FmtFloppy 3.3

floppy formatter, bad block handling

Short:        floppy formatter, bad block handling
Author:       hakke@gmx.de (Andreas Winkler)
Uploader:     hakke gmx de (Andreas Winkler)
Type:         disk/misc
Version:      3.3
Requires:     AmigaOS 2.0 (V36) or newer
Architecture: m68k-amigaos >= 2.0

A command line floppy formatter that never asks questions. The standard
AmigaDOS Format command wants an interactive console for its confirmation
prompt, which makes it awkward to drive from a script or a Commodore
Installer. FmtFloppy simply does as it is told and returns a result code.


FEATURES

  - Fully non-interactive: no prompts, no requesters.

  - Any drive, any unit, DD or HD. Geometry is read from the device with
    TD_GETGEOMETRY rather than assumed, so non-standard drivers work too.

  - Drives running a foreign filesystem, such as PC0: under CrossDOS,
    are formatted by their own handler. The AmigaDOS-specific options
    (OFS, FFS, INTL, DIRCACHE, BOOT, BOOT2) do not silently misfire
    there: the flavour switches are refused and the bootblock is
    skipped, rather than overwriting an MS-DOS boot sector with it.
    Bad blocks are still excluded, written as FAT's own 0xFF7 bad
    cluster marker into both copies of the allocation table.

  - OFS and FFS, each optionally international and/or directory cache, or
    an arbitrary DosType given as a number.

  - Writes a bootblock itself, no C:Install needed - including the
    Kickstart 1.2/1.3 block, which C:Install on OS 2.0+ cannot produce.

  - Bad blocks do not abort the format by default. A failed track is
    retried, and blocks that still fail are marked used in the bitmap so
    the filesystem never allocates them; the reported free space and the
    return code both reflect this. Damage to the boot, root or bitmap
    block is reported as unrecoverable instead of quietly producing a
    broken disk.

  - STRICT reverses that policy: give up at the first defect and reject
    the disk, for when only flawless media will do.

  - Optional X-Copy style track map, drawn as the format proceeds, so
    defects can be seen where they physically are.

  - Refuses anything larger than a floppy unless FORCE is given, so a
    mistyped device name cannot destroy a hard disk partition.

  - Quiet mode for scripts, VERBOSE when a warning needs explaining,
    and meaningful return codes: 0 success, 5 bad blocks found and
    excluded, 10 bad arguments, 20 failure.

  - libnix build - no ixemul.library, no dependencies beyond the OS.


REQUIREMENTS

AmigaOS 2.0 (Kickstart V36) or newer, and this is a hard requirement:
the program uses ReadArgs and other V36 calls. Any CPU from the plain
68000 up - the binary contains no 68020 instructions.

Tested under WinUAE and on real hardware, an Amiga 1200 including a real
HD floppy drive: AmigaDOS DD and HD disks including the bad block
exclusion, and MS-DOS DD and HD disks through CrossDOS.


DOCUMENTATION

FmtFloppy.guide holds the full option reference, the details of the two
bootblock types and how bad blocks are handled.


Freely distributable.