MT(1) BSD General Commands Manual MT(1)
NAME
mt -- magnetic tape manipulating program
SYNOPSIS
mt [-f tapename] command [count]
mt [-f tapename] command argument
DESCRIPTION
The mt utility is used to command a magnetic tape drive for operations other than reading or writing data.
The -f option's tapename overrides the TAPE environment variable described below.
The available commands are listed below. Only as many characters as are required to uniquely identify a command need be specified.
The following commands optionally take a count, which defaults to 1.
weof Write count end-of-file (EOF) marks at the current position.
smk Write count setmarks at the current position (DDS drives only).
fsf Forward space count files.
fsr Forward space count records.
fss Forward space count setmarks (DDS drives only).
bsf Backward space count files.
bsr Backward space count records.
bss Backward space count setmarks (DDS drives only).
erase Erase the tape using a long (often very long) method. With a count of 0, it will erase the tape using a quick method. Operation is
not guaranteed if the tape is not at its beginning. The tape will be at its beginning upon completion.
The following commands ignore count.
rdhpos Read the hardware block position. The block number reported is specific for that hardware only. With drive data compression
especially, this position may have more to do with the amount of data sent to the drive than the amount of data written to tape.
Some drives do not support this.
rdspos Read the SCSI logical block position. This typically is greater than the hardware position by the number of end-of-file marks.
Some drives do not support this.
rewind Rewind the tape.
offline, rewoffl
Rewind the tape and place the drive off line. Some drives are never off line.
retension Re-tension the tape. This winds the tape from the current position to the end and then to the beginning. This sometimes
improves subsequent reading and writing, particularly for streaming drives. Some drives do not support this.
status Output status information about the drive. For SCSI magnetic tape devices, the current operating modes of density, blocksize,
and whether compression is enabled is reported. The current state of the driver (what it thinks that it is doing with the
device) is reported. If the driver knows the relative position from BOT (in terms of filemarks and records), it outputs that.
Note that this information is not definitive (only BOT, End of Recorded Media, and hardware or SCSI logical block position (if
the drive supports such) are considered definitive tape positions).
errstat Output (and clear) error status information about this device. For every normal operation (e.g., a read or a write) and every
control operation (e.g,, a rewind), the driver stores up the last command executed and it is associated status and any residual
counts (if any). This command retrieves and outputs this information. If possible, this also clears any latched error informa-
tion.
geteotmodel Output the current EOT filemark model. The model states how many filemarks will be written at close if a tape was being writ-
ten.
eod, eom Wind the tape to the end of the recorded data, typically after an EOF mark where another file may be written.
The following commands require an argument.
sethpos Set the hardware block position. The argument is a hardware block number to which to position the tape. Some drives do not
support this.
setspos Set the SCSI logical block position. The argument is a SCSI logical block number to which to position the tape. Some drives do
not support this.
blocksize Set the block size for the drive. The argument is the number of bytes per block, except 0 commands the drive to use variable-
length blocks.
seteotmodel Set the EOT filemark model to argument and output the old and new models. Typically this will be 2 filemarks, but some devices
(typically QIC cartridge drives) can only write 1 filemark. You may only choose a value of 1 or 2.
comp Set the drive's compression mode. The non-numeric values of argument are:
off Turn compression off.
on Turn compression on.
none Same as off.
enable Same as on.
IDRC IBM Improved Data Recording Capability compression(0x10).
DCLZ DCLZ compression algorithm(0x20).
In addition to the above recognized compression keywords, the user can supply a numeric compression algorithm for the drive to
use. In most cases, simply turning the compression 'on' will have the desired effect of enabling the default compression algo-
rithm supported by the drive. If this is not the case (see the status display to see which compression algorithm is currently
in use), the user can manually specify one of the supported compression keywords (above), or supply a numeric compression value
from the drive's specifications.
density Set the density for the drive. For the density codes, see below. The density value could be given either numerically, or as a
string, corresponding to the ``Reference'' field. If the string is abbreviated, it will be resolved in the order shown in the
table, and the first matching entry will be used. If the given string and the resulting canonical density name do not match
exactly, an informational message is output about what the given string has been taken for.
The following density table was taken from the 'Historical sequential access density codes' table (A-1) in Revision 11 of the SCSI-3 Stream
Device Commands (SSC) working draft, dated November 11, 1997.
