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Diffstat (limited to 'static/freebsd/man1/fdwrite.1')
| -rw-r--r-- | static/freebsd/man1/fdwrite.1 | 132 |
1 files changed, 132 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/static/freebsd/man1/fdwrite.1 b/static/freebsd/man1/fdwrite.1 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4773cfa2 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/freebsd/man1/fdwrite.1 @@ -0,0 +1,132 @@ +.\" +.\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +.\" "THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42): +.\" <phk@FreeBSD.org> wrote this file. As long as you retain this notice you +.\" can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think +.\" this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return. Poul-Henning Kamp +.\" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +.\" +.\" +.Dd November 16, 2025 +.Dt FDWRITE 1 +.Os +.Sh NAME +.Nm fdwrite +.Nd format and write floppy disks +.Sh SYNOPSIS +.Nm +.Op Fl v +.Op Fl y +.Op Fl f Ar inputfile +.Op Fl d Ar device +.Sh DEPRECATION NOTICE +.Nm +is deprecated and may not be present in +.Fx 16.0 +and later. +.Sh DESCRIPTION +The +.Nm +utility formats and writes one and more floppy disks. +Any floppy disk device capable of formatting can be used. +.Pp +The +.Nm +utility will ask the user +(on +.Pa /dev/tty ) +to insert a new floppy and press return. +The device will then be opened, and queried for its parameters, +then each track will be formatted, written with data from the +.Ar inputfile , +read back and compared. +When the floppy disk is filled, the process is repeated, with the next disk. +This continues until the program is interrupted or EOF is encountered on the +.Ar inputfile . +.Pp +The options are as follows: +.Bl -tag -width 10n -offset indent +.It Fl v +Toggle verbosity on stdout. +Default is ``on''. +After +.Ar device +is opened first time the format will be printed. +During operation progress will be reported with the number of tracks +remaining on the current floppy disk, and the letters I, Z, F, W, +R and C, which indicates completion of Input, Zero-fill, Format +Write, Read and Compare of current track respectively. +.It Fl y +Do not ask for presence of a floppy disk in the drive. +This non-interactive flag +is useful for shell scripts. +.It Fl f Ar inputfile +Input file to read. +If none is given, stdin is assumed. +.It Fl d Ar device +The name of the floppy device to write to. +Default is +.Pa /dev/fd0 . +.El +.Pp +The +.Nm +utility actually closes the +.Ar device +while it waits for the user to press return, +it is thus quite possible to use the drive for other purposes at this +time and later resume writing with the next floppy. +.Pp +The parameters returned from +.Ar device +are used for formatting. +If custom formatting is needed, please use +.Xr fdformat 8 +instead. +.Sh EXAMPLES +The +.Nm +utility +was planned as a tool to make life easier when writing a set of floppies, +one such use could be to write a tar-archive: +.Pp +.Dl tar cf - . | gzip -9 | fdwrite -d /dev/fd0.1720 -v +.Pp +The main difference from using +.Xr tar 1 Ns 's +multivolume facility is of course the formatting of the floppies, which +here is done on the fly, +thus reducing the amount of work for the floppy-jockey. +.Sh SEE ALSO +.Xr fdformat 8 +.Sh HISTORY +The +.Nm +utility was written while waiting for ``make world'' to complete. +Some of the code was taken from +.Xr fdformat 8 . +.Sh AUTHORS +The program has been contributed by +.An Poul-Henning Kamp Aq Mt phk@FreeBSD.org . +.Sh BUGS +Diagnostics are less than complete at present. +.Pp +If a floppy is sick, and the +.Ar inputfile +is seekable, it should ask the user to frisbee the disk, insert +another, and rewind to the right spot and continue. +.Pp +This concept could be extended to cover non-seekable input also +by employing a temporary file. +.Pp +An option (defaulting to zero) should allow the user to ask for +retries in case of failure. +.Pp +At present a suitable tool for reading back a multivolume set +of floppies is missing. +Programs like +.Xr tar 1 +for instance, will do the job, if the data has not been compressed. +One can always trust +.Xr dd 1 +to help out in this situation of course. |
