freebsd-skq/usr.sbin/fdwrite/fdwrite.1

.\"
.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
.\" "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
.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
.\"
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.\"
.Dd September 16, 1993
.Os
.Dt FDWRITE 1
.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 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 1
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 1
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility was written while waiting for ``make world'' to complete.
Some of the code was taken from
.Xr fdformat 1 .
.Sh AUTHORS
The program has been contributed by
.An Poul-Henning Kamp Aq 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.
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`.\"`
			`.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------`
			`.\" "THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42):`
Modernize my email address. 2002-03-25 14:12:49 +00:00			`.\" <phk@FreeBSD.org> wrote this file. As long as you retain this notice you`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`.\" 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`
			`.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------`
			`.\"`
$Id$ -> $FreeBSD$ 1999-08-28 01:35:59 +00:00			`.\" $FreeBSD$`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`.\"`
			`.\"`
			`.Dd September 16, 1993`
mdoc(7) police: removed HISTORY info from the .Os call. 2001-07-10 15:12:08 +00:00			`.Os`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`.Dt FDWRITE 1`
			`.Sh NAME`
			`.Nm fdwrite`
			`.Nd format and write floppy disks`
			`.Sh SYNOPSIS`
mdoc(7) police: use the new features of the Nm macro. 2000-11-20 20:10:44 +00:00			`.Nm`
Use err(3). Document -y flag. Remove unused -s flag from getopt string. 1997-09-18 06:35:51 +00:00			`.Op Fl v`
			`.Op Fl y`
			`.Op Fl f Ar inputfile`
			`.Op Fl d Ar device`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`.Sh DESCRIPTION`
Use `The .Nm utility' 2002-04-20 12:27:18 +00:00			`The`
			`.Nm`
			`utility formats and writes one and more floppy disks.`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`Any floppy disk device capable of formatting can be used.`
Avoid use of direct troff requests in mdoc(7) manual pages. 2000-11-10 17:46:15 +00:00			`.Pp`
Use `The .Nm utility' 2002-04-20 12:27:18 +00:00			`The`
			`.Nm`
			`utility will ask the user`
mdoc(7) police: Avoid using parenthesis enclosure macros (.Pq and .Po/.Pc) with plain text. Not only this slows down the mdoc(7) processing significantly, but it also has an undesired (in this case) effect of disabling hyphenation within the entire enclosed block. 2001-08-07 15:48:51 +00:00			`(on`
			`.Pa /dev/tty )`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`to insert a new floppy and press return.`
`it's'' -> `its'' where appropriate and typo fixes in time2posix.3. Closes PR docs/3612. Submitted by: Josh Gilliam <soil@quick.net> 1997-05-19 16:33:27 +00:00			`The device will then be opened, and queried for its parameters,`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`then each track will be formatted, written with data from the`
			`.Ar inputfile ,`
			`read back and compared.`
Typo. PR: 7093 Submitted by: Stefan Eggers <seggers@semyam.dinoco.de> 1998-06-27 21:29:35 +00:00			`When the floppy disk is filled, the process is repeated, with the next disk.`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`This continues until the program is interrupted or EOF is encountered on the`
			`.Ar inputfile .`
Avoid use of direct troff requests in mdoc(7) manual pages. 2000-11-10 17:46:15 +00:00			`.Pp`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`The options are as follows:`
			`.Bl -tag -width 10n -offset indent`
			`.It Fl v`
Use err(3). Document -y flag. Remove unused -s flag from getopt string. 1997-09-18 06:35:51 +00:00			`Toggle verbosity on stdout.`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			Default is ``on''.
