rmformat(1)							   User Commands						       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 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.

       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 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 recti-
	   fied, a message is displayed to indicate the failure to repair. The block number can be provided in decimal, octal, or hexadecimal for-
	   mat.

	   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.

	   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 format.

       -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 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 particular 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 abbreviation for the tags can be used. The abbreviations can be the first two or more  let-
	   ters 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 partitions 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 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 following # until the end of the line.

	   Partitioning some of the media with very small capacity 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 for-
	   mat 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 nick-
	   name, 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 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 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 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 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.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWrmvolmgr		   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

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  inter-
       change  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 environments.

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).

SunOS 5.11							    19 Feb 2009 						       rmformat(1)