st(1M)st(1M)NAME
st - shared tape administration
SYNOPSIS
device_file
DESCRIPTION
The command provides users with a command-line interface to check the status of a shared tape device or to reclaim a shared tape device
from a host system that has failed while holding a reservation on the shared tape device. The command can also be used for the same pur-
pose on shared library robotic devices. To use the command you must have root user id.
Please see examples below for usage.
Options
recognizes the following options and arguments:
Specifies the tape device file or sctl/esctl pass-through device
file for the shared tape/library device. This parameter is mandatory and will report an error if device_file is omitted.
Allows the user to reclaim a shared tape device or shared
library robotic device in the case where a host failed while holding a reservation on the shared device. This option causes
a bus device reset to be issued to the device specified by the option.
Prints out the current status of the shared tape/library
device specified by the option.
RETURN VALUE
returns 0 upon successful completion and 1 otherwise.
EXAMPLES
The following shows three examples of output from the above command.
The above output indicates that the shared device is reserved by another host and is therefore unavailable at this time.
The above output indicates that the shared device is not ready for use at this time.
The above output indicates that the shared device is ready for use at this time.
To reclaim a shared tape/library device from a failed host, the following command can be used:
WARNINGS
The option must be used with care. When reclaiming devices, it must be ensured that the host from which the device is being reclaimed has
in fact failed, as data may be lost as the result of reclaiming a device that is currently in use by another host.
AUTHOR
was developed by Hewlett-Packard.
SEE ALSO mt(1), scsi(7), scsi_ctl(7).
st(1M)
Check Out this Related Man Page
TAPEINFO(1) General Commands Manual TAPEINFO(1)NAME
tapeinfo - report SCSI tape device info
SYNOPSIS
tapeinfo -f <scsi-generic-device>
DESCRIPTION
The tapeinfo command reads various information from SCSI tape drives that is not generally available via most vendors' tape drivers. It
issues raw commands directly to the tape drive, using either the operating system's SCSI generic device ( e.g. /dev/sg0 on Linux,
/dev/pass0 on FreeBSD) or the raw SCSI I/O ioctl on a tape device on some operating systems.
One good time to use 'tapeinfo' is immediately after a tape i/o operation has failed. On tape drives that support HP's 'tapealert' API,
'tapeinfo' will report a more exact description of what went wrong.
Do be aware that 'tapeinfo' is not a substitute for your operating system's own 'mt' or similar tape driver control program. It is intended
to supplement, not replace, programs like 'mt' that access your operating system's tape driver in order to report or set information.
OPTIONS
The first argument, given following -f , is the SCSI generic device corresponding to your tape drive. Consult your operating system's doc-
umentation for more information (for example, under Linux these are generally start at /dev/sg0 under FreeBSD these start at /dev/pass0).
Under FreeBSD, 'camcontrol devlist' will tell you what SCSI devices you have, along with which 'pass' device controls them. Under Linux,
"cat /proc/scsi/scsi" will tell you what SCSI devices you have.
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
This program has only been tested on Linux with a limited number of tape drives (HP DDS4, Seagate AIT).
AVAILABILITY
tapeinfo is currently being maintained by Robert Nelson <robertnelson@users.sourceforge.net> as part of the 'mtx' suite of programs. The
'mtx' home page is http://mtx.sourceforge.net and the actual code is currently available there and via SVN from http://source-
forge.net/projects/mtx.
SEE ALSO mt(1),mtx(1),scsitape(1),scsieject(1),loaderinfo(1)
TAPEINFO1.0 TAPEINFO(1)