NAME

mt − magnetic tape manipulating program

SYNOPSIS

mt [ −f tapename ] command [ count ]

DESCRIPTION

Mt is used to give commands to a magnetic tape drive.  If a tape name is not specified, the environment variable TAPE is used;  if TAPE does not exist, mt uses the device /dev/rmt12. Note that tapename must reference a raw (not block) tape device.  By default mt performs the requested operation once.  Operations may be performed multiple times by specifying count.

The available commands are listed below.  Only as many characters as are required to uniquely identify a command need be specified. 

eof, weof
Write count end-of-file marks at the current position on the tape. 

fsf Forward space count files. 

fsr Forward space count records. 

bsf Back space count files. 

bsr Back space count records. 

rewind
Rewind the tape. (Count is ignored.) 

offline, rewoffl
Rewind the tape and place the tape unit off-line. (Count is ignored.) 

status
Print status information about the tape unit.

retension
Retension the tape by spacing forward to the end and then rewinding. It is recommended that new tape be retensioned before use. (Count is ignored.) 

erase Erase the entire tape.  This automatically retensions it.  ( Count is ignored.) 

Mt returns a 0 exit status if an operation was successful, 1 if a command was unrecognized, and 2 if an operation failed. 

FILES

/dev/nrst0Raw streaming tape interface with no rewind
/dev/rst0Raw streaming tape interface with built-in rewind

SEE ALSO

dd(1), ioctl(2), mtio(4), environ(7), st(4)

BUGS

The streaming tape hardware can back up, but only at a snail’s pace.  For this reason, bsf is not implemented, and bsr should be used only with very small counts. 

The default device (/dev/rmt12) is inappropriate for the IBM RT PC. 
 
 
 

PRPQs 5799-WZQ/5799-PFF: IBM/4.3  —  July 1987