rmformat(1)
NAME
rmformat - removable rewritable media format utility
SYNOPSIS
rmformat [-DeHpUv] [-b label] [-c blockno] [-Fquick | long |
force ] [-R enable | disable ] [-s filename] [-w enable |
disable] [-W enable | disable] [devname]
rmformat -V read | write devname
DESCRIPTION
The rmformat utility is used to format, label, partition,
and perform other miscellaneous functions on removable,
rewritable media that include floppy drives, IOMEGA Zip/Jaz
products, and the PCMCIA memory and ata cards. In addition,
the rmformat utility should also be used with all USB mass
storage devices, including USB hard drives. This utility can
also be used for the verification and surface 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 a password. The password protection
enabling or disabling is possible only with selective
rewritable 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 memory cards 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 the help of other options provided by rmformat.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-b label
Labels the media with a SUNOS label. A SUNOS volume
label name is restricted to 8 characters. For writing
a DOS Volume label, the user should use mkfs_pcfs(1M).
-c blockno
Corrects and repairs the given block. This correct and
repair option may not be applicable to all devices
supported by rmformat, as some devices may have a
drive with bad block management capability and others
may have this option implemented in the driver. If the
drive or driver supports bad block management, a best
effort is made to rectify the bad block. If the bad
block still cannot be rectified, a message is
displayed to indicate the failure to repair. The block
number can be provided in decimal, octal, or hexade-
cimal format.
The normal floppy and PCMCIA memory and ata cards do
not support bad block management.
-D Formats a 720KB (3.5 inch) double density diskette.
This is the default for double density type drives.
This option is needed if the drive is a high or
extended-density type.
-e Ejects the media upon completion. This feature may not
be available if the drive does not support motorized
eject.
-F quick | long | force
Formats 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 pass-
word protection, force starts a long format.
In legacy media such as floppy drives, all options
start a long format depending on the mode (Extended
Density mode, High Density mode, or Double Density
mode) with which the floppy drive operates by default.
On PCMCIA memory cards, all options start a long for-
mat.
-H Formats 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 Prints the protection status of the media. This option
prints information whether the media is write, read,
or password protected.
-R enable | disable
Enables read/write protection with a password or
disables the password read/write protection. This
always works in interactive mode, as the password is
requested from the user in an interactive manner to
maintain security.
A password length of 32 bytes (maximum) is allowed for
the IOMEGA products that support this feature. This
option is applicable only for IOMEGA products. IOMEGA
products do not allow read/write protection without a
password. On the devices which do not have such
software read/write protect facility, warnings indi-
cating the non-availability of this feature are pro-
vided.
-s filename
Enables the user to lay out the partition information
in the SUNOS label.
The user should provide a file as input with informa-
tion about each slice in a format providing byte
offset, size required, tags, and flags, as follows:
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 are accepted. Details about maximum
number of slices can be obtained from the System
Administration Guide: Basic Administration.
To specify the size or offset in kilobytes, megabytes,
or gigabytes, 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
ru = read-only, unmountable
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, a default value for each is assumed.
The default value for flags is wm and 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 the first two or more letters from the standard tag
names. rmformat is case insensitive in handling the
defined tags and 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 requests to
addresses beyond the capacity of the media under con-
sideration. There can be only one slice information
entry for each slice n. If multiple slice information
entries for the same slice n are provided, an
appropriate error message is displayed. The slice 2 is
the backup slice covering the whole disk capacity.
The pound sign character, #, can be used to describe a
line of comments in the input file. If the line starts
with #, then rmformat ignores all the characters fol-
lowing # until the end of the line.
Partitioning some of the media with very small capa-
city is permitted, but be cautious in using this
option on such devices.
-U Performs 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
Verifies 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 as 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.
-w enable | disable
Enables or disables the write protection on media. On
devices that do not have a software write protect
facility, a message indicating non-availability of
this feature is displayed.
