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From: wnp@killer.UUCP (Wolf Paul)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: cpio for DOS and 3b2?
Message-ID: <1737@killer.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Oct-87 11:21:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: killer.1737
Posted: Mon Oct  5 11:21:47 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Oct-87 04:30:38 EDT
References: <472@unirot.UUCP>
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 59
Keywords: cpio,floppy
Summary: Mtools was recently posted to comp.sources.unix MSK Toolkit has dd(1) program
Xref: mnetor comp.sys.ibm.pc:8721 comp.sys.att:1414

In article <472@unirot.UUCP>, samperi@unirot.UUCP (Dominick Samperi) writes:
> I just finished implementing a UNIX-compatible cpio for DOS on a PC, and
> I hoped to use it to transfer files via floppy disks between my AT
> (running System V UNIX) and AT&T 3B2's (also running System V UNIX). But
> I've since learned that the 3B2's do not format floppies in the same way
> that the PC does. Does anyone know how floppies are formatted on the 3B2?
> Is there software available that will enable a PC to format a floppy so
> that a 3B2 can use it, or vis versa?

Two pieces of information on this:

1. Rich Salz recently posted Emmet Gray's MTOOLS package to comp.sources.unix.
This package will allow any UNIX system to read MS-DOS diskettes, provided
that the UNIX system has a floppy drive physically capable of reading the
MS-DOS formats (i.e. 40 Tracks @ 9 sectors for 360K disks). This would allow
you to copy a DOS file to the 3B2 or vice versa, and then unpack it with the
appropriate archiver.

2. The MKS Toolkit contains a dd(1) command, which permits reading and
writing floppy disks without reference to the file system on the disk,
i.e. it just reads/writes sectors in the proper sequence. With this command,
I can write an archive to a floppy from DOS like this:

  find ... | cpio ... | dd of=a:

and read the archive on the UNIX system with 

  cpio -icdm < /dev/rdsk/fd048      # if a 360K disk
or
  cpio -icdm < /dev/rdsk/fd096      # if a 1.2M disk

Again, this requires that the UNIX system have disk drives (and drivers)
capable of reading the raw MS-DOS format(s).

The formats are 40 Tracks @ 9 sectors for 360K, and 80 tracks @ 15 sectors
for 1.2MB. On Microport System V/AT, the RAW disk device entries are in
/dev/rdsk/fd*, and have names indicative of the drive characteristics
as follows:

    fd{dr}{dens}[{sides}{secs}]

where

   dr          = Drive #, either 0 for A: or 1 for B:
   dens        = Density in tracks/inch, 48 for double density, 96 for 
                 quad/high density. Note that these numbers translate
                 40 and 80 tracks respectively PER DISK, since a 5.25 floppy
                 does not use a full inch if tracks.
   sides       = ds for doublesided, ss for singlesided. All current DOS
                 formats (360K, 720K, 1.2M) are doublesided.
   secs        = Sectors per track, 9 for 360K and 720K disks, 15 for
                 1.2M disks.

I do not know how these naming conventions compare to those on a 3B2,
but I am sure that your documentation will specify the raw track/sector
format of the various floppies your system can read.

Wolf Paul
ihnp4!killer! [ mcomp! ] wnp