Remove whitespace at EOL. 2001-07-15 08:06:20 +00:00			`After`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`.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.`
Use err(3). Document -y flag. Remove unused -s flag from getopt string. 1997-09-18 06:35:51 +00:00			`.It Fl y`
Expand *n't contractions. 2005-02-13 22:25:33 +00:00			`Do not ask for presence of a floppy disk in the drive.`
Remove single-space hard sentence breaks. These degrade the quality of the typeset output, tend to make diffs harder to read and provide bad examples for new-comers to mdoc. 2000-03-01 14:09:25 +00:00			`This non-interactive flag`
Use err(3). Document -y flag. Remove unused -s flag from getopt string. 1997-09-18 06:35:51 +00:00			`is useful for shell scripts.`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`.It Fl f Ar inputfile`
Mechanically kill hard sentence breaks. 2004-07-02 23:13:00 +00:00			`Input file to read.`
			`If none is given, stdin is assumed.`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`.It Fl d Ar device`
Mechanically kill hard sentence breaks. 2004-07-02 23:13:00 +00:00			`The name of the floppy device to write to.`
			`Default is`
/dev/r<FOO> => /dev/<FOO> 2000-04-26 11:52:44 +00:00			`.Pa /dev/fd0 .`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`.El`
Avoid use of direct troff requests in mdoc(7) manual pages. 2000-11-10 17:46:15 +00:00			`.Pp`
Use `The .Nm utility' 2002-04-20 12:27:18 +00:00			`The`
			`.Nm`
			`utility actually closes the`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`.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.`
Avoid use of direct troff requests in mdoc(7) manual pages. 2000-11-10 17:46:15 +00:00			`.Pp`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`The parameters returned from`
			`.Ar device`
			`are used for formatting.`
			`If custom formatting is needed, please use`
			`.Xr fdformat 1`
			`instead.`
mdoc(7) police: use certified section headers wherever possible. 2000-11-17 11:44:16 +00:00			`.Sh EXAMPLES`
Use `The .Nm utility' 2002-04-20 12:27:18 +00:00			`The`
			`.Nm`
			`utility`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`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:`
Avoid use of direct troff requests in mdoc(7) manual pages. 2000-11-10 17:46:15 +00:00			`.Pp`
			`.Dl "tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/fd0.1720 -v`
			`.Pp`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`The main difference from using`
Prepare for mdoc(7)NG. 2001-01-16 09:39:23 +00:00			`.Xr tar 1 Ns 's`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`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`
.Sh AUTHOR -> .Sh AUTHORS. Use .An/.Aq. 1998-03-23 08:31:20 +00:00			`.Xr fdformat 1`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`.Sh HISTORY`
Use `The .Nm utility' 2002-04-20 12:27:18 +00:00			`The`
			`.Nm`
			utility was written while waiting for ``make world'' to complete.
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`Some of the code was taken from`
			`.Xr fdformat 1 .`
.Sh AUTHOR -> .Sh AUTHORS. Use .An/.Aq. 1998-03-23 08:31:20 +00:00			`.Sh AUTHORS`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`The program has been contributed by`
Modernize my email address. 2002-03-25 14:12:49 +00:00			`.An Poul-Henning Kamp Aq phk@FreeBSD.org .`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`.Sh BUGS`
			`Diagnostics are less than complete at present.`
Avoid use of direct troff requests in mdoc(7) manual pages. 2000-11-10 17:46:15 +00:00			`.Pp`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`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.`
Avoid use of direct troff requests in mdoc(7) manual pages. 2000-11-10 17:46:15 +00:00			`.Pp`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`This concept could be extended to cover non-seekable input also`
Correct punctuation. 1998-06-21 04:33:36 +00:00			`by employing a temporary file.`
Avoid use of direct troff requests in mdoc(7) manual pages. 2000-11-10 17:46:15 +00:00			`.Pp`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`An option (defaulting to zero) should allow the user to ask for`
			`retries in case of failure.`
Avoid use of direct troff requests in mdoc(7) manual pages. 2000-11-10 17:46:15 +00:00			`.Pp`
A small program, which can take a file of any size, format, write and verify it onto a bunch of floppies in a semi-intelligent way. Useful for things like: tar cf - . \| gzip -9 \| fdwrite -d /dev/rfd0.1720 -v Where it will keep asking for floppies until tar is done. 1994-09-18 07:39:19 +00:00			`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`
Correct punctuation. 1998-06-21 04:33:36 +00:00			`to help out in this situation of course.`