3 nbdkit-floppy-plugin - create virtual floppy disk from directory
7 nbdkit floppy [dir=]DIRECTORY
8 [label=LABEL] [size=SIZE]
12 C<nbdkit-floppy-plugin> is a plugin for L<nbdkit(1)> which creates a
13 virtual FAT-formatted floppy disk image from a directory on the fly.
14 The files in the specified directory (and subdirectories) appear in
15 the virtual floppy, which is served read-only over the NBD protocol.
17 The virtual floppy disk will have a single partition (using an MBR
18 partition table). In that partition will be a virtual FAT32
19 filesystem containing the files. Long filenames are supported.
21 To create a CD/ISO, see L<nbdkit-iso-plugin(1)>. To create a Linux
22 compatible virtual disk, see L<nbdkit-linuxdisk-plugin(1)>.
24 B<Note:> The plugin does not save a temporary copy of the files, so
25 you must leave the directory alone while nbdkit is running, else you
26 may get an error (for example if the plugin tries to open one of the
27 files which you have moved or deleted). This is different from how
28 L<nbdkit-iso-plugin(1)> and L<nbdkit-linuxdisk-plugin(1)> work, as
29 both of those plugins keep a temporary copy of the files and
34 Create a virtual floppy disk:
36 nbdkit floppy /path/to/directory
42 =item [B<dir=>]DIRECTORY
44 Specify the directory containing files and subdirectories which will
45 be added to the virtual floppy disk. Files inside this directory will
46 appear in the root directory of the virtual floppy.
48 This parameter is required.
50 C<dir=> is a magic config key and may be omitted in most cases.
51 See L<nbdkit(1)/Magic parameters>.
55 The optional volume label for the filesystem. This may be up to 11
56 ASCII characters. If omitted, C<NBDKITFLOPY> is used.
60 Optional total disk size. If omitted then the disk will only be large
61 enough to store all the files and directories from C<DIRECTORY> with
68 The maximum size of the disk is around 2TB. The maximum size of a
69 single file is 4GB. Non-regular files (such as block special,
70 symbolic links, sockets) are not supported and will be ignored.
72 The plugin does not support writes. L<nbdkit-cow-filter(1)> can be
73 placed on top to enable writes, but they will be thrown away when
74 nbdkit exits and not written to the underlying directory.
76 The virtual floppy will not be bootable. This could be added in
77 future (using SYSLINUX) but requires considerable work. As a
78 workaround use L<nbdkit-iso-plugin(1)> instead.
80 FAT32 is always used, even for small disks (where dosfstools, for
81 example, would choose FAT12 or FAT16). This results in extra wasted
82 space, but since it is only I<virtual> wasted space it isn't really
83 important, and it simplifies the implementation greatly.
89 =item F<$plugindir/nbdkit-floppy-plugin.so>
93 Use C<nbdkit --dump-config> to find the location of C<$plugindir>.
99 C<nbdkit-floppy-plugin> first appeared in nbdkit 1.8.
105 L<nbdkit-file-plugin(1)>,
106 L<nbdkit-linuxdisk-plugin(1)>,
107 L<nbdkit-iso-plugin(1)>.