NAME¶

dasdfmt - formatting of DASD (ECKD) disk drives.

SYNOPSIS¶

dasdfmt [-h] [-t] [-v] [-y] [-p] [-P] [-m step]
[-b blksize] [-l volser] [-d layout]
[-L] [-V] [-F] [-k] {-n devno | -f node} device

DESCRIPTION¶

dasdfmt formats a DASD (ECKD) disk drive to prepare it for usage with Linux for S/390. The device is the node of the device (e.g. '/dev/dasda'). Any device node created by udev for kernel 2.6 can be used (e.g. '/dev/dasd/0.0.b100/disc'). WARNING: Careless usage of dasdfmt can result in LOSS OF DATA.

OPTIONS¶

-h or --help

Print usage and exit.

 

-t or --test

Disables any modification of the disk drive.

 

dasdfmt just prints out, what it would do.

 

-v

Increases verbosity.

 

-y

Start formatting without further user-confirmation.

 

--norecordzero

Remove permission for subsystem to format write record zero.

 

This is an expert option: Per default in recent dasd drivers, subsystems are granted the permission to format write record zero. This option is used to remove this permission.

 

 

-L or --no_label

Omit the writing of a disk label after formatting.

 

This makes only sense for the 'ldl' disk layout.

 

The '-L' option has to be specified after the '-d ldl' option.

 

 

e.g. dasdfmt -d ldl -L -f /dev/...

 

 

-V or --version

Print version number and exit.

 

-F or --force

Formats the device without checking, if the device is in use.

 

-d layout or --disk_layout=layout

Formats the device with compatible disk layout or linux disk layout. layout is either cdl for the compatible disk layout (default) or ldl for the linux disk layout.

 

Compatible disk layout means a special handling of the first two tracks of the volume. This enables other S/390 or zSeries operating systems to access this device (e.g. for backup purposes).

 

-p or --progressbar

Print a progress bar while formatting. Do not use this option if you are using a 3270 console, running in background or redirecting the output to a file.

 

-P or --percentage

Print one line for each formatted cylinder showing the number of the cylinder and percentage of formatting process. Intended to be used by higher level interfaces.

 

-m step or --hashmarks=step

Print a hashmark every step cylinders. The value step has to be within range [1,1000], otherwise it will be set to the default, which is 10.

 

You can use this option to see the progress of formatting in case you are not able to use the progress bar option -p, e.g. with a 3270 terminal.

 

 

-b blksize or --blocksize=blksize

Specify blocksize to be used. blksize must be a positive integer and always be a power of two. The recommended blocksize is 4096 bytes.

 

-l volser or --label=volser

Specify the volume serial number or volume identifier to be written to disk after formatting. If no label is specified, a sensible default is used. volser is interpreted as ASCII string and is automatically converted to uppercase and then to EBCDIC.

 

 

e.g. -l LNX001 or --label=DASD01

 

 

The volser identifies by serial number the volume. A volume serial number is 1 through 6 alphanumeric or one of the following special characters: $, #, @, %. Enclose a serial number that contains special characters in apostrophes. If the number is shorter than six characters, it is padded with trailing blanks.

 

 

Do not code a volume serial number as SCRTCH, PRIVAT, or Lnnnnn (L with five numbers); these are used in OS/390 messages to ask the operator to mount a volume. Do not code a volume serial number as MIGRAT, which is used by the OS/390 Hierarchical Storage Manager DFSMShsm for migrated data sets.

 

 

NOTE: Try to avoid using special characters in the volume serial. This may cause problems accessing a disk by volser.

 

In case you really have to use special characters, make sure you are using quotes. In addition there is a special handling for the '$' sign. Please specify it using '\$' if necessary.

 

 

e.g. -l 'a@b\$c#' to get A@B$C#

 

 

-k or --keep_volser

Keeps the Volume Serial Number, when writing the Volume Label. This is useful, if the Serial Number has been written with a VM Tool and should not be overwritten.

 

 

-n devno or --devno=devno

Specify the device using the device number devno. This device number is a 4 character hexadecimal number WITHOUT prefixes. Leading zeros could be omitted.

 

 

NOTE: This option is only usable if your system has switched on the device file system.

 

 

NOTE: This option is now deprecated. Use the required parameter device instead.

 

 

example:

 

-n 900 or --devno=900

 

-f node or --device=node

Specify the device using the device node. node is the complete path to the device.

 

This could be either

 

/dev/dasdx

 

where x is one or more lowercase letter(s).

 

or

 

/dev/dasd/xxxx/device

 

where xxxx is the four-letter device number.

 

depending if you are using devfs.

 

 

NOTE: This option has to be used in case you do not use the device file system.

 

 

NOTE: This option is now deprecated. Use the required parameter device instead.

 

 

example:

 

with devfs:

 

-f /dev/dasd/0900/device or

 

--device=/dev/dasd/0900/device

 

without devfs:

 

-f /dev/dasda or

 

--device=/dev/dasda

 

 

SEE ALSO¶

fdasd(8)