[ Introduction | Changelog | Information | Download | Lib765 | Diskette Tools | Serial Port Server ]

LIBDSK page

LIBDSK is a library for accessing discs and disc image files. It is intended for use in:

• Emulator tools - converting between real floppy discs and disc images, as CPCTRANS / PCWTRANS do under DOS.
• Filesystem utilities - CPMTOOLS is configurable to use LIBDSK, thus allowing the use of CPMTOOLS on emulator .DSK images. To do this, install LIBDSK and then build CPMTOOLS, using "./configure --with-libdsk". For CPMTOOLS 1.9 or 2.0, you will also need to apply this patch.
• Emulators - it is possible to use LIBDSK as part of an emulator's floppy controller emulation, thus giving the emulator transparent access to .DSK files or real discs.

New in 1.4.x

• Bugfixes: Corrected various faults in the IMD file driver.
• Added a 'complement' flag to the recording mode, allowing support of disk images where all bytes are stored complemented.
• New backend: JV3 (for TRS-80 disc images in the JV3 format)
.

New in 1.5.x

• When converting to TD0 format, attempt to guess drive type (3.5" / 5.25") from drive geometry.
• When probing geometry on disc image files that do not record the data rate, prefer the rate specified in the boot sector.
• Fix for integer underflow issues in the POSIX / raw driver.
• The LDBS format has been updated to support round-trip compatibility with the further EDSK extensions.
• DSK, EDSK, ApriDisk, CFI, IMD, JV3, CopyQM and TeleDisk drivers have all been rewritten to use LDBS for intermediate storage.
• New utility: dskconv (convert a disc image file from one format to another)
• New backend: QRST (for the Compaq Quick Release Sector Transfer format)
• New backend: LDBS (for the LDBS format)
• New backend: SAP (for the System D'Archivage Pukall format)
• dskform(1) can create a blank FAT12 filesystem when formatting.
• New backends: gotek1440 and gotek720 (for accessing disc images on a Gotek-formatted USB drive)
• New utilities: lsgotek(1) lists the disc images present on a Gotek-formatted USB drive. dsklabel(1) can view or set the disk label on DOS, CP/M or Acorn DFS filesystems.
• New backend: dc42 for Apple Disk Copy 4.2
• QRST backend supports QRST v5 compression (read-only).
• Fix for geometry detection on LDBS backend where the sector size is not a power of 2.
• Gracefully handle disk images that report sector sizes greater than 32k.
• Fix for APRIDISK driver, which had not been working since rewrite in 1.5.3
• New disk image format: LDBST (LDBS as human-readable text)
• dsktrans(1): The -md3 option now supports 180k MicroDesign floppies.

Older changes

Disc types supported

LIBDSK has drivers for:

• Raw files (including /dev/fdn).
• Raw files, rearranged into logical filesystem order.
• .DSK files, as used in CPCEMU, JOYCE and other Sinclair/Amstrad emulators.
• MYZ80 hard drive image files.
• NanoWasp floppy image files.
• .CFI (Compressed Floppy Image) files, as created by FDCOPY.COM under DOS.
• The Linux floppy drive (supports CPC System and Data formats, which the standard "Raw file" driver does not).
• The Windows 3.x/95/98/ME/NT/2000 floppy drive.
• The DOS floppy drive (via the PC BIOS).
• CopyQM files
• TeleDisk files
• Compaq QRST files
• APRIDISK image files
• The LDBS format
• rcpmfs - a backend that makes a Unix/Windows directory appear to be a CP/M disc image.
• Another instance of LibDsk over a serial line.

Download

Stable Version

Stable version: libdsk-1.4.2.tar.gz

LibDsk 1.4.2 executables for Windows

LibDsk 1.4.0 executables for DOS

Development Version

Development version: libdsk-1.5.15.tar.gz

LibDsk 1.5.15 executables for Windows

LibDsk 1.5.15 executables for DOS

Packages

Debian packages by Darren Salt.

Packages for Fedora Core 2 and Redhat 9 by Ian Chapman.

Packages for Gentoo

LIB765

Lib765 is the floppy controller emulation from JOYCE, separately packaged. It is (in some sense) the reverse of LibDsk; it converts uPD765a commands into LibDsk API calls. It should come in handy if you're writing a PCW, CPC or Spectrum+3 emulator; if you want to use it in a PC emulator, you'll need to add features such as DMA.

New in v0.4.x

• (v0.4.2) Increased buffer size to fix multisector reads on high-density disc images.
• (v0.4.1) Removed spurious references to LIBDSK_EXPOSES_DIRTY.
• (v0.4.0) Initial support for multisector reads.

lib765-0.4.2.tar.gz

Diskette Tools

The Diskette Tools program is a GUI front-end to LibDsk. It doesn't do any more than the provided sample utilities, but it looks nicer.

dsktool-1.0.5.tar.gz (38k): Source code - suitable for Linux, Windows and probably other platforms. Requires wxWidgets to compile.

dsktool103.zip (1473k): Compiled version for Windows, including source code.

Serial Port Server

AUXD is a server for CP/M, allowing drives from CP/M systems to be made available to LibDsk over a serial link. Two versions are included - a generic CP/M server, and one for Amstrad PCW/CPC/Spectrum +3 CP/M.

auxd.zip (62k) - source code and compiled programs.

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John Elliott 2019-08-24