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	@(#)fdc.1	7/14/85
	@(#)Copyright (C) 1985 by Enea Data Svenska AB
..
.TH FDC 1
.UC 4
.SH NAME
fdc \- floppy drive control
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B fdc help
.br
.B fdc
\-flags...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.LP
.I Fdc
provides command level access to floppy driver IO control.
The first form prints a summary of the operations.
See also EXAMPLES below for a quick introduction.
.LP
An argument to
.I fdc
is a
.I "command group"
given as a string of flags (letters) preceded by a "-".
Most flags imply an operation on the drive, and these are done in
the same order as the flags are given on the command line.
Some flags require a numeric argument (typically one digit).
Other flags modify the action of the entire command group.
.LP
A command group has a unique associated floppy unit.
By default this is unit 0, i.e. /dev/rflop.
Another unit can be specified by giving the drive number
(digit between 0 and 3) as the
.I last
flag in the group.
Some commands such as formatting are unit\-specific, while
others can be done via any unit.
See
.IR fd (4)
for more info on floppy drives.
.LP
The exit status of
.I fdc
is -1 for usage and system errors (non\-existent drives etc).
Otherwise, an error encountered in an operation terminates
.I fdc
and the exit status is the floppy driver error code.
A diagnostic describing the error is printed 
on the error output.
If all operations are successful,
.I fdc
works silently (except as noted below)
and exits with status 0.
.LP
.I Fdc
will not hang up the terminal.
If you wish to get control of the terminal in the middle of a long
command, it is best to stop
.I fdc
(control-Z) and put it in the background.
You can also kill it, and it'll try to clean up things before exiting.
.SH COMMANDS
These can be divided in a few different types.
For unit\-specific commands, the word "unit" refers to the
unit of the command group.
.LP
The following commands do not perform operations on diskettes but 
rather do things to the driver in the Genix kernel.
These requests are executed immediately (not queued).
.TP 8
.B \-(
Hardware reset.  
Clears the queue of requests in the driver and does a
hardware reset of the MPS\-1604.  
Also affects the printer.
This is intentionally made hard to type by accident: you have to
quote it for the shell.
.TP 8
.B \-z
Reset IO control state.
If a program using floppy IO control is killed in the middle of
an operation, it is necessary to use this flag to reset the state.
It's a price paid for making such programs interruptible from
the keyboard.
.I Fdc
itself catches termination signals (control-C and kill) and does
a reset automatically, so this isn't normally needed.
.TP 8
.BR \-c
Clear last error on a unit.
The error data for the last error is stored in the driver.
Successful operations do not clear it.
Instead, this flag must be specified.
.TP 8
.BR \-e
Get last error on a unit.
The error description, sector number (if valid),
and the 8 controller registers for the last error
are printed on the standard output.
.LP
The next few commands are not unit\-specific.
They can be accessed from any available floppy device.
.TP 8
.B \-m
Test the 6 kB RAM on the MPS-1604.
.TP 8
.B \-g
Request configuration. 
Prints information on the 4 possible units at power on or last reset.
.TP 8
.BR \-s n
Select new sector table (ie., interleave).
The parameter
.I n
is required and gives the table number (between 1 and 5).
Default after power on or reset is table 3.
.LP
The following commands do operations on a specific unit.
.TP 8
.BR \-r
Test drive ready.
.TP 8
.BR \-f
Format a diskette in the drive.  
.TP 8
.BR \-l
Recalibrate. Moves head to track zero.
.TP 8
.BR \-t
Test all sectors on the diskette.
.LP
The last command is special in that it can be accessed via any
floppy unit, without necessarily opening the 2 units involved:
.TP 8
.BR \-k mn
Copies a diskette in drive
.I m
to a diskette in drive
.I n.
The parameters (digits between 0 and 3) are required.
.SH MODIFIERS
These modify the action of the command group they occur in.
.TP 8
.BR -[0123]
The default unit is unit 0.
A numeric flag, which must be the last flag in the command group,
specifies a different unit for the command group.
.TP 8
.B \-v
Verbose mode.
Normally
.I fdc
does not wait for a diskette to be inserted.
This flag causes it to print a prompt and wait for a
response of 'y' before proceeding
(a mere carriage return is not sufficient since some
terminals "duplicate" them too easily).
A response of 'n' cancels the command group.
Only one prompt per command group is printed.
.TP 8
.B \-a
Automatic mode.
When this is specified,
.I fdc
doesn't prompt for a diskette but instead waits first for drive not
ready and then for drive ready, and assumes this means you've
successfully inserted the (next) diskette.
.TP 8
.B \-i
Indefinite repeat mode.
The command group is repeated indefinitely.
Unless you're fast with your fingers, it is best to specify one of
.B \-v
or
.B \-a
at the same time.
The cycle ends when you type 'n' to the prompt or kill
the program with control-C.
.SH EXAMPLES
Most common use is formatting a diskette.
.TP 16
.B fdc \-vf
Asks for a diskette to be inserted in drive zero.
Waits for a carriage return and then formats the diskette.
.TP 16
.B fdc \-vf1 \-vk01
First formats a diskette in drive 1 and then copies the diskette
in drive 0 to it.
Both diskettes are prompted for before proceeding.
.TP 16
.B fdc \-iaft1
This is suitable for formatting and testing a large number 
of diskettes in drive 1.
All you need to do is keep on putting them in and taking them out.
Note that the
.B \-a
flag implies only one wait per diskette, and that the last
digit specifies the drive for both formatting and testing.
.SH SEE ALSO
fd(4)
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