fmthard(1M) MISC. REFERENCE MANUAL PAGES fmthard(1M)
NAME
fmthard - populate VTOC on hard disks
SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/fmthard [-c core_disk_type] [-d data] [-i] [-s
datafile]
[-n volume_name] /dev/rdsk/[ct]?d?s?
DESCRIPTION
The fmthard command creates (or updates) the VTOC (Volume
Table of Contents) on hard disks. The /dev/rdsk/[ct]?d?s?
file must be the character special file of the device where
the new VTOC is to be installed.
OPTIONS
The following options apply to fmthard:
-d data
The data argument of this option is a string represent-
ing the information for a particular partition in the
current VTOC. The string must be of the format
part:tag:flag:start:size where part is the partition
number, tag is the ID tag of the partition, flag is the
set of permission flags, start is the starting sector
number of the partition, and size is the number of sec-
tors in the partition. See the description of the
datafile below for more information on these fields.
-i Lets the command create the desired VTOC table, but
prints the information to standard output instead of
modifying the VTOC on the disk.
-n volume_name
Allows the disk to be given a volume_name up to 8 char-
acters long.
-c core_disk_type
The three core disk configurations are: "0" (single
disk configuration), "1" (first disk of a dual disk
configuration), and "2" (second disk of a dual disk
configuration). Core disk configuration requires disk
size to be at least 32MB.
Disk Configuration PartitionUsed For
0 0 root
1 swap
2 usr
8 var
9 home (remaining space)
1 0 root
1 swap
8 home (remaining space)
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2 2 usr
8 var
a home2 (remaining space)
-s datafile
The VTOC is populated according to a datafile created
by the user. The datafile format is described below.
This option causes all of the disk partition timestamp
fields to be set to zero.
If no options are given, a default VTOC is created with par-
tition a (see the description of the -c option, above) as
the only mountable partition. Every VTOC generated by
fmthard will also have partition 6 (the whole disk) and par-
tition 7 (the boot partition). Partition 6 is the only par-
tition that can overlap others.
The datafile contains one specification line for each parti-
tion, starting with partition 0. Each line is delimited by
a new-line character (\n). If the first character of a line
is an asterisk (*), the line is treated as a comment. Each
line is composed of entries that are position-dependent,
separated by "white space" and having the following format:
partition tag flag starting_sector size_in_sectors
where the entries have the following values.
partition The partition number: 0-15 decimal or 0x0-
0xf hexadecimal.
tag The partition tag: a two-digit hex number.
The following are reserved codes: 0x01
(V_BOOT), 0x02 (V_ROOT), 0x03 (V_SWAP),
0x04 (V_USR), 0x05 (V_BACKUP), 0x06
(V_STAND), 0x07 (V_VAR) and 0x08(V_HOME).
flag The flag allows a partition to be flagged
as unmountable or read only, the masks
being: V_UNMNT 0x01, and V_RONLY 0x10.
For mountable partitions use 0x00.
starting sector The sector number (decimal) on which the
partition starts.
size in sectors The number (decimal) of sectors occupied by
the partition. Note that you can save the
output of a prtvtoc command to a file, edit
the file, and use it as the datafile argu-
ment to the -s option.
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SEE ALSO
prtvtoc(1M), newboot(1M).
NOTES
Special care should be exercised when overwriting an exist-
ing VTOC, as incorrect entries could result in current data
being inaccessible. As a precaution, save the old VTOC.
After using fmthard on a bootable drive, you must execute
newboot on that drive. newboot should also be executed
after mirroring any partition on a bootable disk (executing
either sysadm rootsetup or sysadm mirror). If newboot is
not executed after fmthard, then the drive will become
unbootable and may require a partial restore. Do not do a
partial restore while root and /usr are mirrored. When
using the -s option, the user must allocate at least two
sectors, beginning with sector 0, for the VTOC. This is
normally designated as partition 7. Failure to allocate
space for the VTOC may result in overwriting the VTOC,
thereby destroying the disk partitioning information.
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