Specifying an Alternate Data File for the format utility

The format utility learns of the location of an alternate file by the following methods.

1. If a file name is given with the format -x option, that file is always used as the data file.

2. If the -x option is not specified, then the format utility looks in the current directory for a file named format.dat. If the file exists, it is used as the data file.

3. If neither of these methods yields a data file, the format utility uses the /etc/format.dat file as the data file. This file is shipped with the Solaris operating environment and should always be present.