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For example, the following drive section describes a 1.44M drive:
drive a: file="/dev/fd0H1440" fat_bits=12 tracks=80 heads=2 sectors=18
The following shorthand geometry descriptions are available:
| 1.44M | High density, 3 1/2 disk. Equivalent to fat_bits=12 tracks=80 heads=2 sectors=18. |
| 1.2M | High density, 5 1/4 disk. Equivalent to fat_bits=12 tracks=80 heads=2 sectors=15. |
| 720K | Double density, 3 1/2 disk. Equivalent to fat_bits=12 tracks=80 heads=2 sectors=9. |
| 360K | Double density, 5 1/4 disk. Equivalent to fat_bits=12 tracks=40 heads=2 sectors=9. |
The shorthand format descriptions may be amended. For example, 360K sectors=8 describes a 320K disk and is equivalent to fat_bits=12 tracks=40 heads=2 sectors=8.
OPEN FLAGS
Moreover, the following flags are available:
| sync | All I/O operations are done synchronously. |
| nodelay | The device or file is opened with the O_NDELAY flag. This is needed on some non-Linux architectures. |
| exclusive | The device or file is opened with the O_EXCL flag. On Linux, this ensures exclusive access to the floppy drive. On most other architectures and for plain files, it has no effect at all. |
SUPPLYING MULTIPLE DESCRIPTIONS FOR A DRIVE
It is possible to supply multiple descriptions for a drive. In that case, the descriptions are tried in order until one is found that fits. Descriptions may fail for several reasons:
Multiple definitions are useful when using physical devices that are only able to support one single disk geometry:
drive a: file="/dev/fd0H1440" 1.44m drive a: file="/dev/fd0H720" 720k
This instructs mtools to use /dev/fd0H1440 for 1.44M (high density) disks and /dev/fd0H720 for 720K (double density) disks. On Linux, this feature is not really needed because the /dev/fd0 device is able to handle any geometry.
You can also use multiple drive descriptions to access both of your physical drives through one drive letter:
drive z: file="/dev/fd0" drive z: file="/dev/fd1"
With this description, mdir z: accesses your first physical drive if it contains a disk. If the first drive doesn't contain a disk, mtools checks the second drive.
When using multiple configuration files, drive descriptions in the files parsed last override descriptions for the same drive in earlier files. In order to avoid this, use the drive+ or +drive keywords instead of drive. The first adds a description to the end of the list (will be tried last), and the second adds it to the start of the list.
CHARACTER TRANSLATION TABLES
If you live in the USA, in Western Europe, or in Australia, you can skip this section.