# BFI Readme

## Notice

This is not an official readme file. This readme file is copyright (c) 2023 SeedyThreeSixty.
BFI is copyright (c) 2002 Bart Lagerweij, and developed as free software, distributable under the NU2 license. See the nu2lic.txt file for more details.

## Intro

BFI stands for Build Floppy Image. It is a small, Windows-based tool that allows you to generate FAT12 formatted floppy disk image files on the command line for use with virtual machine hypervisors, emulators etc. This readme file will cover some of the many command line arguments the program supports. I can't cover all of them, since there are a couple I haven't tried and I'm not really sure how they work.

##Path

The path to a folder containing the files you wish to have in your floppy image.

## -t

The -t switch specifies the type of floppy image you wish to generate. It supports either a specific type, such as 144 for a 1.44MB floppy image, or 288 for a 2.88MB floppy image, or any one of 11 preset values.

* 0: 160KB
* 1: 180KB
* 2: 320KB
* 3: 360KB
* 4: 720KB
* 5: 1.2MB
* 6: 144MB, the default value
* 7: 2.88MB
* 8: [DMF2048 format](https://www.winimage.com/wimushlp/wini1a1y.htm)
* 9: [DMF1024 format](https://www.winimage.com/wimushlp/wini1a1y.htm)
* 10: 1.68MB

## -v

The -v switch enables verbose mode. Note that this will produce quite a lot of output, depending on the number of files being added to your image. Therefore, it is not a good idea to use this switch if you use a screen reader, unless you like being bombed with command line output.

## -f

This switch simply specifies the filename of your floppy image. The syntax for this argument is filename.ext. I've tested it with both the .img and .flp file extensions and both of them seemed to work fine.

## -l

The -l argument specifies a [drive/volume label](https://www.lifewire.com/volume-label-2626045) for your floppy image.

## -b

The -b switch allows you to inject a boot sector file into your image. This is useful if you're making a custom Windows 95 or 98 boot disk, for instance.

## Example usage

In the following example, we will generate a 2.88MB floppy image file called MyFLP.flp with a volume label of 'MyFLP'

bfi -t=7 -l=MyFLP -f=C:\MyFLP\MyFLP.flp C:\MyFLP\files
Note, if the BFI folder is not in your path variables, you will either have to enter the full (absolute) path to the BFI executable, or cd to the folder where the executable is before running the above command.

## Contact me

Here are some ways you can reach me if you have any problems using BFI or if you just want to chat. :-)

* My website: https://www.seedy.gq
* My blog, Seedy on the Scene: https://scene.seedy.gq
* Follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/SeedyThreeSixty
* Follow me on Mastodon: @seedy@tweesecake.social
* Contact me on Skype: SeedyThreeSixty
* Feeling retro? Contact me on Escargot Chat: seedy@escargot.chat
* Send me an email: seedy360@hotmail.com
* Send me a telegram: https://t.me/SeedyThreeSixty