ftformat(8)

NAME

ftformat - format floppy tape cartridges using the floppy tape kernel driver ftape

SYNOPSIS

ftformat [-dh?vV] [-f FILE] [-L LABEL] [-M SIZE]
[-m MODE] [--mode=MODE]
[-p PARMS] [--format-parameters=PARMS]
[--debug] [--help] [--usage] [--verbose]
[--version] [--file=FILE]
[--label=LABEL] [--dma-memory=SIZE]
[--omit-erase] [--discard-header]
[--no-reference-bursts] [--verify-only]

DESCRIPTION

ftformat formats floppy tape cartridges. It interfaces with the Linux kernel driver ftape. This means that you need install a recent version of the ftape driver as well to be able to format floppy tape cartridges with ftformat.

OPTIONS

-d, --debug

Turn on debugging mode. Unused yet.

-h, -?, --help, --usage

Print basic help and usage information. TODO: internationalize it.

-v, --verbose

Increase the verbosity of the program. Multiple instances of -v will increase the verbosity level further.

-V, --Version

Print the version of ftformat

-f FILE, --file=FILE

Use FILE as the tape device. FILE has to one of the raw ftape character devices, i.e. one of /dev/rawft0, /dev/rawft1, /dev/rawft2 or /dev/rawft3. The default is to use /dev/rawft0. You probably will not need this option at all.

-L LABEL, --label=LABEL

LABEL specifies the label to store in the header segment of the floppy tape cartridge. LABEL must not be longer than 44 characters.

-M SIZE, --dma-memory=SIZE

SIZE spcifies the amount of DMA memory of the kernel driver ftape which ftformat will map into its address space while formatting the floppy tape cartridge. SIZE gives the size of this memory block in kilobytes and must be a multiple of 32. You probably never will need this option.

--omit-erase

Don't try to erase the old format of the cartridge using the and physical reverse commands of the QIC-117 command set. This option affects already formatted cartridges only. The use of this option is depreciated, but some tape drives don't implement these commands properly. If you have one of those tape drives than you might want to use this option.

--discard-header

Don't try to read the old header segment. Using this option will discard statistics and time stamps contained in the header segment. This option affects already formatted cartridges only. The use of this option is depreciated when reformatting already formatted cartridges but should be specified if you know that the header segments are damaged anyway and can't be read anymore.

--no-reference-bursts

Don't write the reference bursts, only format and verify. Only useful with already formatted cartridges. Use of this option is strongly depreciated.

--verify-only

Only update the bad sector map, don't reformat. Only possible with already formatted cartridges. The use of this option is strongly depreciated.

-m MODE, --mode=MODE

MODE has to be one out of {auto, force, probe}. auto is the default. force will bypass almost all consistency checks, assuming THAT YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, probe performs the auto-detection only and prints a line that is suitable to be used as command line argument with the force mode.

-p PARMS, --format-parameters=PARMS

This option allows to overwrite the auto-detected values, or help when the format of the inserted cartridge cannot be auto-detected (e.g. 205ft QIC-80 cartridges versus 425ft QIC-80 cartridges). With --mode=force ALL of the parameters below must be specified. WITHOUT
.I "--mode=force" the parameters given in PARMS are used as supplements to the auto-detected values. In this case some of the values can be omitted. PARMS is a comma separated list of one or more of the following parameters:

qic-standard=QIC_STD, format-code=FORMAT_CODE, floppy-head-max=MAX_FLOPPY_HEAD, floppy-track-max=MAX_FLOPPY_TRACK, segments-per-track=SEGMENTS_PER_TRACK, tracks-per-tape=TRACKS_PER_TAPE, gap3=GAP3.

Please refer to the next section FORMART PARAMETERS for further explanations.

FORMAT PARAMETERS

You need to set all of these parameters when using the --mode=force switch. Otherwise you probably want to specify --qic-standard=QIC_STD only. There are some short-cuts for various fixed length formats. Note that each shortcut is a place holder for a full set of "low level" options, i.e. use them like

--format-parameters qic80-307ft

Please refer to the development standards

QIC-40, QIC-80, QIC-3010 and QIC-3020

to be found at

http://www.qic.org

for the correct settings of

QIC_STD, FORMAT_CODE, MAX_FLOPPY_HEAD, MAX_FLOPPY_TRACK, SEGMENTS_PER_TRACK, TRACKS_PER_TAPE and GAP3.

Normally, you only want to use one of the short cuts, or give the desired tape format, i.e. the QIC_STD, or override the number of segments per track (use the latter with extreme prejudice).

qic-standard=QIC_STD

QIC_STD has to be one out of

QIC-40, QIC-80 QIC-80/WIDE, TR-1, QIC-3010, QIC-3010/WIDE, QIC-3020, QIC-3020/WIDE, TR-3.

You may as well give a number in hexadecimal or decimal representation specifying what would be the result of a REPORT_TAPE_STATUS QIC-117 tape drive command.

TR-3 cartridges conform to the QIC-3020/WIDE standard. TR-3/Extra cartridges are extra length TR-3 cartridges and thus also conform to QIC-3020/WIDE. TR-1 cartridges conform to QIC-80/WIDE.

format-code=FORMAT_CODE

A decimal number to be stored in the appropriate field in the header segments.

floppy-head-max=MAX_FLOPPY_HEAD

A decimal number to be stored in the appropriate field in the header segments.

floppy-track-max=MAX_FLOPPY_TRACK

A decimal number to be stored in the appropriate field in the header segments.

segments-per-track=SEGMENTS_PER_TRACK

The number of tape segments per tape track.

tracks-per-tape=TRACKS_PER_TAPE

The number of tape tracks per cartridge.

gap3=GAP3

GAP3 is the size of the erased gap between the sector of a floppy tape segment. This has to be 233 for QIC-40 and QIC-80 cartridges and 248 for QIC-3010 or QIC-3020 cartridges.

EXAMPLES

Auto-detect the format parameters of a Travan-3 cartridge:

ftformat --mode=probe --format-parameters qic-standard=TR-3

Format a 425ft QIC-80 cartridge (ONLY possible with certain tape drives):

ftformat --mode=auto --format-parameters qic80-425ft

Format an unformatted Travan-3 cartridge:

ftformat --mode=auto --format-parameters qic-standard=TR-3

Reformat a Travan-3 cartridge with damaged format:

ftformat --mode=auto --format-parameters qic-standard=TR-3 \ --omit-erase --discard-header

ENVIRONMENT

Unused.

SEE ALSO

insmod(1), rmmod(1), depmod(1), lsmod(1), modprobe(1).

BUGS

There are most probably bugs in this program. If you find one, notify the maintainer of ftape.