diskdumpfmt

DISKDUMPFMT(8)                                                  DISKDUMPFMT(8)

NAME

       diskdumpfmt - format a dump device or a partition

SYNOPSIS

       diskdumpfmt [ -v ] [ [ -a ] [ -p ] [ -f ] | -c ] device

       diskdumpfmt -V

DESCRIPTION

       diskdumpfmt  is  a  program  to format a block device file or partition
       device file that is to be specified as a disk dump device.   There  are
       two  types  of formatting. The first type is called the initial format-
       ting, and it writes special signatures over every  page-size  block  of
       the  dump  partition.  The second type is called the normal formatting,
       and it writes special signatures over all page-size blocks  except  for
       block  #0.  Block #0 is used as the dump partition header, and is never
       modified during a memory dump operation. The administrator must  do  an
       initial  formatting of each dump device partition only once. The normal
       format is required after each memory dump, but  typically  it  is  done
       automatically by the diskdump rc script.

OPTIONS

       -a     Format  all  blocks of the dump partition. Unless this option is
              specified, diskdumpfmt checks blocks only  that  is  checked  by
              kernel. Then diskdumpfmt formats those blocks.

       -c     Check the status of the dump partition.
              diskdumpfmt returns one of the following values.
                   0: the partition does not require formatting
                   1: the partition contains a memory dump
                   2: the partition requires initial formatting
                   3: the partition requires formatting
                   4: the partition is not suitable for diskdump
                   5: the partition is swap partition
                   6:  the partition is swap partition which contains a memory
                   dump

       -f     Format the dump partition forcibly without checking it out. That
              is called the initial formatting

       -p     Display progress for formatting.

       -v     Provide some verbose outputs.

       -V     Show version information and exit.

SEE ALSO

       diskdumpctl_proc(8), diskdumpctl_sysfs(8), savecore(8)



                                                                DISKDUMPFMT(8)