User Commands rmformat(1)
NAME
rmformat - removable rewritable media format utility
SYNOPSIS
rmformat [-DeHUv] [-b label] [-c blockno]
[-Fquick long force ] [-s filename] [devname]
rmformat -V read write devname
rmformat -l [devname]
DESCRIPTION
The rmformat utility is used to format, label, partition,
and perform other miscellaneous functions on removable,
rewritable media that include floppy drives, and the PCMCIA
memory and ata cards. The rmformat utility should also be
used with all USB mass storage devices, including USB hard
drives. This utility can also be used for the verification
and surface analysis and for repair of the bad sectors found
during verification if the drive or the driver supports bad
block management.
After formatting, rmformat writes the label, which covers
the full capacity of the media as one slice on floppy and
PCMCIA memory cards to maintain compatibility with the
behavior of fdformat. The partition information can be
changed with the help of other options provided by rmformat.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-b label
Labels the media with a SUNOS label. A SUNOS volume
label name is restricted to 8 characters. For media size
greater than 1 TB, an EFI label is created. For writing
a DOS Volume label, the user should use mkfspcfs(1M).
-c blockno
Corrects and repairs the given block. This correct and
repair option may not be applicable to all devices sup-
ported by rmformat, as some devices may have a drive
with bad block management capability and others may have
this option implemented in the driver. If the drive or
driver supports bad block management, a best effort is
made to rectify the bad block. If the bad block still
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User Commands rmformat(1)
cannot be rectified, a message is displayed to indicate
the failure to repair. The block number can be provided
in decimal, octal, or hexadecimal format.
The normal floppy and PCMCIA memory and ata cards do not
support bad block management.
-D
Formats a 720KB (3.5 inch) double density diskette. This
is the default for double density type drives. This
option is needed if the drive is a high or extended-
density type.
-e
Ejects the media upon completion. This feature may not
be available if the drive does not support motorized
eject.
-F quick long force
Formats the media.
The quick option starts a format without certification
or format with limited certification of certain tracks
on the media.
The long option starts a complete format. For some dev-
ices this might include the certification of the whole
media by the drive itself.
The force option to format is provided to start a long
format without user confirmation before the format is
started.
In legacy media such as floppy drives, all options start
a long format depending on the mode (Extended Density
mode, High Density mode, or Double Density mode) with
which the floppy drive operates by default. On PCMCIA
memory cards, all options start a long format.
-H
Formats a 1.44 MB (3.5 inch) high density diskette. This
is the default for high density type drives. It is
needed if the drive is the Extended Density type.
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User Commands rmformat(1)
-l
Lists all removable devices. By default, without any
options, rmformat also lists all removable devices. If
the devname is given, rmformat lists the device associ-
ated with the devname. The output shows the device
pathname, vendor information, and the device type.
-s filename
Enables the user to lay out the partition information in
the SUNOS label.
The user should provide a file as input with information
about each slice in a format providing byte offset, size
required, tags, and flags, as follows:
slices: n = offset, size [, flags, tags]
where n is the slice number, offset is the byte offset
at which the slice n starts, and size is the required
size for slice n. Both offset and size must be a multi-
ple of 512 bytes. These numbers can be represented as
decimal, hexadecimal, or octal numbers. No floating
point numbers are accepted. Details about maximum number
of slices can be obtained from the System Administration
Guide: Basic Administration.
To specify the size or offset in kilobytes, megabytes,
or gigabytes, add KB, MB, GB, respectively. A number
without a suffix is assumed to be a byte offset. The
flags are represented as follows:
wm = read-write, mountable
wu = read-write, unmountable
ru = read-only, unmountable
The tags are represented as follows: unassigned, boot,
root, swap, usr, backup, stand, var, home, alternates.
The tags and flags can be omitted from the four tuple
when finer control on those values is not required. It
is required to omit both or include both. If the tags
and flags are omitted from the four tuple for a particu-
lar slice, a default value for each is assumed. The
default value for flags is wm and for tags is unas-
signed.
Either full tag names can be provided or an abbreviation
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for the tags can be used. The abbreviations can be the
first two or more letters from the standard tag names.
rmformat is case insensitive in handling the defined
tags & flags.
Slice specifications are separated by :
For example:
slices: 0 = 0, 30MB, "wm", "home" :
1 = 30MB, 51MB :
2 = 0, 100MB, "wm", "backup" :
6 = 81MB, 19MB
rmformat does the necessary checking to detect any over-
lapping partitions or illegal requests to addresses
beyond the capacity of the media under consideration.
There can be only one slice information entry for each
slice n. If multiple slice information entries for the
same slice n are provided, an appropriate error message
is displayed. The slice 2 is the backup slice covering
the whole disk capacity. The pound sign character, #,
can be used to describe a line of comments in the input
file. If the line starts with #, then rmformat ignores
all the characters following # until the end of the
line.
Partitioning some of the media with very small capacity
is permitted, but be cautious in using this option on
such devices.
-U
Performs umount on any file systems and then formats.
See mount(1M). This option unmounts all the mounted
slices and issues a long format on the device requested.
