rmformat(1) 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
rmformat -l [devname]
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.
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 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. 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 password 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 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.
With vold, devices without media are not listed.
-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 soft-
ware read/write protect facility, warnings indicating the non-availability of this feature are provided.
-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 .
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.
-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 security.
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.
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 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.
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
Example 6: Listing all removable devices
The following example shows how to list removable devices. This output shows that vold is on.
example$ rmformat -l
Looking for devices...
1. Volmgt Node: /vol/dev/aliases/rmdisk1
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
/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
devices.
/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
devices.
/dev/dsk Directory providing block device access for the PCMCIA memory and ata cards and other removable media
devices.
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE |ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Availability |SUNWcsu |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
cpio(1), eject(1), fdformat(1), tar(1), volcancel(1), volcheck(1), volmissing(1), volrmmount(1), format(1M), mkfs_pcfs(1M), mount(1M),
newfs(1M), prtvtoc(1M), rmmount(1M), rpc.smserverd(1M), vold(1M), rmmount.conf(4), vold.conf(4), attributes(5), scsa2usb(7D), sd(7D),
pcfs(7FS), udfs(7FS)
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 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).
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).
14 Feb 2005 rmformat(1)