NAME

       hformat - create a new HFS filesystem and make it current

SYNOPSIS

       hformat [-f] [-l label] destination-path [partition-no]

DESCRIPTION

       hformat  is  used  to write a new HFS filesystem to a volume. A UNIX pathname to the volume's destination
       must be specified. The destination may be either a block device or a regular file, but  it  must  already
       exist and be writable.

       An  optional  label  can  be  specified  to name the volume. The name must be between 1-27 characters and
       cannot contain a colon (:). By default, the volume will be named Untitled.

       If the destination medium is partitioned, one partition must be selected to receive  the  filesystem.  If
       there  is  only  one  HFS partition on the medium, it will be selected by default. Otherwise, the desired
       partition number must be specified (as the ordinal nth HFS partition) on the command-line.  The  size  of
       the partition determines the size of the resulting volume.

       Partition  number  0  can  be  specified  to  format  the  entire medium as a single filesystem without a
       partition map, erasing any existing partition information. Since this will destroy  all  the  partitions,
       the -f option must be specified to force this operation if the medium currently contains a partition map.

       If  the  medium  is  not partitioned (or if partition 0 is specified), the size or capacity of the medium
       determines the size of the resulting volume.

       The new volume will be empty and will become "current" so subsequent  commands  will  refer  to  it.  The
       current working directory for the volume is set to the root of the volume.

EXAMPLES

       % hformat /dev/fd0
              If  a floppy disk is available as /dev/fd0, this formats the disk as an HFS volume named Untitled.
              (N.B. The floppy must already have received a low-level format by other means.)

       % dd if=/dev/zero of=disk.hfs bs=1k count=800
       % hformat -l "Test Disk" disk.hfs
              This sequence creates an 800K HFS volume image in the file disk.hfs in the current directory,  and
              names it Test Disk.

       % hformat -l "Loma Prieta" /dev/sd2 1
              If  a  SCSI  disk  is  available as /dev/sd2, this initializes the first HFS partition on the disk
              (which must already exist) with a new filesystem, naming the resulting volume Loma Prieta.

       % hformat -f /dev/sd2 0
              This causes the medium accessible as /dev/sd2 to be reformatted as a single HFS  volume,  ignoring
              and  erasing  any existing partition information on the medium. The -f option must be specified if
              the medium is currently partitioned; otherwise the command will fail.

NOTES

       This command does not create or alter partition maps, although it can erase them  (as  described  above).
       Any partition number specified on the command line must already exist.

       The smallest volume size which can be formatted with hformat is 800K.

SEE ALSO

       hfsutils(1), hmount(1)

FILES

       $HOME/.hcwd

AUTHOR

       Robert Leslie <rob@mars.org>