drive and /dev/rfdf1024b for any additional drive fitted (again see fd(4)). Unless the -f flag is supplied, ffd will as a safety measure request confirmation from the user's terminal before the format operation is started.

Options to the command control additional checks done immediately after the initial formatting operation.

By default, the disc is read-verified after formatting. If the -n option is supplied, this step will be omitted.

If the -w option is supplied, the disc is write-verified by writing zeroes to every sector.

Additionally, if the device type is adfs or msdos and the verification stage (if any) succeeds, the disc contents are then initialised to contain an empty ADFS or MS-DOS filesystem structure, respectively. If the -F flag is supplied in either of these cases, it will be passed on to the utility used to initialise the disc data structures (see wrmsdos(1) and wradfs(1)).

The commands ffd512 and ffd256 are similar to ffd, except that the default device types are f512 and f256 respectively, instead of f1024.

In fact all three commands are links to the same program.

FILES
/dev/rfd{v,f}{1024,512,256}[{a,b}] - floppy devices /usr/acorn/wradfs - to initialise ADFS structure /usr/acorn/wrmsdos - to initialise MS-DOS structure

SEE ALSO
adfsls(1), adfscat(1), adfscp(1), wradfs(1), msdosls(1), msdoscat(1), msdoscp(1), wrmsdos(1), fd(4), flpop(8).

NOTE
The initialisation for device types adfs and msdos is performed by executing one of the appropriate commands wradfs or wrmsdos with the -i argument.

DIAGNOSTICS
A message is output to denote satisfactory completion, or if the diskette could not be formatted a message is output giving the track and side where the first error was encountered.

WARNINGS
All data on the diskette is destroyed by ffd.