floppydiskit

Floppydiskit is a cross-platform software library and command-line tool designed to manipulate floppy disk image files. It provides facilities to read, edit, and write disk images in common formats and to inspect disk geometry, including tracks and sectors. The project aims to support multiple legacy formats and hardware conventions through a unified API.

Core features include parsing and converting disk images, enumerating tracks and sectors, reading and writing sector data, and performing integrity checks. It offers language bindings for several programming languages and includes a CLI utility that can list image contents, extract data, or patch sectors. The design emphasizes portability and non-destructive operations, with optional backups for edits.

Origins and development: Floppydiskit originated among retro computing enthusiasts who needed a common toolkit for emulation projects and archival work. The project has evolved from a simple command-line tool into a multi-language library, with ongoing contributions from an open-source community. Documentation emphasizes format compatibility and extensibility.

Usage and applications: Developers use Floppydiskit to load floppy images from disk or emulated drives, inspect or modify data at the sector level, and convert images for use with emulators and archival workflows. It runs on major desktop platforms and integrates with build systems in Python, C, and Rust projects.

See also: Floppy disk image, Disk image, Retro computing, Disk emulation, Data integrity.