NAME

mt − magnetic tape manipulating program

SYNOPSIS

mt [ −t tapename ] command [ count ]
mt [ −f tapename ] command [ count ]

DESCRIPTION

Mt is used to give commands to nine-track tape or an Archive quarter-inch tape drive.  If a tape name is not specified, the environment variable TAPE is used;  if no such environment variable exists, mt uses the device /dev/rmt12.  Note that tapename must reference a raw (not block) tape device.  If the optional count is not specified, mt uses a count of 1. 

A command can be abbreviated to as few letters as are necessary to uniquely identify it.  Here are the commands: they can apply to:

eof write count end-of-file marks

fsf space forward count files

fsr space forward count records

bsf space backward count files

bsr space backward count records

rewind
rewind tape

rewoffl
rewind tape and go offline

status
return status of the tape unit

OPTIONS

−t and −f
are synonyms.  They are used when specifying the name of the device to which the tape command is being sent.

FILES

/dev/rmt∗Raw magnetic tape interface
/dev/rar∗Raw Archive cartridge tape interface

SEE ALSO

ar(4), mt(4), dd(1), ioctl(2), environ(5)

EXIT CODES

0Successful completion

1Mt did not recognize the command;  the device could not be opened. 

2The IOCTL(2) system call to the tape driver failed. 

BUGS

The 1/4" archive tapes do not support fsr, bsf or bsr commands. 

Sun System Release 0.3  —  6 April 1983