HMSA(1)

💖 HMSA(1) 💖

okay bestie, so this is hmsa — a lil utility from the Hatari family (you know, the manual section that's all about the Atari toolkit). pull up a chair, we're making disk images 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

hmsa — the Atari MSA / ST disk image creator and converter. it makes them, it flips them, it does it all. main character energy fr fr 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

hmsa diskimage [disksize]

that's it. one file, one optional size. slay.

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so hmsa is a little program — and when I say little I mean adorable, not underpowered — that creates compressed Atari MSA (Magic Shadow Archiver) disk images and uncompressed ST disk images. and then, plot twist, it also converts disk images between those two formats. it's giving dual threat 👑

and here's the tea: the MSA and ST image format saving code is the same code that's inside Hatari itself. so you're literally getting the real deal, no knockoff vibes. 🔥

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✨ USAGE ✨

one parameter, bestie 🦋

if you give it just one parameter — the file name of an existing MSA or ST disk image — then that image gets converted to the other disk image format, and it lands under a suitable new file name. automatic. effortless. iconic.

two parameters, we're creating ✨

if the file does not exist and you also hand it a disk size, then it makes you a brand new empty disk of that size. the sizes are:

• SS — Single Sided (360KB)
• DS — Double Sided (720KB)
• HD — High Density (1.44MB)
• ED — Extended Density (2.88MB)

pick your fighter 💜

how does it even know which format? 🧚

the disk image format is recognized based on the file name extension — either .msa or .st. that's the whole vibe check. so name your files right or don't come crying to me 😭

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✨ EXAMPLES ✨

create a normal double sided empty ST disk image:

hmsa blank.st DS

convert an MSA format disk image to an ST format one:

hmsa disk.msa

see? no notes. flawless. 🌸

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

go be nosy in these too, they're all part of the same friend group 🫶

• hatari(1)
• zip2st(1)
• atari-hd-image(1)

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✨ AUTHOR ✨

written by Thomas Huth <th.huth at posteo.eu> 💖

and this manual page? added by Eero Tamminen <oak at helsinkinet fi> 🌈

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✨ LICENSE ✨

this program is free software — you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. open source royalty fr 👑

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✨ NO WARRANTY ✨

this program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY — not even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. see the GNU General Public License for more details. (yes bestie, that means if it breaks, it breaks, and that's the deal 💀)

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okay that's the whole page!! this was Hatari, dated 2025-07-12, and it's HMSA(1) — go make some disk images and absolutely eat 💅✨💖