NAME¶
tk_scsiformat - low level format an scsi disk device with a nice user interface
SYNOPSIS¶
tk_scsiformat [device]
DESCRIPTION¶
Low level formats the SCSI device identified by the scsi disk or generic scsi
device node
device. You must be root to perform this operation. When
you do not specify a
device,
tk_scsiformat gives you a list to
select a disk device from.
tk_scsiformat is a Tcl/Tk user interface to
scsiformat(8).
You should read that manual page for the general operation of
scsiformat.
All common X11 and Tcl/Tk options apply.
By the nature of graphical user interfaces, there should not be much to explain
here. All entry fields refer directly to
scsiformat(8) options.
In addition to those, you are able to save your selections to be used as
defaults for this device next time in a file
/usr/lib/scsi/scsiformat.defs.* by pressing the
<Save
Defaults> button. This is intended and very handy for formatting of
removable medias. Note, however, that
tk_scsiformat is not as clever as
scsiformat(8) (or even tries to be) to find if multiple ways to refer
to the same scsi device (disk device, generic device).
Furthermore, you can select (or enter freely) a command to automatically make a
file system on the newly formatted disk.
While formatting a nice completion bar is drawn. Alas, I could not really
implement querying progress from a target device yet.
The
/usr/lib/scsi/tworands binary is used to calculate two random
integers which is not supported by plain Tcl/Tk.
BUGS¶
When not specifying a device to format,
tk_scsiformat will prepare a list
of disk devices to choose from. Alas, if a blocking format operation is
running on one of them,
tk_scsiformat will block in a non interruptible
disk wait sleep.
Old status files in
/tmp will confuse
tk_scsiformat. However, they
are removed after 48 hours.
Restrictions of the
SCSI_IOCTL_SEND_COMMAND ioctl(2) call for the
sd(4) device make it impossible to issue a
FORMAT_UNIT command
with more than 4096 bytes of arguments. This could be avoided by using the
proper generic scsi device
/dev/sg* instead, at least where the kernel
is compiled to support it. Most of the time this is not needed though and thus
I'm myself to lazy to do it.
FILES¶
/usr/lib/scsi/tworands
/usr/lib/scsi/scsiformat.defs.*
/tmp/scsiformat.xx:xx:xx:xx:xxxxxxxx
/dev/sd*
/dev/sg*
SEE ALSO¶
scsiformat(8),
scsiinfo(8),
scsi-config(8),
fdisk(8),
sd(4).
AUTHOR¶
Michael Weller <eowmob@exp-math.uni-essen.de>