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tk_scsiformat(8)                        Scsiinfo User's Guide                       tk_scsiformat(8)



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 de‐
       vice.  You must be root to perform this operation. When you do not specify a device, tk_scsi‐‐
       format 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 en‐
       try 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  multi‐
       ple 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 sup‐
       ported 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 impos‐
       sible 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 AT exp-math.de>



scsiinfo 1.7                               23 August 1997                           tk_scsiformat(8)