format(1M)

format -- format floppy disk tracks

Synopsis

/bin/format [-qvVE] [-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.

Command options

The -f and -l options specify the first and last track to be formatted. The default interleave of 1 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.

-q: Quiet mode. Perform the floppy disk format operation, but do not report status, inquiry, or error messages.
-v: Verbose mode (always true).
-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

References

fd(7)