xref: /netbsd-src/bin/mt/mt.1 (revision 8e6ab8837d8d6b9198e67c1c445300b483e2f304)
1.\"	$NetBSD: mt.1,v 1.33 2003/08/07 09:05:17 agc Exp $
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30.\"	@(#)mt.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
31.\"
32.Dd June 6, 1993
33.Dt MT 1
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm mt
37.Nd magnetic tape manipulation
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Nm
40.Op Fl f Ar tapename
41.Ar command
42.Op Ar count
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Nm
46program is used to give commands to a magnetic tape drive.
47By default
48.Nm
49performs the requested operation once.
50Operations may be performed multiple times by specifying
51.Ar count  .
52.Pp
53Note
54that
55.Ar tapename
56must reference a raw (not block) tape device.
57If
58.Ar tapename
59is of the form
60.Qq host:tapename ,
61or
62.Qq user@host:tapename ,
63.Nm
64writes to the named tape device on the remote host using
65.Xr rmt 8 .
66.Pp
67The
68.Xr rmt 8
69process on the remote host is typically initiated via
70.Xr rsh 1 ,
71although an alternate method such as
72.Xr ssh 1
73can be specified via the
74.Ev RCMD_CMD
75environment variable.
76.Pp
77The available commands are listed below.
78Only as many characters as are required to uniquely identify a command
79need be specified.
80.Bl -tag -width "eof, weof"
81.It Cm asf
82Move forward
83.Ar count
84files from the beginning of the tape.
85This is accomplished by a rewind followed by fsf
86.Ar count .
87.It Cm eof , weof
88Write
89.Ar count
90end-of-file marks at the current position on the tape.
91.It Cm fsf
92Forward space
93.Ar count
94files.
95.It Cm fsr
96Forward space
97.Ar count
98records.
99.It Cm bsf
100Back space
101.Ar count
102files.
103.It Cm bsr
104Back space
105.Ar count
106records.
107.It Cm rewind
108Rewind the tape
109(Count is ignored).
110.It Cm offline , rewoffl
111Rewind the tape and place the tape unit off-line
112(Count is ignored).
113.It Cm status
114Print status information about the tape unit
115(Count is ignored).
116.It Cm retension
117Retensions the tape
118(Not all tape drives support this feature; count is ignored).
119.It Cm erase
120Erases the tape
121(Not all tape drives support this feature; count is ignored).
122.It Cm eew
123Enable or disabled early warning EOM behaviour.
124.Ar Count
125is set to nonzero to enable, zero to disable.
126.It Cm eom
127Forward space to the end of recorded media
128(Count is ignored).
129.It Cm blocksize , setblk
130Set the tape blocksize to
131.Ar count
132bytes.
133A
134.Ar count
135of zero sets variable blocksize.
136.It Cm density , setdensity
137Set the tape density code to
138.Ar count
139as specified in the
140.Tn SCSI-3
141specification.
142See the
143.Sx DENSITY CODES
144section for a list of codes for commonly used media types.
145.It Cm rdspos
146Read the logical block position of the tape
147(Not all tape drives support this feature; count is ignored).
148.It Cm rdhpos
149Read the hardware block position of the tape
150(Not all tape drives support this feature; count is ignored).
151.It Cm setspos
152Set the logical block position of the tape to
153.Ar count
154(not all tape drives support this feature).
155.It Cm sethpos
156Set the hardware block position of the tape to
157.Ar count
158(not all tape drives support this feature).
159.It Cm compress
160If
161.Ar count
162is zero, disable compression.
163Otherwise enable compression (not all tape drives support this feature).
164.El
165.Pp
166If a tape name is not specified, and the environment variable
167.Ev TAPE
168is not set, then
169.Nm
170uses the device
171.Pa /dev/nrst0 .
172.Sh EXIT STATUS
173.Nm
174returns a 0 exit status when the operation(s) were successful,
1751 if the command was unrecognized, and 2 if an operation failed.
176.Sh DENSITY CODES
177The SCSI-3 specification defines a number of density codes for
178various tape media, some of which are listed here.
179Note that many tape drive vendors also define model-specific codes.
180.Pp
181.Bl -column "Code" "Format" -compact
182.It Em "Code	Format"
183.It Li 0 Ta Device default
184.It Li 1 Ta 1/2" 800 bpi
185.It Li 2 Ta 1/2" 1600 bpi
186.It Li 3 Ta 1/2" 6250 bpi
187.It Li 4 Ta QIC-11
188.It Li 5 Ta QIC-24
189.It Li 15 Ta QIC-120
190.It Li 16 Ta QIC-150
191.It Li 17 Ta QIC-320/525
192.It Li 18 Ta QIC-1320/1350
193.It Li 19 Ta DDS
194.It Li 28 Ta QIC-385M
195.It Li 29 Ta QIC-410M
196.It Li 30 Ta QIC-1000C
197.It Li 31 Ta QIC-2100C
198.It Li 32 Ta QIC-6GB
199.It Li 33 Ta QIC-20GB
200.It Li 34 Ta QIC-2GB
201.It Li 35 Ta QIC-875M
202.It Li 36 Ta DDS-2
203.It Li 37 Ta DDS-3
204.It Li 38 Ta DDS-4
205.El
206.Sh ENVIRONMENT
207If the following environment variables exist, they are used by
208.Nm .
209.Bl -tag -width Fl
210.It Ev TAPE
211.Nm
212uses device filename given in the
213.Ev TAPE
214environment variable if the
215.Ar tapename
216argument is not given.
217.It Ev RCMD_CMD
218.Nm
219will use
220.Ev RCMD_CMD
221rather than
222.Pa /usr/bin/rsh
223to invoke
224.Xr rmt 8
225on a remote machine.
226The full path name must be specified.
227.El
228.Sh FILES
229.Bl -tag -width /dev/rst* -compact
230.It Pa /dev/rst*
231Raw
232.Tn SCSI
233tape device
234.It Pa /dev/rmt*
235Raw magnetic tape device
236.El
237.Sh SEE ALSO
238.Xr dd 1 ,
239.Xr ioctl 2 ,
240.Xr mtio 4 ,
241.Xr st 4 ,
242.Xr environ 7
243.Sh HISTORY
244The
245.Nm
246utility appeared in
247.Bx 4.3 .
248