The Ftape Installation and Usage Guide - MTIOCFTFORMAT
FTFMT_FORMAT_TRACK
-- start formatting a tape track
This command initiates the formatting of a tape track. It sets up the
cyclic dma buffer queue, fills the DMA buffers with the proper sector
coordinates to format the tape cartridge, conforming to the parameters
previously set with FTFMT_SET_PARMS
(see FTFMT_SET_PARMS),
programs the FDC and DMA controllers and sends the `logical forward
' command to the tape drive.
struct ftfmttrack { unsigned int ft_track; /* track to format */ unsigned char ft_gap3; /* size of gap3, for FORMAT_TRK */ };
ft_gap3
gives the size of the gap between the floppy tape
sectors. Its value has to be `233
' for QIC-40 and
QIC-80 cartridges and `248
' for QIC-3010 and
QIC-3020 cartridges.
The mode of the tape drive is changed (i.e. format mode is not
entered) but the sector coordinates are computed by this command. The
format mode must have been entered previously by the user level
formatting program using the MTIOCFTCMD
ioctl
(see MTIOCFTCMD).
With ftape-3.04d the sector coordinates had to be computed in user space. This isn't true any longer. For an outline of the old protocol refer to the documentation of the ftape-3.04d driver. See Start formatting a tape track (info file ftape).
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