NAME

mt − magnetic tape manipulating program

SYNOPSIS

mt [ −t /dev/tapedevice ] command [ count ]

DESCRIPTION

mt is used to give commands to the magnetic tape drives.  By default, mt performs the requested operation with the Quarter Inch Cartridge tape drive. Normally the operations are performed once.  Operations may be performed multiple times by specifying count.

To use the Half Inch tape drive the −t /dev/tapedevice is used to specify which tape device to use. 

The default tape device uses the no-rewind device.  No filemark is written to the no-rewind device on close. 

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

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

fsf Forward space count files. 

fsr Forward space count records. This operation will have little real effect with the Quarter Inch Cartridge tape drive. 

bsf Backspace count files. This operation will have no effect with the Quarter Inch Cartridge tape drive. 

bsr Backspace count records. This operation will have no effect with the Quarter Inch Cartridge tape drive. 

rewind
Rewind the tape (Count is ignored.) 

status
Print status information about the tape unit. (Count is ignored.) 

blksize
Print the default block size to be used by tar.

retension
Retension the Quarter Inch Cartridge installed in the drive. This does not effect the Half Inch tape drive. (Count is ignored.) 

erase Erase the Quarter Inch Cartridge installed in the drive.  This does not effect the Half Inch tape drive.  (Count is ignored.) 

help Print command usage information about the command.  (Count is ignored.) 

mt returns a 0 exit status when the operations were successful, a 1 if a command was unrecognized, and a 2 if a operation failed.  mt without any arguments defaults to help. 

FILES

/dev/rmt1Raw magnetic Quarter Inch Cartridge Tape drive
/dev/rmt2No rewind Quarter Inch Cartridge Tape drive
/dev/rmt3Raw magnetic Half Inch tape drive
/dev/rmt4No-rewind Half Inch tape drive

SEE ALSO

mtio(7)

Version 3.6  —  December 20, 1987