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NEWFS_MSDOS(8)              System Manager's Manual             NEWFS_MSDOS(8)

NAME
     newfs_msdos - construct a new MS-DOS (FAT) file system

SYNOPSIS
     newfs_msdos [-N] [-@ offset] [-B boot] [-C create-size] [-F FAT-type]
                 [-I volid] [-L label] [-O OEM] [-S sector-size] [-a FAT-size]
                 [-b block-size] [-c cluster-size] [-e dirents] [-f format]
                 [-h heads] [-i info] [-k backup] [-m media] [-n FATs]
                 [-o hidden] [-r reserved] [-s total] [-T timestamp]
                 [-u track-size] special [disktype]

DESCRIPTION
     The newfs_msdos utility creates a FAT12, FAT16, or FAT32 file system on
     device or file named special, using disktab(5) entry disktype to
     determine geometry, if required.

     The options are as follow:

     -N      Do not create a file system: just print out parameters.

     -@ offset
             Build the file system at the specified offset in bytes in the
             device or file.  A suffix s, k, m, g (lower or upper case)
             appended to the offset specifies that the number is in sectors,
             kilobytes, megabytes or gigabytes, respectively.

     -B boot
             Get bootstrap from file.

     -C create-size
             Create the image file with the specified size.  A suffix
             character appended to the size is interpreted as for the -@
             option.  The file is created by truncating any existing file with
             the same name, seeking just before the required size and writing
             a single 0 byte.  As a consequence, the space occupied on disk
             may be smaller than the size specified as a parameter.

     -F FAT-type
             FAT type (one of 12, 16, or 32).

     -I volid
             Volume ID.

     -L label
             Volume label (up to 11 characters).  The label should consist of
             only those characters permitted in regular DOS (8+3) filenames.
             The default is "NO NAME".

     -O OEM  OEM string (up to 8 characters).  The default is "NetBSD".

     -S sector-size
             Number of bytes per sector.  Acceptable values are powers of 2 in
             the range 512 through 32768.

     -a FAT-size
             Number of sectors per FAT.

     -b block-size
             File system block size (bytes per cluster).  This should resolve
             to an acceptable number of sectors per cluster (see below).

     -c cluster-size
             Sectors per cluster.  Acceptable values are powers of 2 in the
             range 1 through 128.  If the block or cluster size are not
             specified, the code uses a cluster between 512 bytes and 32K
             depending on the file system size.

     -e dirents
             Number of root directory entries (FAT12 and FAT16 only).

     -f format
             Specify a standard (floppy disk) format.  The standard formats
             are (capacities in kilobytes): 160, 180, 320, 360, 640, 720,
             1200, 1232, 1440, 2880.

     -h heads
             Number of drive heads.

     -i info
             Location of the file system info sector (FAT32 only).  A value of
             0xffff signifies no info sector.

     -k backup
             Location of the backup boot sector (FAT32 only).  A value of
             0xffff signifies no backup sector.

     -m media
             Media descriptor (acceptable range 0xf0 to 0xff).

     -n FATs
             Number of FATs.  Acceptable values are 1 to 16 inclusive.  The
             default is 2.

     -o hidden
             Number of hidden sectors.

     -r reserved
             Number of reserved sectors.

     -s total
             File system size.

     -T AT&T UNIX timestamp
             Specify a timestamp to be used for file system creation so that
             it can be consistent for reproducible builds.  The timestamp can
             be a pathname, where the timestamps are derived from that file, a
             parseable date for parsedate(3) (this option is not yet available
             in the tools build), or an integer value interpreted as the
             number of seconds from the Epoch.

     -u track-size
             Number of sectors per track.

     If newfs_msdos receives a SIGINFO signal (see the status argument for
     stty(1)), a line will be written to the standard error output indicating
     the name of the device currently being formatted, the sector number being
     written, and the total number of sectors to be written.

NOTES
     If some parameters (e.g. size, number of sectors, etc.) are not specified
     through options or disktype, the program tries to generate them
     automatically.  In particular, the size is determined as the device or
     file size minus the offset specified with the -@ option.  When the
     geometry is not available, it is assumed to be 63 sectors, 255 heads.
     The size is then rounded to become a multiple of the track size and avoid
     complaints by some file system code.

     FAT file system parameters occupy a "Boot Sector BPB (BIOS Parameter
     Block)" in the first of the "reserved" sectors which precede the actual
     file system.  For reference purposes, this structure is presented below.

     struct bsbpb {
         u_int16_t   bps;            /* [-S] bytes per sector */
         u_int8_t    spc;            /* [-c] sectors per cluster */
         u_int16_t   res;            /* [-r] reserved sectors */
         u_int8_t    nft;            /* [-n] number of FATs */
         u_int16_t   rde;            /* [-e] root directory entries */
         u_int16_t   sec;            /* [-s] total sectors */
         u_int8_t    mid;            /* [-m] media descriptor */
         u_int16_t   spf;            /* [-a] sectors per FAT */
         u_int16_t   spt;            /* [-u] sectors per track */
         u_int16_t   hds;            /* [-h] drive heads */
         u_int32_t   hid;            /* [-o] hidden sectors */
         u_int32_t   bsec;           /* [-s] big total sectors */
     };
     /* FAT32 extensions */
     struct bsxbpb {
         u_int32_t   bspf;           /* [-a] big sectors per FAT */
         u_int16_t   xflg;           /* control flags */
         u_int16_t   vers;           /* file system version */
         u_int32_t   rdcl;           /* root directory start cluster */
         u_int16_t   infs;           /* [-i] file system info sector */
         u_int16_t   bkbs;           /* [-k] backup boot sector */
     };

EXAMPLES
           newfs_msdos /dev/rwd1a

     Create a file system, using default parameters, on /dev/rwd1a.

           newfs_msdos -f 1440 -L foo /dev/rfd0a

     Create a standard 1.44M file system, with volume label foo, on
     /dev/rfd0a.

           newfs_msdos -C 30M -@63s ./somefile

     Create a 30MB image file, with the FAT partition starting 63 sectors
     within the image file:

DIAGNOSTICS
     Exit status is 0 on success and 1 on error.

SEE ALSO
     disktab(5), disklabel(8), fdisk(8), newfs(8)

HISTORY
     A newfs_msdos utility appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.  The newfs_msdos command
     first appeared in NetBSD 1.3.

AUTHORS
     Robert Nordier <rnordier@FreeBSD.org>.

NetBSD 10.99                   February 16, 2017                  NetBSD 10.99