1rmformat(1) User Commands rmformat(1)
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6 rmformat - removable rewritable media format utility
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9 rmformat [-DeHUv] [-b label] [-c blockno]
10 [-Fquick | long | force ] [-s filename] [devname]
11 rmformat -V read | write devname
14 rmformat -l [devname]
17
20 The rmformat utility is used to format, label, partition, and perform
21 other miscellaneous functions on removable, rewritable media that
22 include floppy drives, and the PCMCIA memory and ata cards. The rmfor‐
23 mat utility should also be used with all USB mass storage devices,
24 including USB hard drives. This utility can also be used for the veri‐
25 fication and surface analysis and for repair of the bad sectors found
26 during verification if the drive or the driver supports bad block man‐
27 agement.
28 After formatting, rmformat writes the label, which covers the full
31 capacity of the media as one slice on floppy and PCMCIA memory cards to
32 maintain compatibility with the behavior of fdformat. The partition
33 information can be changed with the help of other options provided by
34 rmformat.
35
37 The following options are supported:
38 -b label
40 Labels the media with a SUNOS label. A SUNOS volume label name is
42 restricted to 8 characters. For media size greater than 1 TB, an
43 EFI label is created. For writing a DOS Volume label, the user
44 should use mkfs_pcfs(1M).
45 -c blockno
48 Corrects and repairs the given block. This correct and repair
50 option may not be applicable to all devices supported by rmformat,
51 as some devices may have a drive with bad block management capabil‐
52 ity and others may have this option implemented in the driver. If
53 the drive or driver supports bad block management, a best effort is
54 made to rectify the bad block. If the bad block still cannot be
55 rectified, a message is displayed to indicate the failure to
56 repair. The block number can be provided in decimal, octal, or
57 hexadecimal format.
58 The normal floppy and PCMCIA memory and ata cards do not support
60 bad block management.
61 -D
64 Formats a 720KB (3.5 inch) double density diskette. This is the
66 default for double density type drives. This option is needed if
67 the drive is a high or extended-density type.
68 -e
71 Ejects the media upon completion. This feature may not be available
73 if the drive does not support motorized eject.
74 -F quick | long | force
77 Formats the media.
79 The quick option starts a format without certification or format
81 with limited certification of certain tracks on the media.
82 The long option starts a complete format. For some devices this
84 might include the certification of the whole media by the drive
85 itself.
86 The force option to format is provided to start a long format with‐
88 out user confirmation before the format is started.
89 In legacy media such as floppy drives, all options start a long
91 format depending on the mode (Extended Density mode, High Density
92 mode, or Double Density mode) with which the floppy drive operates
93 by default. On PCMCIA memory cards, all options start a long for‐
94 mat.
95 -H
98 Formats a 1.44 MB (3.5 inch) high density diskette. This is the
100 default for high density type drives. It is needed if the drive is
101 the Extended Density type.
102 -l
105 Lists all removable devices. By default, without any options,
107 rmformat also lists all removable devices. If the dev_name is
108 given, rmformat lists the device associated with the dev_name. The
109 output shows the device pathname, vendor information, and the
110 device type.
111 -s filename
114 Enables the user to lay out the partition information in the SUNOS
116 label.
117 The user should provide a file as input with information about each
119 slice in a format providing byte offset, size required, tags, and
120 flags, as follows:
121 slices: n = offset, size [, flags, tags]
123 where n is the slice number, offset is the byte offset at which the
126 slice n starts, and size is the required size for slice n. Both
127 offset and size must be a multiple of 512 bytes. These numbers can
128 be represented as decimal, hexadecimal, or octal numbers. No float‐
129 ing point numbers are accepted. Details about maximum number of
130 slices can be obtained from the System Administration Guide: Basic
131 Administration.
132 To specify the size or offset in kilobytes, megabytes, or giga‐
134 bytes, add KB, MB, GB, respectively. A number without a suffix is
135 assumed to be a byte offset. The flags are represented as follows:
136 wm = read-write, mountable
138 wu = read-write, unmountable
139 ru = read-only, unmountable
140 The tags are represented as follows: unassigned, boot, root, swap,
143 usr, backup, stand, var, home, alternates.
144 The tags and flags can be omitted from the four tuple when finer
146 control on those values is not required. It is required to omit
147 both or include both. If the tags and flags are omitted from the
148 four tuple for a particular slice, a default value for each is
149 assumed. The default value for flags is wm and for tags is unas‐
150 signed.
151 Either full tag names can be provided or an abbreviation for the
153 tags can be used. The abbreviations can be the first two or more
154 letters from the standard tag names. rmformat is case insensitive
155 in handling the defined tags & flags.
156 Slice specifications are separated by :
158 For example:
160 slices: 0 = 0, 30MB, "wm", "home" :
162 1 = 30MB, 51MB :
163 2 = 0, 100MB, "wm", "backup" :
164 6 = 81MB, 19MB
165 rmformat does the necessary checking to detect any overlapping par‐
168 titions or illegal requests to addresses beyond the capacity of the
169 media under consideration. There can be only one slice information
170 entry for each slice n. If multiple slice information entries for
171 the same slice n are provided, an appropriate error message is dis‐
172 played. The slice 2 is the backup slice covering the whole disk
173 capacity. The pound sign character, #, can be used to describe a
174 line of comments in the input file. If the line starts with #, then
175 rmformat ignores all the characters following # until the end of
176 the line.
177 Partitioning some of the media with very small capacity is permit‐
179 ted, but be cautious in using this option on such devices.
180 -U
183 Performs umount on any file systems and then formats. See
185 mount(1M). This option unmounts all the mounted slices and issues a
186 long format on the device requested.