-V read write
Verifies each block of media after format. The write
verification is a destructive mechanism. The user is
queried for confirmation before the verification is
started. The output of this option is a list of block
numbers, which are identified as bad.
The read verification only verifies the blocks and
report the blocks which are prone to errors.
The list of block numbers displayed can be used with the
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-c option for repairing.
OPERANDS
The following operand is supported:
devname
devname can be provided as absolute device pathname or
relative pathname for the device from the current work-
ing directory or the nickname, such as cdrom or rmdisk.
For floppy devices, to access the first drive use
/dev/rdiskette0 (for systems without volume management)
or floppy0 (for systems with volume management). Specify
/dev/rdiskette1 (for systems without volume management)
or floppy1 (for systems with volume management) to use
the second drive.
For systems without volume management running, the user
can also provide the absolute device pathname as
/dev/rdsk/c?t?d?s? or the appropriate relative device
pathname from the current working directory.
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Formatting a Diskette
example$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdiskette
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
Example 2 Formatting a Diskette for a UFS File System
The following example formats a diskette and creates a UFS
file system:
example$ rmformat -F quick /dev/aliases/floppy0
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
example$ su
# /usr/sbin/newfs /dev/aliases/floppy0
newfs: construct a new file system /dev/rdiskette: (y/n)? y
/dev/rdiskette: 2880 sectors in 80 cylinders of 2 tracks, 18 sectors
1.4MB in 5 cyl groups (16 c/g, 0.28MB/g, 128 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -F ufs -o b=#) at:
32, 640, 1184, 1792, 2336,
#
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Example 3 Formatting Removable Media for a PCFS File System
The following example shows how to create an alternate fdisk
partition:
example$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
example$ su
# fdisk /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c
# mkfs -F pcfs /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c
Construct a new FAT file system on /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c: (y/n)? y
#
The following example describes how to create a PCFS file
system without an fdisk partition:
example$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdiskette
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
example$ su
# mkfs -F pcfs -o nofdisk,size=2 /dev/rdiskette
Construct a new FAT file system on /dev/rdiskette: (y/n)? y
#
Example 4 Listing All Removable Devices
The following example shows how to list removable devices.
This output shows a long listing of such devices.
example$ rmformat -l
Looking for devices...
Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c5t0d0s2
Physical Node: /pci@1e,600000/usb@b/hub@2/storage@4/disk@0,0
Connected Device: TEAC FD-05PUB 1026
Device Type: Floppy drive
Bus: USB
Size: 1.4 MB
Label: floppy
Access permissions: Medium is not write protected.
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FILES
/dev/diskette0
Directory providing block device access for the media in
floppy drive 0.
/dev/rdiskette0
Directory providing character device access for the
media in floppy drive 0.
/dev/aliases
Directory providing symbolic links to the character dev-
ices for the different media under the control of volume
management using appropriate alias.
/dev/aliases/floppy0
Symbolic link to the character device for the media in
floppy drive 0.
/dev/rdiskette
Symbolic link providing character device access for the
media in the primary floppy drive, usually drive 0.
/dev/dsk
Directory providing block device access for the PCMCIA
memory and ata cards and removable media devices.
/dev/rdsk
Directory providing character device access for the
PCMCIA memory and ata cards and removable media devices.
/dev/aliases/pcmemS
Symbolic link to the character device for the PCMCIA
memory card in socket S, where S represents a PCMCIA
socket number.
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User Commands rmformat(1)
/dev/aliases/rmdisk0
Symbolic link to the generic removable media device that
is not a CD-ROM, floppy, DVD-ROM, PCMCIA memory card,
and so forth.
/dev/rdsk
Directory providing character device access for the
PCMCIA memory and ata cards and other removable devices.
/dev/dsk
Directory providing block device access for the PCMCIA
memory and ata cards and other removable media devices.
ATRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
ATRIBUTE TYPE ATRIBUTE VALUE
Availability SUNWrmvolmgr
SEE ALSO
cpio(1), eject(1), fdformat(1), tar(1), volcheck(1), volrm-
mount(1), format(1M), mkfspcfs(1M), mount(1M), newfs(1M),
prtvtoc(1M), rmmount(1M), rpc.smserverd(1M), attributes(5),
scsa2usb(7D), sd(7D), pcfs(7FS), udfs(7FS)
System Administration Guide: Basic Administration
NOTES
A rewritable media or PCMCIA memory card or PCMCIA ata card
containing a ufs file system created on a SPARC-based system
(using newfs(1M)) is not identical to a rewritable media or
PCMCIA memory card containing a ufs file system created on
an x86 based system. Do not interchange any removable media
containing ufs between these platforms; use cpio(1) or
tar(1) to transfer files on diskettes or memory cards
between them. For interchangeable filesystems refer to
pcfs(7FS) and udfs(7FS).
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User Commands rmformat(1)
rmformat might not list all removable devices in virtualiza-
tion environments.
BUGS
Currently, bad sector mapping is not supported on floppy
diskettes or PCMCIA memory cards. Therefore, a diskette or
memory card is unusable if rmformat finds an error (bad sec-
tor).
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