mt(1)                                                          mt(1)


       NAME
             mt - portable tape device control

       SYNOPSIS
             mt [-f tape device] command [count]

       DESCRIPTION
             The mt command provides rudimentary control of tape drives
             through an interface that is portable across many different
             vendors' systems.

       Options
             the mt command takes the following options:

                   -f tape drive
                        This option specifies the target tape drive.  The
                        argument tape drive is the pathname of a raw tape
                        device.  The "no-rewind" interface to the specified
                        tape drive should be used (e.g., /dev/rmt/ntape1).
                        If this option is not included on the command line,
                        mt operates on the system's default tape device.

                   command
                        The command argument specifies the tape operation
                        to be performed.  Two operations are defined:
                        rewind (rewind the tape) and fsf (forward space one
                        file).

                   count
                        This argument specifies the number of times the
                        specified operation is to be done. If the rewind
                        operation is requested, count is ignored.  If count
                        is not included on the command line, it defaults to
                        a value of 1.

             mt returns 0 on successful completion.  If command line syntax
             is incorrect or a command is not recognized, it returns 1.  If
             a tape operation fails, it returns 2.

       FILES
             /usr/bin/mt

       REFERENCES
             tapecntl(1)




                           Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 1