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The \f(CWmformat command is used to add an MS-DOS filesystem to a low-level formatted diskette. Its syntax is:
\fR\f(CWmformat [\f(CW-t cylinders] [\f(CW-h heads] [\f(CW-s sectors] [\f(CW-f size] [\f(CW-1] [\f(CW-4] [\f(CW-8] [\f(CW-v volume_label] [\f(CW-F] [\f(CW-S sizecode] [\f(CW-X] [\f(CW-2 sectors_on_track_0] [\f(CW-3] [\f(CW-0 rate_on_track_0] [\f(CW-A rate_on_other_tracks] [\f(CW-M software_sector_size] [\f(CW-N serial_number] [\f(CW-a] [\f(CW-C] [\f(CW-H hidden_sectors] [\f(CW-I fsVersion] [\f(CW-r root_sectors] [\f(CW-L fat_len] [\f(CW-B boot_sector] [\f(CW-k] [\f(CW-m media_descriptor] drive:
\fR\f(CWMformat adds a minimal MS-DOS filesystem (boot sector, FAT, and root directory) to a diskette that has already been formatted by a Unix low-level format.
The following options are supported: (The S, 2, 1 and M options may not exist if this copy of mtools has been compiled without the USE_2M option)
The following options are the same as for Dos's format command:
\fR\f(CWv Specifies the volume label. A volume label identifies the disk and can be a maximum of 11 characters. If you omit the -v switch, mlabel will assign no label to the disk.
\fR\f(CWf Specifies the size of the DOS filesystem to format. Only a certain number of predefined sizes are supported by this flag; for others use the -h/-t/-s flags. The following sizes are supported:
160 160K, single-sided, 8 sectors per track, 40 cylinders (for 5 1/4 DD)
180 160K, single-sided, 9 sectors per track, 40 cylinders (for 5 1/4 DD)
320 320K, double-sided, 8 sectors per track, 40 cylinders (for 5 1/4 DD)
360 360K, double-sided, 9 sectors per track, 40 cylinders (for 5 1/4 DD)
720 720K, double-sided, 9 sectors per track, 80 cylinders (for 3 1/2 DD)
1200 1200K, double-sided, 15 sectors per track, 80 cylinders (for 5 1/4 HD)
1440 1440K, double-sided, 18 sectors per track, 80 cylinders (for 3 1/2 HD)
2880 2880K, double-sided, 36 sectors per track, 80 cylinders (for 3 1/2 ED)
\fR\f(CWt Specifies the number of tracks on the disk.
\fR\f(CWh The number of heads (sides).
\fR\f(CWn Specifies the number of sectors per track. If the 2m option is given, number of 512-byte sector equivalents on generic tracks (i.e. not head 0 track 0). If the 2m option is not given, number of physical sectors per track (which may be bigger than 512 bytes).
\fR\f(CW1 Formats a single side (equivalent to -h 1)
\fR\f(CW4 Formats a 360K double-sided disk (equivalent to -f 360). When used together with -the 1 switch, this switch formats a 180K disk
\fR\f(CW8 Formats a disk with 8 sectors per track.
MSDOS format's \f(CWq, \f(CWu and \f(CWb options are not supported, and \f(CWs has a different meaning.
The following options are specific to mtools:
\fR\f(CWF Format the partition as FAT32.
\fR\f(CWS The sizecode. The size of the sector is 2 ^ (sizecode + 7).
\fR\f(CWX formats the disk as an XDF disk. See section XDF, for more details. The disk has first to be low-level formatted using the xdfcopy utility included in the fdutils package. XDF disks are used for instance for OS/2 install disks.
\fR\f(CW2 2m format. The parameter to this option describes the number of sectors on track 0, head 0. This option is recommended for sectors bigger than normal.
\fR\f(CW3 don't use a 2m format, even if the current geometry of the disk is a 2m geometry.
\fR\f(CW0 Data transfer rate on track 0
\fR\f(CWA Data transfer rate on tracks other than 0
\fR\f(CWM software sector size. This parameter describes the sector size in bytes used by the MS-DOS filesystem. By default it is the physical sector size.
\fR\f(CWN Uses the requested serial number, instead of generating one automatically
\fR\f(CWa If this option is given, an Atari style serial number is generated. Ataris store their serial number in the OEM label.
\fR\f(CWC creates the disk image file to install the MS-DOS filesystem on it. Obviously, this is useless on physical devices such as floppies and hard disk partitions, but is interesting for image files.
\fR\f(CWH number of hidden sectors. This parameter is useful for formatting hard disk partition, which are not aligned on track boundaries (i.e. first head of first track doesn't belong to the partition, but contains a partition table). In that case the number of hidden sectors is in general the number of sectors per cylinder. This is untested.
\fR\f(CWI Sets the fsVersion id when formatting a FAT32 drive. In order to find this out, run minfo on an existing FAT32 drive, and mail me about it, so I can include the correct value in future versions of mtools.
\fR\f(CWc Sets the size of a cluster (in sectors). If this cluster size would generate a FAT that too big for its number of bits, mtools automatically increases the cluster size, until the FAT is small enough.
\fR\f(CWd Sets the number of FAT copies. Default is 2. This setting can also be specified using the \f(CWMTOOLS_NFATS environment variable.
\fR\f(CWr Sets the size of the root directory (in sectors). Only applicable to 12 and 16 bit FATs. This setting can also be specified using the \fR\f(CWMTOOLS_DIR_LEN environment variable.
\fR\f(CWL Sets the length of the FAT.
\fR\f(CWB Use the bootsector stored in the given file or device, instead of using its own. Only the geometry fields are updated to match the target disks parameters.
\fR\f(CWk Keep the existing boot sector as much as possible. Only the geometry fields and other similar filesystem data are updated to match the target disks parameters.
\fR\f(CWm Use a non-standard media descriptor byte for this disk. The media descriptor is stored at position 21 of the boot sector, and as first byte in each FAT copy. Using this option may confuse DOS or older mtools version, and may make the disk unreadable. Only use if you know what you are doing.
To format a diskette at a density other than the default, you must supply (at least) those command line parameters that are different from the default.
\fR\f(CWMformat returns 0 on success or 1 on failure.
It doesn't record bad block information to the Fat, use \fR\f(CWmbadblocks for that.
* To generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the following commands:
./configure; make dvi; dvips mtools.dvi.lp \fR
* To generate a html copy, run:
./configure; make html.lp \fRA premade html can be found at \fR\f(CW\(ifhttp://www.gnu.org/software/mtools/manual/mtools.html\(is
* To generate an info copy (browsable using emacs' info mode), run:
./configure; make info.lp \fR
The texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as html. Indeed, in the info version certain examples are difficult to read due to the quoting conventions used in info.