[Pkg-opt-media-team] Bug#653288: dvd+rw-tools: Doesn't format Blu-ray disk

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

this is not a bug but a feature.

dvd+rw-format.cpp interprets option -ssa by:

            else if (argv[i][1] == 's') // -ssa|-spare
    ...
                {   if (p[1]=='n')      ssa=-1; // =none

and later decides to silently bail out by:

    else if (mmc_profile==0x41)         // BD-R
        ...
        {   case -1:    // no spare -> nothing to do
            case 0:
                exit (0);
                break;

By giving option -ssa=none you request a BD-R with zero Spare Area.
No Spare Area means no opportunity to replace bad blocks, which is
the main reason for formatting BD-R.

I am not sure whether one really needs a Spare Area for Pseudo Overwrite,
another feature which dvd+rw-tools enables by formatting. But Andy Polyakov
is the only free software developer i know of, who explored Pseudo
Overwrite yet.
So if he decided not to format, there may be a reason.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas