NAME

fmthard − populate VTOC on hard disks

SYNOPSIS

/usr/sbin/fmthard [−d data] [−i] [−s datafile]
[−n volume_name] /dev/rdsk/prefix_cXdYs7
 

DESCRIPTION

The fmthard command creates (or updates) the VTOC (Volume Table of Contents) on hard disks; use the dinit command to actually format a hard disk.  The /dev/rdsk/prefix_cXdYs7 file must be slice seven of the character special file of the device where the new VTOC is to be installed.  prefix is the device type, cX is the controller number of that device, dY is the device number for the controller, and sZ is the slice number.  See intro(7) for complete lists of controllers, devices, and slices. 

OPTIONS

The following options apply to fmthard:

−d data
The data argument of this option is a string representing the information for a particular slice in the current VTOC.  The string must be of the format part:tag:flag:start:size where part is the slice number, tag is the ID tag of the slice, flag is the set of permission flags, start is the starting sector number of the slice, and size is the number of sectors in the slice.  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 characters long. 

−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 slice timestamp fields to be set to zero. 

Every VTOC generated by fmthard will also have slice 7 (the whole disk).  Slice 7 is the only slice that can overlap others. 

The datafile contains one specification line for each slice, starting with slice 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:

slice  tag  flag  starting_sector  size_in_sectors

where the entries have the following values:

slice The slice number: 0-15 decimal or 0x0-0xf hexadecimal. 

tag The slice 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_VAR), 0x06 (V_STAND), 0x07 (V_BACKUP) and 0x08(V_HOME). 

flag The flag allows a slice to be flagged as unmountable or read only, the masks being: V_UNMNT 0x01, and V_RONLY 0x10.  For mountable slices use 0x00. 

starting sector The sector number (decimal) on which the slice starts. 

size in sectors The number (decimal) of sectors occupied by the slice. 

Note that you can save the output of a prtvtoc command to a file, edit the file, and use it as the datafile argument to the −s option. 

SEE ALSO

dinit(1M), prtvtoc(1M)

NOTES

Special care should be exercised when overwriting an existing VTOC, as incorrect entries could result in current data being inaccessible.  As a precaution, save the old VTOC. 

A drive is unbootable until the dinit command is executed with the -b option to place a bootstrap on the disk.