xref: /netbsd-src/sbin/newfs_msdos/newfs_msdos.8 (revision 7cc2f76925f078d01ddc9e640a98f4ccfc9f8c3b)
1.\"	$NetBSD: newfs_msdos.8,v 1.6 1999/03/10 05:17:27 erh Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1997 Christos Zoulas
4.\" Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 Joerg Wunsch
5.\"
6.\" All rights reserved.
7.\"
8.\" This program is free software.
9.\"
10.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
11.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
12.\" are met:
13.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
14.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
15.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
16.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
17.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
18.\"
19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE DEVELOPERS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
20.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
21.\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
22.\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE DEVELOPERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
23.\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
24.\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
25.\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
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30.\" Id: mkdosfs.1,v 1.5 1997/02/22 16:06:38 peter Exp
31.\"
32.Dd February 25, 1997
33.Os
34.Dt NEWFS_MSDOS 8
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm newfs_msdos
37.Nd create an MS-DOS (FAT) file system
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Nm
40.Bq Fl f Ar capacity
41.Bq Fl L Ar vollabel
42.Ar device
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44.Nm
45establishes a file system structure on
46.Ar device
47that is understood by
48.Xr mount_msdos 8
49and some ancient program loader.
50.Ar Device
51will typically be the character device node for a floppy disk drive,
52.Pq e.\ g. Pa /dev/rfd0 ,
53although any existing writable file or device is acceptable.
54In case of a regular file it is treated as a dumped image of an
55.Tn MS-DOS
56file system; only the file system structure will be written to it,
57and it won't be truncated.
58.Pp
59The options are as follows:
60.Bl -tag -width 10n -offset indent
61.It Fl f Ar capacity
62Use defaults for a typical file system with
63.Ar capacity
64kilobytes.
65Currently, the values 360, 720, 1200, and 1440 are recognized.
66.Pp
67If this option is not specified,
68.Nm
69attempts to determine the size of the
70.Ar device .
71This is not reliably possible in all cases, but is believed to work
72for the more common situations.
73.It Fl L Ar vollabel
74Use
75.Ar vollabel
76to describe the file system, instead of the default
77.Ql 4.4BSD .
78.El
79.Pp
80The file system structure consists of three major areas:
81.Bl -tag -width 10n -offset indent
82.It Em The bootsector
83This is the very first (512-byte) sector.
84It contains executable
85code that normally would bootstrap an operating system when loaded.
86Since it's beyond the scope of
87.Nm
88to install an operating system on the medium, this boot code will only
89print a message that the disk does not contain a bootable system.
90Inside the
91.Em bootsector
92is the
93.Em BIOS parameter block (BPB) ,
94where several statistical parameters of the file system are being
95held.
96.It Em The File Allocation Table(s) (FAT)
97Sectors next to the
98.Em bootsector
99hold the FAT, which is used to register file system allocation, as
100well as keeping pointer chains for the chunks constituting one file.
101There are usually two identical copies of the FAT.
102.It Em The root directory
103The final structure is the root directory for this medium.
104It is merely a space reservation, padded with 0's, and unfortunately fixed
105in its size.
106.Nm
107initializes it to empty, and enters a volume label record into the
108very first directory slot.
109.El
110.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
111An exit status of 0 is returned upon successful operation.
112Exit status 1 is returned on any errors during file system creation,
113and an exit status of 2 reflects invalid arguments given to the
114program (along with an appropriate information written to diagnostic
115output).
116.Sh SEE ALSO
117.Xr fdformat 1 ,
118.Xr fsck_msdos 8 ,
119.Xr mount_msdos 8 ,
120.Xr newfs 8
121.Sh BUGS
122There is currently no way to specify obscure file system parameters.
123Thus, only media with one of the supported capacity values can be formatted.
124For the same reason, it's not possible to handle hard disk partitions.
125More options should be added to allow this.
126More entries should be added to the table of known formats, too.
127.Pp
128No attempt is made to handle media defects.
129.Sh HISTORY
130.Nm
131appeared in
132.Fx 2.2 .
133.Sh AUTHOR
134The program has been contributed by
135.if n Joerg Wunsch,
136.if t J\(:org Wunsch,
137Dresden.
138