RXFORMAT(8) BSD System Manager's Manual RXFORMAT(8)NAMErxformat — format floppy disks
SYNOPSISrxformat [-d] special
DESCRIPTION
The rxformat program formats a diskette in the specified drive associated
with the special device special. (Special is normally /dev/rx0, for
drive 0, or /dev/rx1, for drive 1.)
Available option:
-d Force double density formatting. By default, the diskette is
formatted single density; 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 rxformat prompts for verification if stan‐
dard input is a tty (this allows a user to cleanly abort the operation;
note that formatting a diskette will destroy any existing data). Format‐
ting 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 ALSOrx(4)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 DEC hardware.)
HISTORY
The rxformat command appeared in 4.2BSD.
4.2 Berkeley Distribution March 16, 1991 4.2 Berkeley Distribution