Xformat V1.0 - Little frontend to fdformat, mke2fs and mformat using the Xforms library.
Copyright (C) 1996 Christoph Neerfeld (Christoph.Neerfeld@mail.bonn.netsurf.de).

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW: Version 1.0.1 (patch level 1)
----------------------------------
- now uses autoconf and configure to build and install (no hardcoded paths anymore)
- fixed problems with command redirection (should work now even if you use tcsh)
- more error messages, when something goes wrong

DESCRIPTION
-----------

Xformat is a frontend to fdformat, mke2fs and mformat. It only formats floppy
disks (/dev/fd0 and /dev/fd1) ! It does nothing by itself, but executes other
commands.

You may low level format a floppy disk and create a filesystem on it.

WHAT YOU NEED
-------------

You need X11, of course.
Xforms V0.81 - it may work with older versions of Xforms, but this is not tested.
fdformat
mke2fs
mformat
(floppycontrol program of the fdutils package - you can live without it.)

INSTALL
-------

First run '.configure', then
'make' should do; 'make install' copies the executable 'xformat' into /usr/local/bin.
If you don't like this, put it somewhere else in your path. 'xformat' is the only file
you have to install.

Mtools has to be properly configured; also all those /dev/fd0H1440 files.
(If they are not, blame your distribution seller.)

If your first drive (fd0) is a 3.5'' drive with 1440kB
and your second drive (fd1) is a 5.25'' drive with 1200kB all should be right now.

If it is not, life is a bit harder:
- if you have the command floppycontrol of the fdutils package somewhere in your path,
  xformat should recognize your setup automatically.
- if you don't have floppycontrol, don't want to get it or it doesn't work for
  your setup, then you have to change 'config.h' of xformat and recompile.
- if you have larger disks beyond 1440kB, you have to change 'config.h', too.

Permissions: To create a filesystem on a disk any user needs write permission to 
	     /dev/fd0 and /dev/fd1. To low level format a disk they need write
	     permission to /dev/fd0H1440 and the like as well.
	     One way to achieve this:
		chgrp disk /dev/fd*
		chmod g+rw /dev/fd*
	     Now any member of the group 'disk' is able to use xformat to
	     low level format a disk.

DISCLAIMER:  If your system is configured properly, this program should not erase
	     your whole harddisk ( if you do not have a link from /dev/fd0 to /dev/hda).
	     But this program formats devices and by that erases data. Besides this
	     it should be safer than using fdformat from the command line. But as usual
	     you use this program at your own risk.

DOCUMENTATION
-------------

ONLY HERE ! There is no man file, or other documentation.

xformat
(No options at all.)
Just execute xformat and try it out. There is a small online help, please read it.
Make sure you only insert empty disks in _any_ drive. Don't put your backup disk 
in fd1 while you want to format a disk in fd0.
Before xformat does anything to your disks it shows you the commands it is to 
execute. So you will know what xformat is going to do, don't blame me if it is not
what you expected to happen.

VERSION
-------
This is the first release. But I called it version 1.0 because it is quite usable and 
so small that there should be only a few bugs left. ( All right this was not true. I had
a lot of trubble with different Linux distributions. Sorry.)
(if anyone is offended by then name 'xformat' tell me).

REPORTING BUGS and SUGGESTIONS
------------------------------
send bugreports concerning xformat to Christoph.Neerfeld@mail.bonn.netsurf.de

TODO
----
?? - tell me

BUGS
----
no man page


