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8.8.7.5: 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 */
};

The mode of the tape drive remains unchanged (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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