tapes(1M)                                                 System Administration Commands                                                 tapes(1M)

NAME

       tapes - creates /dev entries for tape drives attached to the system

SYNOPSIS

       /usr/sbin/tapes [-r root_dir]

DESCRIPTION

       devfsadm(1M) is now the preferred command for /dev and /devices and should be used instead of tapes.

       tapes  creates  symbolic  links  in the /dev/rmt directory to the actual tape device special files under the /devices directory tree. tapes
       searches the kernel device tree to see what tape devices are attached to the system. For each equipped tape drive, the following steps  are
       performed:

       1.  The  /dev/rmt  directory  is  searched  for a /dev/rmt/n entry that is a symbolic link to the /devices special node of the current tape
           drive. If one is found, this determines the logical controller number of the tape drive.

       2.  The rest of the special devices associated with the drive are checked, and incorrect symbolic links  are  removed  and  necessary  ones
           added.

       3.  If  none  are found, a new logical controller number is assigned (the lowest-unused number), and new symbolic links are created for all
           the special devices associated with the drive.

       tapes does not remove links to non-existent devices; these must be removed by hand.

       tapes is run each time a reconfiguration-boot is performed, or when add_drv(1M) is executed.

   Notice to Driver Writers
       tapes(1M) considers all devices with the node type DDI_NT_TAPE to be tape devices; these devices must have their minor name created with  a
       specific  format. The minor name encodes operational modes for the tape device and consists of an ASCII string of the form [ l,m,h,c,u ][ b
       ][ n ].

       The first character set is used to specify the tape density of the device, and are named low (l), medium (m), high (h), compressed (c), and
       ultra  (u).  These specifiers only express a relative density; it is up to the driver to assign specific meanings as needed. For example, 9
       track tape devices interpret these as actual bits-per-inch densities, where l means 800 BPI, m means 1600 BPI  ,  and  h  means  6250  BPI,
       whereas  4mm DAT tapes defines l as standard format, and m,  h, c and u as compressed format. Drivers may choose to implement any or all of
       these format types.

       During normal tape operation (non-BSD behavior), once an EOF mark has been reached, subsequent reads from the tape device return an  error.
       An  explicit IOCTL must be issued to space over the EOF mark before the next file can be read. b instructs the device to observe BSD behav-
       ior, where reading at EOF will cause the tape device to automatically space over the EOF mark and begin reading from the next file.

       n or no-rewind-on-close instructs the driver to not rewind to the beginning of tape when the device is closed.  Normal  behavior  for  tape
       devices is to reposition to BOT when closing. See mtio(7I).

       The  minor number for tape devices should be created by encoding the device's instance number using the tape macro MTMINOR and ORing in the
       proper combination of density, BSD behavior, and no-rewind flags. See mtio(7I).

       To prevent tapes from attempting to automatically generate links for a device, drivers must specify a private node type  and  refrain  from
       using the node type string DDI_NT_TAPE when callingddi_create_minor_node(9F).

OPTIONS

       The following options are supported:

       -r root_dir     Causes tapes to presume that the /dev/rmt directory tree is found under root_dir, not directly under /.

ERRORS

       If  tapes  finds  entries of a particular logical controller linked to different physical controllers, it prints an error message and exits
       without making any changes to the /dev directory, since it cannot determine which of the two alternative logical to  physical  mappings  is
       correct. The links should be manually corrected or removed before another reconfiguration boot is performed.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1: Creating Tape Device Nodes From Within the Driver's attach() Function

       This example demonstrates creating tape device nodes from within the xktape driver's attach(9E) function.

       #include <sys/mtio.h>
       struct tape_minor_info {
           char *minor_name;
           int   minor_mode;
       };
       /*
        * create all combinations of logical tapes
       */
       static struct tape_minor_info example_tape[] = {
          {"",    0},                     /* default tape */
          {"l",   MT_DENSITY1},
          {"lb",  MT_DENSITY1 | MT_BSD},
          {"lbn", MT_DENSITY1 | MT_BSD | MT_NOREWIND},
          {"m",   MT_DENSITY2},
          {"mb",  MT_DENSITY2 | MT_BSD},
          {"mbn", MT_DENSITY2 | MT_BSD | MT_NOREWIND},
          {"h",   MT_DENSITY3},
          {"hb",  MT_DENSITY3 | MT_BSD},
          {"hbn", MT_DENSITY3 | MT_BSD | MT_NOREWIND},
          {"c",   MT_DENSITY4},
          {"cb",  MT_DENSITY4 | MT_BSD},
          {"cbn", MT_DENSITY4| MT_BSD | MT_NOREWIND},
          {NULL,  0},
       };

       int
       xktapeattach(dev_info_t *dip, ddi_attach_cmd_t cmd)
       {
          int instance;
          struct tape_minor_info *mdp;
             /* other stuff in attach... */
          instance = ddi_get_instance(dip);

          for (mdp = example_tape; mdp->minor_name != NULL; mdp++) {
                   ddi_create_minor_node(dip, mdp->minor_name, S_IFCHR,
                        (MTMINOR(instance) | mdp->minor_mode), DDI_NT_TAPE, 0);
        }

       Installing  the  xktape  driver  on a Sun Fire 4800, with the driver controlling a SCSI tape (target 4 attached to an isp(7D) SCSI HBA) and
       performing a reconfiguration-boot creates the following special files in /devices.

       # ls -l /devices/ssm@0,0/pci@18,700000/pci@1/SUNW,isptwo@4
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,136 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,200 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:b
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,204 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:bn
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,152 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:c
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,216 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:cb
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,220 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:cbn
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,156 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:cn
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,144 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:h
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,208 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:hb
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,212 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:hbn
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,148 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:hn
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,128 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:l
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,192 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:lb
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,196 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:lbn
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,132 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:ln
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,136 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:m
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,200 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:mb
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,204 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:mbn
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,140 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:mn
       crw-rw-rw-   1 root sys   33,140 Aug 29 00:02  xktape@4,0:n

       /dev/rmt will contain the logical tape devices (symbolic links to tape devices in /devices).

       # ls -l /dev/rmt
       /dev/rmt/0    -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:
       /dev/rmt/0b   -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:b
       /dev/rmt/0bn  -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:bn
       /dev/rmt/0c   -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:c
       /dev/rmt/0cb  -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:cb
       /dev/rmt/0cbn -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:cbn
       /dev/rmt/0cn  -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:cn
       /dev/rmt/0h   -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:h
       /dev/rmt/0hb  -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:hb
       /dev/rmt/0hbn -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:hbn
       /dev/rmt/0hn  -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:hn
       /dev/rmt/0l   -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:l
       /dev/rmt/0lb  -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:lb
       /dev/rmt/0lbn -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:lbn
       /dev/rmt/0ln  -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:ln
       /dev/rmt/0m   -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:m
       /dev/rmt/0mb  -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:mb
       /dev/rmt/0mbn -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:mbn
       /dev/rmt/0mn  -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:mn
       /dev/rmt/0n   -> ../../devices/[....]/xktape@4,0:n

FILES

       /dev/rmt/*      logical tape devices

       /devices/*      tape device nodes

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         |      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability                 |SUNWcsu                      |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       add_drv(1M), devfsadm(1M), attributes(5), isp(7D), devfs(7FS), mtio(7I), attach(9E), ddi_create_minor_node(9F)

       Writing Device Drivers

BUGS

       tapes silently ignores malformed minor device names.

SunOS 5.10                                                          8 Nov 2002                                                           tapes(1M)