187 -V read | write
190 Verifies each block of media after format. The write verification
192 is a destructive mechanism. The user is queried for confirmation
193 before the verification is started. The output of this option is a
194 list of block numbers, which are identified as bad.
195 The read verification only verifies the blocks and report the
197 blocks which are prone to errors.
198 The list of block numbers displayed can be used with the -c option
200 for repairing.
201
204 The following operand is supported:
205 devname
207 devname can be provided as absolute device pathname or relative
209 pathname for the device from the current working directory or the
210 nickname, such as cdrom or rmdisk.
211 For floppy devices, to access the first drive use /dev/rdiskette0
213 (for systems without volume management) or floppy0 (for systems
214 with volume management). Specify /dev/rdiskette1 (for systems with‐
215 out volume management) or floppy1 (for systems with volume manage‐
216 ment) to use the second drive.
217 For systems without volume management running, the user can also
219 provide the absolute device pathname as /dev/rdsk/c?t?d?s? or the
220 appropriate relative device pathname from the current working
221 directory.
222
225 Example 1 Formatting a Diskette
226 example$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdiskette
228 Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
229 Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
230 Example 2 Formatting a Diskette for a UFS File System
234 The following example formats a diskette and creates a UFS file system:
237 example$ rmformat -F quick /dev/aliases/floppy0
240 Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
241 Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
242 example$ su
243 # /usr/sbin/newfs /dev/aliases/floppy0
244 newfs: construct a new file system /dev/rdiskette: (y/n)? y
245 /dev/rdiskette: 2880 sectors in 80 cylinders of 2 tracks, 18 sectors
246 1.4MB in 5 cyl groups (16 c/g, 0.28MB/g, 128 i/g)
247 super-block backups (for fsck -F ufs -o b=#) at:
248 32, 640, 1184, 1792, 2336,
249 #
250 Example 3 Formatting Removable Media for a PCFS File System
254 The following example shows how to create an alternate fdisk partition:
257 example$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c
260 Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
261 Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
262 example$ su
263 # fdisk /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c
264 # mkfs -F pcfs /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c
265 Construct a new FAT file system on /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c: (y/n)? y
266 #
267 The following example describes how to create a PCFS file system with‐
272 out an fdisk partition:
273 example$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdiskette
276 Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
277 Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
278 example$ su
279 # mkfs -F pcfs -o nofdisk,size=2 /dev/rdiskette
280 Construct a new FAT file system on /dev/rdiskette: (y/n)? y
281 #
282 Example 4 Listing All Removable Devices
286 The following example shows how to list removable devices. This output
289 shows a long listing of such devices.
290 example$ rmformat -l
293 Looking for devices...
294 Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c5t0d0s2
295 Physical Node: /pci@1e,600000/usb@b/hub@2/storage@4/disk@0,0
296 Connected Device: TEAC FD-05PUB 1026
297 Device Type: Floppy drive
298 Bus: USB
299 Size: 1.4 MB
300 Label: floppy
301 Access permissions: Medium is not write protected.
302
306 /dev/diskette0
307 Directory providing block device access for the media in floppy
309 drive 0.
310 /dev/rdiskette0
313 Directory providing character device access for the media in floppy
315 drive 0.
316 /dev/aliases
319 Directory providing symbolic links to the character devices for the
321 different media under the control of volume management using appro‐
322 priate alias.
323 /dev/aliases/floppy0
326 Symbolic link to the character device for the media in floppy drive
328 0.
329 /dev/rdiskette
332 Symbolic link providing character device access for the media in
334 the primary floppy drive, usually drive 0.
335 /dev/dsk
338 Directory providing block device access for the PCMCIA memory and
340 ata cards and removable media devices.
341 /dev/rdsk
344 Directory providing character device access for the PCMCIA memory
346 and ata cards and removable media devices.
347 /dev/aliases/pcmemS
350 Symbolic link to the character device for the PCMCIA memory card in
352 socket S, where S represents a PCMCIA socket number.
353 /dev/aliases/rmdisk0
356 Symbolic link to the generic removable media device that is not a
358 CD-ROM, floppy, DVD-ROM, PCMCIA memory card, and so forth.
359 /dev/rdsk
362 Directory providing character device access for the PCMCIA memory
364 and ata cards and other removable devices.
365 /dev/dsk
368 Directory providing block device access for the PCMCIA memory and
370 ata cards and other removable media devices.
371
374 See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
375 ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
380 │ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
381 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
382 │Availability │SUNWrmvolmgr │
383 └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
384
386 cpio(1), eject(1), fdformat(1), tar(1), volcheck(1), volrmmount(1),
387 format(1M), mkfs_pcfs(1M), mount(1M), newfs(1M), prtvtoc(1M),
388 rmmount(1M), rpc.smserverd(1M), attributes(5), scsa2usb(7D), sd(7D),
389 pcfs(7FS), udfs(7FS)
390 System Administration Guide: Basic Administration
393
395 A rewritable media or PCMCIA memory card or PCMCIA ata card containing
396 a ufs file system created on a SPARC-based system (using newfs(1M)) is
397 not identical to a rewritable media or PCMCIA memory card containing a
398 ufs file system created on an x86 based system. Do not interchange any
399 removable media containing ufs between these platforms; use cpio(1) or
400 tar(1) to transfer files on diskettes or memory cards between them. For
401 interchangeable filesystems refer to pcfs(7FS) and udfs(7FS).
402 rmformat might not list all removable devices in virtualization envi‐
405 ronments.
406
408 Currently, bad sector mapping is not supported on floppy diskettes or
409 PCMCIA memory cards. Therefore, a diskette or memory card is unusable
410 if rmformat finds an error (bad sector).
411SunOS 5.11 19 Feb 2009 rmformat(1)