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FDWRITE(1)		    General Commands Manual		    FDWRITE(1)

NAME
       fdwrite -- format and write floppy disks

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''.  Af-
			 ter 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,  For-
			 mat  Write, Read and Compare of current track respec-
			 tively.

	     -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 as-
			 sumed.

	     -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(8) 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(8)

HISTORY
       The fdwrite utility was written while waiting  for  ``make  world''  to
       complete.  Some of the code was taken from fdformat(8).

AUTHORS
       The    program	 has	been	contributed   by   Poul-Henning	  Kamp
       <phk@FreeBSD.org>.

BUGS
       Diagnostics are less than complete at present.

       If a floppy is sick, and	the inputfile is seekable, it should  ask  the
       user  to	frisbee	the disk, insert another, and rewind to	the right spot
       and continue.

       This concept could be extended to cover non-seekable input also by  em-
       ploying a temporary file.

       An option (defaulting to	zero) should allow the user to ask for retries
       in case of failure.

       At  present a suitable tool for reading back a multivolume set of flop-
       pies is missing.	 Programs like tar(1) for instance, will do  the  job,
       if  the	data  has  not been compressed.	 One can always	trust dd(1) to
       help out	in this	situation of course.

FreeBSD	14.3		      September	16, 1993		    FDWRITE(1)

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