NAME

format − format floppy disk tracks

SYNOPSIS

/bin/format [−vVE] [−f first] [−l last] [−i interleave] device[t]

DESCRIPTION

The format command formats floppy disks.  Unless otherwise specified, formatting starts at track 0 and continues until an error is returned at the end of a partition. 

The −f and −l options specify the first and last track to be formatted.  The default interleave of 2 may be modified by using the −i option.  Device must specify a raw (character) floppy device.  The t indicates the entire disk.  Absence of this letter indicates that the first track of the diskette cannot be accessed. 

−v verbose. 

−V verify. After tracks are formatted, a random sector is chosen and a write of test data is done into it. The sector is then read back and a comparison is made. 

−E exhaustive verify. Every sector is verified by write/read/compare. 

FILES

/dev/rdsk/∗     raw device for partition to be formatted

SEE ALSO

mkpart(1M), fd(7). 

\*U  —  Version 1.0