.TH MT 1 "August 2005" \" -*- nroff -*-.SH NAMEmt \- control magnetic tape drive operation.SH SYNOPSIS.B mt[\-h] [\-f device] operation [count] [arguments...].SH DESCRIPTIONThis manual page documents the tape control program.BR mt ..B mtperforms the given.IR operation ,which must be one of the tape operations listed below, on a tapedrive. The commands can also be listed by running the program with the.I \-hoption. The version of mt is printed with the.I \-vor.I \-\-versionoption. The path of the tape device on which to operate can be given withthe.I \-for.I \-toption.  If neither of those options is given, and the environmentvariable.B TAPEis set, it is used.  Otherwise, a default device defined in the file.I /usr/include/sys/mtio.his used..PPSome operations optionally take an argument or repeat count, which can be givenafter the operation name and defaults to 1. The postfix.I k,.I M, or.I Gcan be used to give counts in units of 1024, 1024 * 1024, or 1024 *1024 * 1024, respectively..PPThe available operations are listed below.  Unique abbreviations areaccepted.  Not all operations are available on all systems, or work onall types of tape drives..IP fsfForward space.I countfiles.The tape is positioned on the first block of the next file..IP fsfmForward space.I countfiles.The tape is positioned on the last block of the previous file..IP bsfBackward space.I countfiles.The tape is positioned on the last block of the previous file..IP bsfmBackward space.I countfiles.The tape is positioned on the first block of the next file..IP asfThe tape is positioned at the beginning of the.I countfile. Positioning is done by first rewinding the tape and then spacingforward over.I countfilemarks..IP fsrForward space.I countrecords..IP bsrBackward space.I countrecords..IP fss(SCSI tapes) Forward space.I countsetmarks..IP bss(SCSI tapes) Backward space.I countsetmarks..IP "eod, seod"Space to end of valid data.  Used on streamer tapedrives to append data to the logical end of tape..IP rewindRewind the tape..IP "offline, rewoffl, eject"Rewind the tape and, if applicable, unload the tape..IP retensionRewind the tape, then wind it to the end of the reel,then rewind it again..IP "weof, eof"Write.I countEOF marks at current position..IP "wset"(SCSI tapes) Write.I countsetmarks at current position (only SCSI tape)..IP eraseErase the tape..IP statusPrint status information about the tape unit. (If the density code is"no translation" in the status output, this does not affect working of thetape drive.).IP seek(SCSI tapes) Seek to the.I countblock on the tape.  This operation is available on someTandberg and Wangtek streamers and some SCSI-2 tape drives. The blockaddress should be obtained from a.I tellcall earlier..IP tell(SCSI tapes) Tell the current block on tape.  This operation is available on someTandberg and Wangtek streamers and some SCSI-2 tape drives..IP setpartition(SCSI tapes) Switch to the partition determined by.I count.The default data partition of the tape is numbered zero. Switchingpartition is available only if enabled for the device, the devicesupports multiple partitions, and the tape is formatted with multiplepartitions..IP partseek(SCSI tapes) The tape position is set to block.I countin the partition given by the argument after count. The defaultpartition is zero..IP mkpartition(SCSI tapes) Format the tape with one (count is zero) or two partitions(count gives the size of the second partition in megabytes). The tapedrive must be able to format partitioned tapes withinitiator-specified partition size and partition supportmust be enabled for the drive..IP load(SCSI tapes) Send the load command to the tape drive. The drives usually load thetape when a new cartridge is inserted. The argument.I countcan usually be omitted. Some HP changers load tape n if the.I count10000 + n is given (a special funtion in the Linux st driver)..IP lock(SCSI tapes) Lock the tape drive door..IP unlock(SCSI tapes) Unlock the tape drive door..IP setblk(SCSI tapes) Set the block size of the drive to.I countbytes per record..IP setdensity(SCSI tapes) Set the tape density code to.I count.The proper codes to use with each drive should be looked up from thedrive documentation..IP densities(SCSI tapes) Write explanation of some common density codes tostandard output..IP drvbuffer(SCSI tapes) Set the tape drive buffer code to.I number.The proper value for unbuffered operation is zero and "normal" bufferedoperation one. The meanings of other values can be found in the drivedocumentation or, in the case of a SCSI-2 drive, from the SCSI-2 standard..IP compression(SCSI tapes) The compression within the drive can be switched on oroff using the MTCOMPRESSION ioctl. Note that this method is notsupported by all drives implementing compression. For instance, theExabyte 8 mm drives use density codes to select compression..IP stoptions(SCSI tapes) Set the driver options bits for the device to the definedvalues. Allowed only for the superuser. The bits can be seteither by ORing the option bits from the file /usr/include/linux/mtio.h to.I count,or by using the following keywords (as many keywords can be used onthe same line as necessary, unambiguous abbreviations allowed):.RS.IP buffer-writes 15buffered writes enabled.IP async-writesasynchronous writes enabled.IP read-aheadread-ahead for fixed block size.IP debugdebugging (if compiled into driver).IP two-fmswrite two filemarks when file closed.IP fast-eodspace directly to eod (and lose file number).IP no-waitdon't wait until rewind, etc. complete.IP auto-lockautomatically lock/unlock drive door.IP def-writesthe block size and density are for writes.IP can-bsrdrive can space backwards as well.IP no-blklimitsdrive doesn't support read block limits.IP can-partitionsdrive can handle partitioned tapes.IP scsi2logicalseek and tell use SCSI-2 logical block addresses instead of devicedependent addresses.IP sysvenable the System V semantics.RE.IP stsetoptions(SCSI tapes) Set selected driver options bits.The methods to specify the bits to set are given above in thedescription of.BR stoptions.Allowed only for the superuser..IP stclearoptions(SCSI tapes) Clear selected driver option bits.The methods to specify the bits to clear are given above in description of.BR stoptions.Allowed only for the superuser..IP stwrthreshold(SCSI tapes) The write threshold for the tape device is set to.I countkilobytes. The value must be smaller than or equal to the driverbuffer size. Allowed only for the superuser..IP defblksize(SCSI tapes) Set the default block size of the device to.I countbytes. The value -1 disables the default block size.The block size set by.I setblkoverrides the default until a new tape is inserted.Allowed only for the superuser..IP defdensity(SCSI tapes) Set the default density code. The value -1 disables thedefault density. The density set by.I setdensityoverrides the default until a new tape is inserted. Allowed only for thesuperuser..IP defdrvbuffer(SCSI tapes) Set the default drive buffer code. The value -1 disables thedefault drive buffer code. The drive buffer code set by.I drvbufferoverrides the default until a new tape is inserted. Allowed only for thesuperuser..IP defcompression(SCSI tapes) Set the default compression state. The value -1 disables thedefault compression. The compression state set by.I compressionoverrides the default until a new tape is inserted. Allowed only for thesuperuser..IP sttimeoutsets the normal timeout for the device. The value is given inseconds. Allowed only for the superuser..IP stlongtimeoutsets the long timeout for the device. The value is given inseconds. Allowed only for the superuser..IP stsetclnset the cleaning request interpretation parameters..PP.B mtexits with a status of 0 if the operation succeeded, 1 if theoperation or device name given was invalid, or 2 if the operationfailed..SH AUTHORThe program is written by Kai Makisara <Kai.Makisara@kolumbus.fi>..SH COPYRIGHTThe program and the manual page are copyrighted by Kai Makisara, 1998-2005.They can be distributed according to the GNU Copyleft..SH SEE ALSOst(4)