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Diffstat (limited to 'usr.sbin/fdwrite/fdwrite.1')
-rw-r--r-- | usr.sbin/fdwrite/fdwrite.1 | 117 |
1 files changed, 117 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/usr.sbin/fdwrite/fdwrite.1 b/usr.sbin/fdwrite/fdwrite.1 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a8f527f --- /dev/null +++ b/usr.sbin/fdwrite/fdwrite.1 @@ -0,0 +1,117 @@ +.\" +.\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +.\" "THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42): +.\" <phk@login.dkuug.dk> wrote this file. As long as you retain this notice you +.\" can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think +.\" this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return. Poul-Henning Kamp +.\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +.\" +.\" $Id$ +.\" +.\" +.Dd September 16, 1993 +.Os FreeBSD +.Dt FDWRITE 1 +.Sh NAME +.Nm fdwrite +.Nd format and write floppy disks +.Sh SYNOPSIS +.Nm fdwrite +.Bq Fl v +.Bq Fl f Ar inputfile +.Bq Fl d Ar device +.Sh DESCRIPTION +.Nm Fdwrite +formats and writes one and more floppy disks. +Any floppy disk device capable of formatting can be used. + +.Nm Fdwrite +will ask the user +.Pq on /dev/tty +to insert a new floppy and press return. +The device will then be opened, and queried for it's paramters, +then each track will be formatted, written with data from the +.Ar inputfile , +read back and compared. +When the floppy disk if filled, the process is repeated, with the next disk. +This continues until the program is interrupted or EOF is encountered on the +.Ar inputfile . + +The options are as follows: +.Bl -tag -width 10n -offset indent +.It Fl v +toggles verbosity on stdout. +Default is ``on''. +After +.Ar device +is opened first time the format will be printed. +During operation progress will be reported with the number of tracks +remaining on the current floppy disk, and the letters I, Z, F, W, +R and C, which indicates completion of Input, Zero-fill, Format +Write, Read and Compare of current track respectively. +.It Fl f Ar inputfile +Input file to read. If none is given, stdin is assumed. +.It Fl d Ar device +The name of the floppy device to write to. Default is ``/dev/rfd0''. +.El + +.Nm Fdwrite +actually closes the +.Ar device +while it waits for the user to press return, +it is thus quite possible to use the drive for other purposes at this +time and later resume writing with the next floppy. + +The parameters returned from +.Ar device +are used for formatting. +If custom formatting is needed, please use +.Xr fdformat 1 +instead. + +.Sh EXAMPLE +.Nm Fdwrite +was planned as a tool to make life easier when writing a set of floppies, +one such use could be to write a tar-archive: + +.ce 1 +tar cf - . | gzip -9 | fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v + +The main difference from using +.Xr tar 1 's +multivolume facility is of course the formatting of the floppies, which +here is done on the fly, +thus reducing the amount of work for the floppy-jockey. + +.Sh SEE ALSO +.Xr fdformat 1 . +.Sh HISTORY +.Nm Fdwrite +was written while waiting for ``make world'' to complete. +Some of the code was taken from +.Xr fdformat 1 . +.Sh AUTHOR +The program has been contributed by +Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@login.dknet.dk> +.Sh BUGS +Diagnostics are less than complete at present. + +If a floppy is sick, and the +.Ar inputfile +is seekable, it should ask the user to frisbee the disk, insert +another, and rewind to the right spot and continue. + +This concept could be extended to cover non-seekable input also +by employing a temporary file . + +An option (defaulting to zero) should allow the user to ask for +retries in case of failure. + +At present a suitable tool for reading back a multivolume set +of floppies is missing. +Programs like +.Xr tar 1 +for instance, will do the job, if the data has not been compressed. +One can always trust +.Xr dd 1 +to help out in this situation of course |