rmformat man page on SmartOS

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RMFORMAT(1)							   RMFORMAT(1)

NAME
       rmformat - removable rewritable media format utility

SYNOPSIS
       rmformat [-DeHUv] [-b label] [-c blockno]
	    [-Fquick | long | force ] [-s filename] [devname]

       rmformat -V read | write devname

       rmformat -l [devname]

DESCRIPTION
       The  rmformat  utility is used to format, label, partition, and perform
       other miscellaneous  functions  on  removable,  rewritable  media  that
       include	floppy drives, and the PCMCIA memory and ata cards. The rmfor‐
       mat utility should also be  used with all  USB  mass  storage  devices,
       including  USB hard drives. This utility can also be used for the veri‐
       fication and surface analysis and for repair of the bad	sectors	 found
       during  verification if the drive or the driver supports bad block man‐
       agement.

       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.	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 media size greater than 1 TB, an
	   EFI label is created. 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 capabil‐
	   ity 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
	   hexadecimal 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 with‐
	   out user confirmation before the format is  started.

	   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.

       -l

	   Lists  all  removable  devices.  By	default,  without any options,
	   rmformat also lists all  removable  devices.	 If  the  dev_name  is
	   given,  rmformat lists the device associated with the dev_name. The
	   output shows the  device  pathname,	vendor	information,  and  the
	   device type.

       -s filename

	   Enables  the user to lay out the partition information in the SUNOS
	   label.

	   The user should provide a file as input with information 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 multiple of 512 bytes. These numbers  can
	   be represented as decimal, hexadecimal, or octal numbers. No float‐
	   ing 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	 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
	     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 particular slice, a	 default  value	 for  each  is
	   assumed.  The  default  value for flags is wm and for tags is unas‐
	   signed.

	   Either full tag names can be provided or an	abbreviation  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 & 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 par‐
	   titions or illegal requests to addresses beyond the capacity of the
	   media  under consideration. 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 dis‐
	   played. 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 following # until the end of
	   the line.

	   Partitioning some of the media with very small capacity is  permit‐
	   ted, 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.

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, such as cdrom or rmdisk.

	   For floppy devices, to access the first drive  use  /dev/rdiskette0
	   (for	 systems  without  volume  management) or floppy0 (for systems
	   with volume management). Specify /dev/rdiskette1 (for systems with‐
	   out	volume management) or floppy1 (for systems with volume manage‐
	   ment) 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 Diskette for a UFS File System

       The following example formats a diskette and creates a UFS file system:

	 example$ rmformat -F quick /dev/aliases/floppy0
	 Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
	 Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
	 example$ su
	 # /usr/sbin/newfs /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 3 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 with‐
       out 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 4 Listing All Removable Devices

       The following example shows how to list removable devices. This	output
       shows a long listing of such devices.

	 example$ rmformat -l
	 Looking for devices...
	 Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c5t0d0s2
	 Physical Node: /pci@1e,600000/usb@b/hub@2/storage@4/disk@0,0
	 Connected Device: TEAC	   FD-05PUB	    1026
	 Device Type: Floppy drive
	 Bus: USB
	 Size: 1.4 MB
	 Label: floppy
	 Access permissions: Medium is not write protected.

FILES
       /dev/diskette0

	   Directory  providing	 block	device	access for the media in floppy
	   drive 0.

       /dev/rdiskette0

	   Directory providing character device access for the media in floppy
	   drive 0.

       /dev/aliases

	   Directory providing symbolic links to the character devices for the
	   different media under the control of volume management using appro‐
	   priate alias.

       /dev/aliases/floppy0

	   Symbolic link to the character device for the media in floppy drive
	   0.

       /dev/rdiskette

	   Symbolic link providing character device access for	the  media  in
	   the primary floppy drive, usually drive 0.

       /dev/dsk

	   Directory  providing	 block device access for the PCMCIA memory and
	   ata cards and removable media devices.

       /dev/rdsk

	   Directory providing character device access for the	PCMCIA	memory
	   and ata cards and removable media devices.

       /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/aliases/rmdisk0

	   Symbolic link to the generic removable media device that is	not  a
	   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 devices.

       /dev/dsk

	   Directory providing block device access for the PCMCIA  memory  and
	   ata cards and other removable media devices.

SEE ALSO
       cpio(1),	 eject(1),  fdformat(1),  tar(1),  volcheck(1), volrmmount(1),
       format(1M),   mkfs_pcfs(1M),   mount(1M),    newfs(1M),	  prtvtoc(1M),
       rmmount(1M),  rpc.smserverd(1M),	 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).

       rmformat might not list all removable devices in	 virtualization	 envi‐
       ronments.

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 sector).

				 Feb 19, 2009			   RMFORMAT(1)
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