Various Python tools to inspect and modify floppy disk images

dump

Performs a deep inspection and optional re-write of a Teledisk image.

There are several levels of detail that can be presented. By default, just the image's header data is provided.

However, this may also be tuned to present a mix of header, detail, and summary information.

Detail provides a sector-by-sector dump of sector header and data for the entire image. Summary provides details of how each sector on each track is stored.

The command looks like this:

$ ./dump --help
Usage: dump [OPTIONS] FILENAME

Options:
  --writefile TEXT
  --writemode [verbatim|cylinder|side]
  --resequence / --no-resequence
  --header / --no-header
  --detail / --no-detail
  --summary / --no-summary
  --help              Show this message and exit.

If writefile is specified, then a IMA image is written. By default, the writemode is verbatim, meaning that sectors are written in the same order that they were read. if writemode is set to cylinder, then then sectors are written in cylinder priority: so cylinder 0 side 0 followed by cylinder 0 side 1, followed by cylinder 1 side 0, and so on. Conversely, setting writemode to side will cause all of the cylinders on side 0 to be written, followed by all of the cylinders on side 1.

For performance reasons, disks may have a sector 'skip', so that adjacent sectors are placed so many physical secros away from one another. Teledisk images keep this skip. For more information, see

https://web.archive.org/web/20160527014011/http://www.coco3.com/community/2010/06/disk-skip-factor-explained-please/

Setting the resequence flag will reorder the sectors in logical order, eliminating the skip.

Bugs and Notes

Dump does not support compressed or MSDOS variants.

examine

Inspects an input file block-by-block, and renders a block-by-block color coded representation to the screen. This is useful for making a high level comparison of how a file is laid out.

$ ./examine --help                            
Usage: examine [OPTIONS] FILENAME

Options:
  --blocksize INTEGER
  --columnwidth INTEGER
  --columns INTEGER
  --help              Show this message and exit.
$ 

The optional argument blocksize determines how many bytes are used to calculate a particular cell. The optional arguments columnwidth and columns determine the number of cells per column, and how many columns are presented on each line, respectively.

The default values for these options provide for a block size of 256 bytes, and two columns of 16 cells.

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