1 .\" Copyright (C) 1998 David A. Hinds -- dahinds@users.sourceforge.net
2 .\" ftl_format.1 1.10 2000/06/12 21:24:48
4 .TH FTL_FORMAT 1 "2000/06/12 21:24:48" "pcmcia-cs"
6 ftl_format \- Flash Translation Layer formatting utility
20 creates a Flash Translation Layer partition on a flash memory device.
21 It needs to access the flash partition's raw character-mode device
25 This is actually a low-level format operation, required before
26 accessing a memory device via the FTL block device driver. Once a
27 partition is prepared with
29 a filesystem should be created in a separate step. Filesystem
30 commands should access the device via the FTL device file (such as
35 can reserve a region at the beginning of the flash card address space
36 for a boot image (or any other purpose). The boot area is not part of
37 the FTL partition, and can only be accessed via the raw memory device.
39 On Intel Series 100 flash cards, the first flash block is used to
40 store the card's configuration information structures. If no boot
41 area is specified on the command line,
43 will automatically create one to span the first block.
47 Quiet mode: don't print formatting statistics.
50 Interactive: confirm before beginning the format.
53 Reserve the specified number of erase blocks as spares. The default
54 is 1. A read-write partition requires at least one spare block.
57 Reserve the specified percentage of the total space on the device to
58 improve write efficiency. The default is 5%. Reserving less space
59 increases the frequency of flash erase operations to reclaim free
63 Requests that a portion of the flash card be reserved for a boot
64 image. The size will be rounded up to an integral number of erase
67 David Hinds \- dahinds@users.sourceforge.net
69 ftl_cs(4), ftl_check(8).