mt(1) [minix man page]
MT(1) General Commands Manual MT(1) NAME
mt - magnetic tape control SYNOPSIS
mt [-f device] [count] DESCRIPTION
Mt is a user interface to the magnetic tape commands described in mtio(4). It allows one to space a tape forwards or backwards, write end of file markers, etc. With the -f option a tape device can be named, otherwise the environment variable TAPE is used if set, otherwise the default device /dev/nrst4 is assumed. Standard input is used if the tape name is a dash (-). The count argument is used to tell how many blocks or files to space or how many file markers to write. It may be a C-style decimal, octal or hexadecimal constant, by default "1". Command is the action to perform, it may be one of the following, or any unambiguous prefix (like st for status): eof, weof Write count end-of-file markers. fsf Forward space count file markers. fsr Forward space count records. (The size of a record depends on the tape, and may even be variable, depending on the size of the writes.) bsf Backwards space count files. The count may be zero to backspace to the start of the current file. (A tape device need not support backwards movement, or may be very slow doing it. Rewinding and forward spacing may be better.) bsr Backwards space count records. The tape is positioned after the last block of the previous file if you hit a filemark when spacing backwards. The block count is set to -1 to indicate that the driver has no idea where it is on the previous file. eom Forward space to the end of media. rewind Rewind the tape. offline, rewoffl Rewind and take offline. This may cause some drives to eject the tape. status Shows the status of the drive, the sense key of the last SCSI error, current file number, current record number, residual count if the last command that encountered end-of-file, and the current block size. retension Removes tape tension by winding and rewinding the tape completely. erase Erases the tape completely and rewinds it. density Sets the density code to read or write the tape to count. Density codes supported depend on the drive. This command need not be used if the drive senses the proper density on read and can only write one density. blksize, blocksize Sets the block size used to read or write the tape to count. This command may be used to select a fixed block size for a variable block size tape. This will speed up I/O for small block sizes. Use a zero count to use variable sized blocks again. ENVIRONMENT
TAPE Tape drive to use if set. FILES
/dev/nrst4 Default tape device. SEE ALSO
mtio(4), st(4). AUTHOR
Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl) MT(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
MT(1) GNU CPIO MT(1) NAME
mt - control magnetic tape drive operation SYNOPSIS
mt [-V] [-f device] [--file=device] [--rsh-command=command] [--version] operation [count] DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents the GNU version of mt. mt performs the given operation, which must be one of the tape operations listed below, on a tape drive. The default tape device to operate on is taken from the file /usr/include/sys/mtio.h when mt is compiled. It can be overridden by giving a device file name in the environment variable TAPE or by a command line option (see below), which also overrides the environment variable. The device must be either a character special file or a remote tape drive. To use a tape drive on another machine as the archive, use a filename that starts with `HOSTNAME:'. The hostname can be preceded by a username and an `@' to access the remote tape drive as that user, if you have permission to do so (typically an entry in that user's `~/.rhosts' file). The available operations are listed below. Unique abbreviations are accepted. Not all operations are available on all systems, or work on all types of tape drives. Some operations optionally take a repeat count, which can be given after the operation name and defaults to 1. eof, weof Write count EOF marks at current position. fsf Forward space count files. The tape is positioned on the first block of the next file. bsf Backward space count files. The tape is positioned on the first block of the next file. fsr Forward space count records. bsr Backward space count records. bsfm Backward space count file marks. The tape is positioned on the beginning-of-the-tape side of the file mark. fsfm Forward space count file marks. The tape is positioned on the beginning-of-the-tape side of the file mark. asf Absolute space to file number count. Equivalent to rewind followed by fsf count. seek Seek to block number count. eom Space to the end of the recorded media on the tape (for appending files onto tapes). rewind Rewind the tape. offline, rewoffl Rewind the tape and, if applicable, unload the tape. status Print status information about the tape unit. retension Rewind the tape, then wind it to the end of the reel, then rewind it again. erase Perform long erase of tape. If count is 0, perform short erase of tape (some devices do not support this). mt exits with a status of 0 if the operation succeeded, 1 if the operation or device name given was invalid, or 2 if the operation failed. OPTIONS -f, --file=device Use device as the file name of the tape drive to operate on. To use a tape drive on another machine, use a filename that starts with `HOSTNAME:'. The hostname can be preceded by a username and an `@' to access the remote tape drive as that user, if you have permission to do so (typically an entry in that user's `~/.rhosts' file). --rsh-command=command Notifies mt that it should use command to communicate with remote devices instead of /usr/bin/ssh or /usr/bin/rsh. -V, --version Print the version number of mt. BUG REPORTS
Report bugs to <bug-cpio@gnu.org>. COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. MT
January 28, 2014 MT(1)