Chapter2 Catalyst 6500 Series Switch and ROM Monitor Commands format
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Catalyst 6500 Series Switch Command Reference—Release7.6
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format
To format bootflash or a Flash PC card (a Flash device must be formatted before it can be used), u se the
format command.
format [spare spare-num] [m/]device1: [[device2:][monlib-filename]]
Syntax Description
Defaults The default number of spare sectors is 0.
Command Types Switch command.
Command Modes Privileged.
Usage Guidelines A colon (:) is required after the specified device.
You can reserve up to 16 spare sectors for use when other sectors fail. If you do not reserve a spare sector
and later some sectors fail, you will have to reformat the entire Flash memory, which will erase all
existing data.
The monlib file is the ROM monitor library used by the ROM monitor to access files in the Flash file
system. It is also compiled into the syst em im ag e. I n t he co mm and s y ntax , device1: is the device to
format and device2: contains the monlib file to use.
When you omit the [[device2:][monlib-filename]] argument, the system formats device1: using the
monlib that is bundled with the system software.
When you omit device2: from the [[device2:][monlib-filename]] argument, the system formats device1:
using the named monlib file from the device specified by the cd command.
When you omit monlib-filename from the [[device2:][monlib-filename]] argument, the system formats
device1: using the monlib file from device2:. When you specify the whole [[device2:][monlib-filename]]
argument, the system formats device1: using the specified monlib file from the specified device.
spare spare_num (Optional) Indicates the number of spare sectors to reserve when
other sectors fail.
m/ (Optional) Module number of the supervisor engine c ontaining the
Flash device.
device1:Flash device to be formatted.
device2:(Optional) Flash device that contains the monlib file to be used to
format device1:.
monlib-filename (Optional) Name of the monlib file.