RXFORMAT(8)	    UNIX Programmer's Manual	      RXFORMAT(8)



NAME
     rxformat - format floppy disks (2.11BSD)

SYNOPSIS
     rxformat special

DESCRIPTION
     The _r_x_f_o_r_m_a_t program formats a diskette in the specified
     drive associated with the special device _s_p_e_c_i_a_l.	_S_p_e_c_i_a_l
     is normally /dev/rrx0?, for drive 0, or /dev/rrx1?, for
     drive 1, where ``?'' is either "a" or "b" to indicate single
     or double density access.	The ``raw'' device must be used.
     Single density is compatible with the IBM 3740 standard (128
     bytes/sector). In double density, each sector contains 256
     bytes of data.

     Before formatting a diskette _r_x_f_o_r_m_a_t prompts for verifica-
     tion if standard input is a tty (this allows a user to
     cleanly abort the operation; note that formatting a diskette
     will destroy any existing data).  Formatting is done by the
     hardware.	All sectors are zero-filled.

DIAGNOSTICS
     `No such device' means that the drive is not ready, usually
     because no disk is in the drive or the drive door is open.
     Other error messages are selfexplanatory.

FILES
     /dev/rrx??

SEE ALSO
     rx(4)

AUTHOR
     Helge Skrivervik

BUGS
     A floppy may not be formatted if the header info on sector
     1, track 0 has been damaged.  Hence, it is not possible to
     format a completely degaussed disk. (This is actually a
     problem in the hardware.)














Printed 11/26/99	November 17, 1996			1