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FDWRITE (1) | General commands | Unix Manual Pages | :man▋
NAME
fdwrite - format and write floppy disks
CONTENTS
Synopsis
Description
Examples
See Also
History
Authors
Bugs
SYNOPSIS
fdwrite [-v] [-y] [-f inputfile] [-d device]
DESCRIPTION
The fdwrite utility formats and writes one and more floppy disks. Any floppy disk device capable of formatting can be used. The fdwrite utility will ask the user (on /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 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 inputfile. The options are as follows: | -v | Toggle verbosity on stdout. Default is ‘‘on’’. After 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. | | -y | Do not ask for presence of a floppy disk in the drive. This non-interactive flag is useful for shell scripts. | | -f inputfile | | | Input file to read. If none is given, stdin is assumed. | | -d device | | | The name of the floppy device to write to. Default is /dev/fd0. | |
The fdwrite utility actually closes the 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. The parameters returned from device are used for formatting. If custom formatting is needed, please use fdformat(1) instead.
EXAMPLES
The fdwrite 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: "tar cf -. | gzip -9 | fdwrite -d /dev/fd0.1720 -v The main difference from using tar 1 ’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.
SEE ALSO
fdformat(1)
HISTORY
fdformat(1).
AUTHORS
BUGS
tar(1) dd(1)
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