The density codes are:
0x0 default for device
0xE reserved for ECMA
Value Width Tracks Density Code Type Reference Note
mm in bpmm bpi
0x01 12.7 (0.5) 9 32(800) NRZI R X3.22-1983 2
0x02 12.7 (0.5) 9 63 (1,600) PE R X3.39-1986 2
0x03 12.7 (0.5) 9 246 (6,250) GCR R X3.54-1986 2
0x05 6.3 (0.25) 4/9 315 (8,000) GCR C X3.136-1986 1
0x06 12.7 (0.5) 9 126 (3,200) PE R X3.157-1987 2
0x07 6.3 (0.25) 4 252 (6,400) IMFM C X3.116-1986 1
0x08 3.81 (0.15) 4 315 (8,000) GCR CS X3.158-1987 1
0x09 12.7 (0.5) 18 1,491 (37,871) GCR C X3.180 2
0x0A 12.7 (0.5) 22 262 (6,667) MFM C X3B5/86-199 1
0x0B 6.3 (0.25) 4 63 (1,600) PE C X3.56-1986 1
0x0C 12.7 (0.5) 24 500 (12,690) GCR C HI-TC1 1,6
0x0D 12.7 (0.5) 24 999 (25,380) GCR C HI-TC2 1,6
0x0F 6.3 (0.25) 15 394 (10,000) GCR C QIC-120 1,6
0x10 6.3 (0.25) 18 394 (10,000) GCR C QIC-150 1,6
0x11 6.3 (0.25) 26 630 (16,000) GCR C QIC-320 1,6
0x12 6.3 (0.25) 30 2,034 (51,667) RLL C QIC-1350 1,6
0x13 3.81 (0.15) 1 2,400 (61,000) DDS CS X3B5/88-185A 5
0x14 8.0 (0.315) 1 1,703 (43,245) RLL CS X3.202-1991 5
0x15 8.0 (0.315) 1 1,789 (45,434) RLL CS ECMA TC17 5
0x16 12.7 (0.5) 48 394 (10,000) MFM C X3.193-1990 1
0x17 12.7 (0.5) 48 1,673 (42,500) MFM C X3B5/91-174 1
0x18 12.7 (0.5) 112 1,673 (42,500) MFM C X3B5/92-50 1
0x19 12.7 (0.5) 128 2,460 (62,500) RLL C DLTapeIII 6,7
0x1A 12.7 (0.5) 128 3,214 (81,633) RLL C DLTapeIV(20) 6,7
0x1B 12.7 (0.5) 208 3,383 (85,937) RLL C DLTapeIV(35) 6,7
0x1C 6.3 (0.25) 34 1,654 (42,000) MFM C QIC-385M 1,6
0x1D 6.3 (0.25) 32 1,512 (38,400) GCR C QIC-410M 1,6
0x1E 6.3 (0.25) 30 1,385 (36,000) GCR C QIC-1000C 1,6
0x1F 6.3 (0.25) 30 2,666 (67,733) RLL C QIC-2100C 1,6
0x20 6.3 (0.25) 144 2,666 (67,733) RLL C QIC-6GB(M) 1,6
0x21 6.3 (0.25) 144 2,666 (67,733) RLL C QIC-20GB(C) 1,6
0x22 6.3 (0.25) 42 1,600 (40,640) GCR C QIC-2GB(C) ?
0x23 6.3 (0.25) 38 2,666 (67,733) RLL C QIC-875M ?
0x24 3.81 (0.15) 1 2,400 (61,000) CS DDS-2 5
0x25 3.81 (0.15) 1 3,816 (97,000) CS DDS-3 5
0x26 3.81 (0.15) 1 3,816 (97,000) CS DDS-4 5
0x27 8.0 (0.315) 1 3,056 (77,611) RLL CS Mammoth 5
0x28 12.7 (0.5) 36 1,491 (37,871) GCR C X3.224 1
0x29 12.7 (0.5)
0x2A
0x2B 12.7 (0.5) 3 ? ? ? C X3.267 5
0x41 12.7 (0.5) 208 3,868 (98,250) RLL C DLTapeIV(40) 6,7
0x48 12.7 (0.5) 448 5,236 (133,000) PRML C SDLTapeI(110) 6,8
0x49 12.7 (0.5) 448 7,598 (193,000) PRML C SDLTapeI(160) 6,8
Code Description Type Description
---- -------------------------------------- ---- -----------
NRZI Non return to zero, change on ones R Reel-to-reel
GCR Group code recording C Cartridge
PE Phase encoded CS Cassette
IMFM Inverted modified frequency modulation
MFM Modified frequency modulation
DDS DAT data storage
RLL Run length limited
PRML Partial Response Maximum Likelihood
NOTES
1. Serial recorded.
2. Parallel recorded.
3. Old format known as QIC-11.
5. Helical scan.
6. This is not an American National Standard. The reference is based on
an industry standard definition of the media format.
7. DLT recording: serially recorded track pairs (DLTapeIII and
DLTapeIV(20)), or track quads (DLTapeIV(35) and DLTapeIV(40)).
8. Super DLT (SDLT) recording: 56 serially recorded logical tracks with
8 physical tracks each.
ENVIRONMENT
TAPE This is the pathname of the tape drive. The default (if the variable is unset, but not if it is null) is /dev/nsa0. It may be over-
ridden with the -f option.
FILES
/dev/*wt* QIC-02/QIC-36 magnetic tape interface
/dev/*sa[0-9]* SCSI magnetic tape interface
DIAGNOSTICS
The exit status will be 0 when the drive operations were successful, 2 when the drive operations were unsuccessful, and 1 for other problems
like an unrecognized command or a missing drive device.
COMPATIBILITY
Some undocumented commands support old software.
SEE ALSO
dd(1), ioctl(2), ast(4), mtio(4), sa(4), environ(7)
HISTORY
The mt command appeared in 4.3BSD.
Extensions regarding the st(4) driver appeared in 386BSD 0.1 as a separate st command, and have been merged into the mt command in
FreeBSD 2.1.
The former eof command that used to be a synonym for weof has been abandoned in FreeBSD 2.1 since it was often confused with eom, which is
fairly dangerous.
BUGS
The utility cannot be interrupted or killed during a long erase (which can be longer than an hour), and it is easy to forget that the default
erase is long.
Hardware block numbers do not always correspond to blocks on the tape when the drive uses internal compression.
Erasure is not guaranteed if the tape is not at its beginning.
Tape-related documentation is poor, here and elsewhere.
BSD
January 20, 2008 BSD