createhdf(1)

📦
version 1.4.6 · 2 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ createhdf(1) — the Emulators girlies' manual ✨

okay bestie, bestie, BESTIE 💖 come sit with me, we're gonna build a whole IDE hard disk from literally nothing. This is createhdf, and it lives in section 1 of the Emulators manual, so it's a command you actually run in a shell, not some library thing. Let's go 🦋

💅 NAME 💅

createhdf — make a blank IDE hard disk image, in .hdf format, out of thin air. No cap.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

createhdf [ -c ] [ -s ] [-v version] cylinders heads sectors file

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

So basically createhdf creates a blank image of an IDE hard disk in .hdf format, and the whole point of it is so you can use it with Sinclair ZX Spectrum emulators. That's it, that's the job, and it does it flawlessly 👑

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -c — says "make this .hdf image in compact mode, pls". In compact mode only the low byte of every word actually gets stored in the image. It's giving space-saver energy, and you want it when the hard disk image is headed for an interface that only ever touches the low byte of every word. Waste not, want not 💖
  • -s — says "do NOT make this .hdf image as a sparse file". Normally createhdf tries to create the hard disk image as a sparse file, where the operating system is fully aware that the file is mostly zero bytes and just fills those in without using up any actual space in the file. This option turns that behaviour off. And no, there is nothing magic about this whole situation: if data gets written to the file, it takes up space just like any other data does. It's only the empty space that's being synthesised by the operating system. Periodt 🫶
  • -v version — picks which version of .hdf image you want created. The valid values are 1.0 for a version 1.0 file, and 1.1 for a version 1.1 file. If you don't say anything, it defaults to creating version 1.1 files ✨
  • -h, --help — gives you the brief usage help, listing all the available options. Your little "what do I even type" moment, solved 🙈
  • -V, --version — outputs version information. Slay.
  • cylinders — the number of cylinders in the image, bestie. You gotta tell it. 1️⃣
  • heads — the number of heads in the image.
  • sectors — the number of sectors in the image.
  • file — the file that the image should be written to. This is where it lives now 💾

🙈 BUGS 🙈

None known. She's flawless, your honor 💅

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

The .hdf format specification, at http://www.zxshed.co.uk/sinclairfaq/index.php5?title=HDF_format.

The comp.sys.sinclair Spectrum FAQ, at http://www.worldofspectrum.org/faq/index.html.

Go read 'em, iykyk 📚

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Philip Kendall (philip-fuse@shadowmagic.org.uk). We stan.

and that's the whole manual, bestie!! this little beauty is version 1.4.6, dated 25th July, 2026, and it's the createhdf(1) page from the Emulators crew 🎀 go forth and make blank hard disks, main character 🦋✨💖

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