NAME

       nbdkit-floppy-plugin - create virtual floppy disk from directory

SYNOPSIS

        nbdkit floppy [dir=]DIRECTORY
                      [label=LABEL] [size=SIZE]

DESCRIPTION

       "nbdkit-floppy-plugin" is a plugin for nbdkit(1) which creates a virtual FAT-formatted
       floppy disk image from a directory on the fly.  The files in the specified directory (and
       subdirectories) appear in the virtual floppy, which is served read-only over the NBD
       protocol.

       The virtual floppy disk will have a single partition (using an MBR partition table).  In
       that partition will be a virtual FAT32 filesystem containing the files.  Long filenames
       are supported.

       To create a CD/ISO, see nbdkit-iso-plugin(1).  To create a Linux compatible virtual disk,
       see nbdkit-linuxdisk-plugin(1).

       Note: The plugin does not save a temporary copy of the files, so you must leave the
       directory alone while nbdkit is running, else you may get an error (for example if the
       plugin tries to open one of the files which you have moved or deleted).  This is different
       from how nbdkit-iso-plugin(1) and nbdkit-linuxdisk-plugin(1) work, as both of those
       plugins keep a temporary copy of the files and directories.

EXAMPLE

       Create a virtual floppy disk:

        nbdkit floppy /path/to/directory

PARAMETERS

       [dir=]DIRECTORY
           Specify the directory containing files and subdirectories which will be added to the
           virtual floppy disk.  Files inside this directory will appear in the root directory of
           the virtual floppy.

           This parameter is required.

           "dir=" is a magic config key and may be omitted in most cases.  See "Magic parameters"
           in nbdkit(1).

       label=LABEL
           The optional volume label for the filesystem.  This may be up to 11 ASCII characters.
           If omitted, "NBDKITFLOPY" is used.

       size=SIZE
           Optional total disk size.  If omitted then the disk will only be large enough to store
           all the files and directories from "DIRECTORY" with no free space.

LIMITATIONS

       The maximum size of the disk is around 2TB.  The maximum size of a single file is 4GB.
       Non-regular files (such as block special, symbolic links, sockets) are not supported and
       will be ignored.

       The plugin does not support writes.  nbdkit-cow-filter(1) can be placed on top to enable
       writes, but they will be thrown away when nbdkit exits and not written to the underlying
       directory.

       The virtual floppy will not be bootable.  This could be added in future (using SYSLINUX)
       but requires considerable work.  As a workaround use nbdkit-iso-plugin(1) instead.

       FAT32 is always used, even for small disks (where dosfstools, for example, would choose
       FAT12 or FAT16).  This results in extra wasted space, but since it is only virtual wasted
       space it isn't really important, and it simplifies the implementation greatly.

FILES

       $plugindir/nbdkit-floppy-plugin.so
           The plugin.

           Use "nbdkit --dump-config" to find the location of $plugindir.

VERSION

       "nbdkit-floppy-plugin" first appeared in nbdkit 1.8.

SEE ALSO

       nbdkit(1), nbdkit-plugin(3), nbdkit-file-plugin(1), nbdkit-linuxdisk-plugin(1),
       nbdkit-iso-plugin(1).

AUTHORS

       Richard W.M. Jones

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2018 Red Hat Inc.

LICENSE

       Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are
       permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

       •   Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of
           conditions and the following disclaimer.

       •   Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of
           conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
           provided with the distribution.

       •   Neither the name of Red Hat nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse
           or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written
           permission.

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