dsktrans(1)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so this page is dsktrans from the Emulators manual — and it's literally the "copy from one floppy or image file to another" girlie 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

dsktrans [-itype TYPE] [-otype TYPE] [-iside SIDE] [-oside SIDE] [-icomp COMP] [-ocomp COMP] [-idstep] [-odstep] [-retry COUNT] [-format FMT] [-first CYLINDER] [-last CYLINDER] [-comment TEXT] [-comment @FILE] [-md3] [-logical] [-apricot] [-pcdos] [-noformat] INPUT-IMAGE OUTPUT-IMAGE

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So dsktrans copies floppy discs or disc images, and bestie, it can convert the image file type while it's at it 💅 It's literally simulating the whole process of copying a floppy disc — read a track, write a track, over and over, iconic behavior fr fr.

It does have ONE requirement though: the disc or image file has to have a straightforward geometry where all the tracks have the same layout of sectors. No weird custom-track chaos allowed, sorry 🫶 And heads up: interleave is not preserved 😭

Also go look at dskconv(1) if you want a conversion that can transform one disc image file format to another and doesn't require a regular geometry — and dskdump(1) if you want a slower but more accurate copy which may preserve more of these details ⭐

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🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

• -itype TYPE — tells it which driver to use when reading from the source disc. Some examples are:
  • auto — select according to the disc image file. This is the default 👑
  • dsk — use the DSK (CPCEmu format) image driver.
  • edsk — use the extended version of the DSK format.
  • floppy — use the floppy driver.
  • ntwdm — (under Windows 2000 and later) use Simon Owen's FDRAWCMD floppy driver.
  • myz80 — use the hard disk (MYZ80 format) image driver. (This format cannot be autodetected.) 🙈
  • cfi — use the CFI (DOS fdcopy format) image driver. (This format cannot be autodetected.) 🙈
  • apridisk — use the ApriDisk image driver (from the utility of the same name). (This format cannot be autodetected.) 🙈
  • raw — use the raw driver.
  • logical — similar to the raw driver, but the resulting disc image contains tracks laid out in logical filesystem order. Mainly used for imaging discs in formats (such as ADFS) where the mapping of tracks to cylinders/heads does not match the way it's done on the PC. 🧠
  • qm — Sydex's CopyQM format.
  • tele — Sydex's Teledisk format.
• -otype TYPE — tells it which driver to use when writing to the destination disc. The drivers are as for -itype — same list, bestie, no new lore 💜
• -icomp COMP — picks the compression method used on the source disc image file (has no effect when reading a floppy disc, so don't come for it).
  • auto — detect from the first few bytes of the file. This is the default ✨
  • sq — Huffman coded (SQ / USQ).
  • gz — Gzipped (gzip / gunzip).
  • bz2 — Burrows-Wheeler compressed (bzip2 / bunzip2).
• -ocomp COMP — picks the compression to be used on output. Compression methods are as for -icomp, except that bz2 cannot be used 💀
• -iside SIDE — determines which side (0 or 1) of the source disc is to be read from.
• -oside SIDE — determines which side (0 or 1) of the destination disc is to be written to.
• -idstep — double-step the source drive (used to read 360k discs in 1.2Mb drives). Only supported by the Linux floppy driver 🐧
• -odstep — double-step the destination drive (used to write 360k discs in 1.2Mb drives). Only supported by the Linux floppy driver 🐧
• -retry COUNT — set the number of times to attempt a read/write/format in case of error. Basically "bestie try again" energy 🔁
• -format FMT — don't autodetect the disc format; use the named format instead.
• -first CYL — start copying at the specified cylinder. Cylinders prior to this will not be formatted or written 👀
• -last CYL — copy up to and including the specified cylinder.
• -comment TEXT — set the comment field in the disc image to the specified text (if supported by the image file format).
• -comment @FILE — set the comment field in the disc image to the contents of the specified disc file (if supported by the image file format). If the filename is - (i.e. -comment @-) then you will be asked to type the comment, terminated with a . on a line by itself ✍️
• -odstep — double-step the destination drive (used to write 360k discs in 1.2Mb drives). Only supported by the Linux floppy driver. (yes it's listed again in the original, not a glitch, we're just being thorough 💅)
• -md3 — defeat MicroDesign 3 copy protection. Note that this does not make dsktrans a circumvention device, since the authors of MicroDesign have placed it in the public domain and given permission for the copy-protection to be reverse engineered; I posted their original press release to USENET as <1008359853.26849.0.nnrp-13.c2de7091@news.demon.co.uk>. receipts were provided, periodt 📜
• -pcdos — convert the first sector from an Apricot superblock to a PC-DOS superblock. This allows Apricot-format discs to be imaged as files (with the output image type as raw) and then loopback-mounted under Linux 🐧✨
• -apricot — reverse -pcdos, and convert the first sector from a PC-DOS superblock to an Apricot superblock. Note that this is the opposite of what this option did in LibDsk 1.1.9 and earlier — so if you're on ancient lore, check yourself 🫠
• -logical — rearrange the tracks in the logical order. This option has been superseded; instead you should use -otype logical to output to a logically-sectored raw image. old news bestie, use the new thing 🦋
• -noformat — don't format the target disc/image — assume it's in the correct format already. trust fall 🤝

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

dskconv(1), dskdump(1)

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

John Elliott <seasip.webmaster@gmail.com>.

Darren Salt wrote the man pages. we love a documentation king 🫶

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ngl the whole "read a track, write a track" thing is giving main character energy for a floppy copier, and I love that for it 💖

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Version 1.5.9 🌈 17 September 2018 — that's the source + date of this lil page, mwah, bye bestie 💋✨🎀🦋