Linux mformat Command with Practical Examples

Introduction

In this lab, you will learn how to use the mformat command in Linux to create and format floppy disks. The mformat command is a utility that allows you to format floppy disks with a specific file system, such as DOS/FAT. You will start by understanding the purpose and syntax of the mformat command, then proceed to create and format a floppy disk using the command. Additionally, you will explore advanced options and use cases of the mformat command.

Linux Commands Cheat Sheet

Skills Graph

Understand the Purpose and Syntax of the mformat Command

In this step, you will learn about the purpose and syntax of the mformat command in Linux. The mformat command is used to create and format floppy disks, which are a type of removable storage media that was commonly used in the past.

To understand the purpose of the mformat command, let's first explore the syntax:

mformat [options] device

The device parameter specifies the floppy disk device that you want to format, such as /dev/fd0 for the first floppy disk drive.

Some common options for the mformat command include:

• -t <tracks>: Specifies the number of tracks to format on the floppy disk.
• -h <heads>: Specifies the number of heads to format on the floppy disk.
• -s <sectors>: Specifies the number of sectors to format on each track.
• -i <size>: Specifies the size of the floppy disk in bytes.
• -F <format>: Specifies the file system format to use on the floppy disk.

Let's try an example of using the mformat command to create and format a floppy disk:

sudo mformat -t 80 -h 2 -s 18 /dev/fd0

Example output:

mformat 4.0 (2018-03-19)
Formatting track 0
Formatting track 1
Formatting track 2
...
Formatting track 79

In this example, we're formatting a floppy disk with 80 tracks, 2 heads, and 18 sectors per track. The mformat command creates a DOS/FAT file system on the floppy disk.

Create and Format a Floppy Disk Using the mformat Command

In this step, you will learn how to create and format a floppy disk using the mformat command.

First, let's check if a floppy disk drive is available in our Docker container environment:

sudo fdisk -l

Example output:

Disk /dev/fd0: 1.44 MiB, 1474560 bytes, 2880 sectors

The output shows that a floppy disk drive /dev/fd0 is available, which we can use for formatting.

Now, let's use the mformat command to create and format a floppy disk:

sudo mformat -t 80 -h 2 -s 18 /dev/fd0

Example output:

mformat 4.0 (2018-03-19)
Formatting track 0
Formatting track 1
Formatting track 2
...
Formatting track 79

In this command, we're formatting the floppy disk with 80 tracks, 2 heads, and 18 sectors per track. The mformat command creates a DOS/FAT file system on the floppy disk.

To verify that the floppy disk has been successfully formatted, we can use the mcopy command to list the contents of the floppy disk:

sudo mcopy -i /dev/fd0 ::

Example output:

Volume in drive A has no label
 Directory for /

The output shows that the floppy disk has been successfully formatted and is ready for use.

Explore Advanced Options and Use Cases of the mformat Command

In this final step, you will explore some advanced options and use cases of the mformat command.

One advanced option is the ability to specify the file system format to use on the floppy disk. By default, mformat creates a DOS/FAT file system, but you can also use other file system formats, such as MINIX or UMSDOS, by using the -F option:

sudo mformat -F minix -t 80 -h 2 -s 18 /dev/fd0

This will format the floppy disk with the MINIX file system instead of the default DOS/FAT.

Another advanced use case of the mformat command is to create and format multiple floppy disks in a batch. This can be useful if you need to prepare multiple floppy disks with the same configuration. You can use a simple script to automate the process:

#!/bin/bash

for i in {1..5}; do
  echo "Formatting floppy disk $i"
  sudo mformat -t 80 -h 2 -s 18 /dev/fd$((i - 1))
done

This script will format 5 floppy disks (assuming they are connected as /dev/fd0 to /dev/fd4) with the same configuration.

Finally, you can also use the mformat command to create and format floppy disk images, which can be useful for archiving or distributing floppy disk contents. To create a floppy disk image, you can use the following command:

sudo mformat -i 1440k -f 1440 floppy.img

This will create a 1.44MB floppy disk image file named floppy.img. You can then use tools like mcopy to copy files to and from the image file.

Summary

In this lab, you first learned about the purpose and syntax of the mformat command in Linux, which is used to create and format floppy disks. You explored the various options available, such as specifying the number of tracks, heads, and sectors, as well as the file system format. Then, you demonstrated how to create and format a floppy disk using the mformat command, including checking for the availability of a floppy disk drive and executing the necessary commands to format the disk.

Linux Commands Cheat Sheet