MT(1L)

NAME
mt - control magnetic tape drive operation

SYNOPSIS
mt [-f device] operation [count]

DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents the tape control program mt. mt performs the given operation, which must be one of the tape operations listed below, on a tape drive. The path of the tape device to operate on can be given with the -f or -t option. If neither of those options is given, and the environment variable TAPE is set, it is used. Otherwise, a default device defined in the file /usr/include/sys/mtio.h is used. The device must a character special file.

Some operations optionally take a repeat count, which can be given after the operation name and defaults to 1.

The available operations are listed below. Unique abbreviations are accepted. Not all operations are available on all systems, or work on all types of tape drives.

fsf Forward space count files. The tape is positioned on the first block of the next file.

fsfm
    Forward space count files. The tape is positioned on the last block of the previous file.

bsf Backward space count files. The tape is positioned on the last block of the previous file.

bsfm
    Backward space count files. The tape is positioned on the first block of the next file.

fsr Forward space count records.

bsr Backward space count records.

weof
    Write count EOF marks at current position.

rewind
    Rewind the tape.

offline, rewoffl
    Rewind the tape and, if applicable, unload the tape.

status
    Print status information about the tape unit.

retension
    Rewind the tape, then wind it to the end of the reel, then rewind it again.

eod, seod
    Space to end of valid data. Used on streamer tape drives to append data to the logical and of tape.

erase
    Erase the tape.

setblk
    Set the block size of the drive to count bytes per record.

setdensity
    Set the tape density code to count. The proper codes to use with each drive should be looked up from the drive documentation.

setdrvbuffer
    Set the tape drive buffer code to number. The proper value for unbuffered operation is zero and "normal" buffered operation one. The meanings of other values can be found in the drive documentation or, in case of a SCSI-2 drive, from the SCSI-2 standard.

seek
    Seek to the count block on the tape. This operation is available on some Tandberg and Wangtek streamers and some SCSI-2 tape drives.

tell
    Tell the current block on tape. This operation is available on some Tandberg and Wangtek streamers and some SCSI-2 tape drives.

mt exits with a status of 0 if the operation succeeded, 1 if the operation or device name given was invalid, or 2 if the operation failed.