-W enable | disable
Enables or disables write protection with password.
This option always works in interactive mode, as a
password is requested from the user to maintain secu-
rity.
A maximum password length of 32 bytes is allowed for
IOMEGA products that support this feature. On devices
that do not have the write protection with password,
the software displays appropriate messages indicating
the non-availability of such features.
OPERANDS
The following operand is supported:
devname
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 the
System Volume manager. See vold(1M).
For floppy devices, to access the first drive use
/dev/rdiskette0 (for systems without volume manage-
ment) or floppy0 (for systems with volume management).
Specify /dev/rdiskette1 (for systems without volume
management) or floppy1 (for systems with volume
management) to use the second drive.
For systems without volume management running, the
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.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: Formatting a diskette
example$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdiskette
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
Example 2: Formatting a Zip drive
example$ rmformat -F quick /vol/dev/aliases/zip0
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
Example 3: Formatting a diskette for a UFS file system
The following example formats a diskette and creates a UFS
file system:
example$ rmformat -F quick /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
example$ su
# /usr/sbin/newfs /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0
newfs: construct a new file system /dev/rdiskette: (y/n)? y
/dev/rdiskette: 2880 sectors in 80 cylinders of 2 tracks, 18 sectors
1.4MB in 5 cyl groups (16 c/g, 0.28MB/g, 128 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -F ufs -o b=#) at:
32, 640, 1184, 1792, 2336,
#
Example 4: Formatting removable media for a PCFS file system
The following example shows how to create an alternate fdisk
partition:
example$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
example$ su
# fdisk /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c
# mkfs -F pcfs /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c
Construct a new FAT file system on /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c: (y/n)? y
#
The following example describes how to create a PCFS file
system without an fdisk partition:
example$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdiskette
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
example$ su
# mkfs -F pcfs -o nofdisk,size=2 /dev/rdiskette
Construct a new FAT file system on /dev/rdiskette: (y/n)? y
#
Example 5: Enabling or disabling read or write protection
The following example shows how to enable write protection
and set a password on a Zip drive:
example$ rmformat -W enable /vol/dev/aliases/zip0
Please enter password (32 chars maximum): xxx
Please reenter password: xxx
The following example shows how to disable write protection
and remove the password on a Zip drive:
example$ rmformat -W disable /vol/dev/aliases/zip0
Please enter password (32 chars maximum): xxx
The following example shows how to enable read protection
and set a password on a Zip drive:
example$ rmformat -R enable /vol/dev/aliases/zip0
Please enter password (32 chars maximum): xxx
Please reenter password: xxx
The following example shows how to disable read protection
and remove the password on a Zip drive:
example$ rmformat -R disable /vol/dev/aliases/zip0
Please enter password (32 chars maximum): xxx
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 and ata cards and removable media devices.
/vol/dev/rdsk
Directory providing character device access for the
PCMCIA memory and ata cards and removable media dev-
ices.
/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.
/vol/dev/aliases/rmdisk0
Symbolic link to the generic removable media device
that is not a Zip, Jaz, CD-ROM, floppy, DVD-ROM,
PCMCIA memory card, and so forth.
/dev/rdsk
Directory providing character device access for the
PCMCIA memory and ata cards and other removable dev-
ices.
/dev/dsk
Directory providing block device access for the PCMCIA
memory and ata cards and other removable media dev-
ices.
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), rpc.smserved(1M), vold(1M), rmmount.conf(4),
vold.conf(4), attributes(5), scsa2usb(7D), sd(7D),
pcfs(7FS), udfs(7FS)
System Administration Guide: Basic Administration
NOTES
A rewritable media or PCMCIA memory card or PCMCIA ata 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 any removable media
containing ufs between these platforms; use cpio(1) or
tar(1) to transfer files on diskettes or memory cards
between them. For interchangeable filesystems refer to
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 card is unusable if rmformat finds an error (bad sec-
tor).
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