User Commands mt(1) NAME mt - magnetic tape control SYNOPSIS mt [-f tapename] command... [count] DESCRIPTION The mt utility sends commands to a magnetic tape drive. If -f tapename is not specified, the environment variable TAPE is used. If TAPE does not exist, mt uses the device /dev/rmt/0n. OPTIONS The following options are supported: -f tapename Specifies the raw tape device. OPERANDS The following operands are supported: count The number of times that the requested operation is to be performed. By default, mt performs com- mand once. Multiple operations of command may be performed by specifying count. command Available commands that can be sent to a magnetic tape drive. Only as many characters as are required to uniquely identify a command need be specified. eof Writes count EOF marks at the current weof position on the tape. fsf Forward spaces over count EOF marks. The tape is positioned on the first block of the file. fsr Forward spaces count records. bsf Back spaces over count EOF marks. The tape is positioned on the beginning-of- tape side of the EOF mark. bsr Back spaces count records. SunOS 5.11 Last change: 5 Aug 2006 1 User Commands mt(1) nbsf Back spaces count files. The tape is positioned on the first block of the file. This is equivalent to count+1 bsf's followed by one fsf. asf Specifies absolute space to count file number. This is equivalent to a rewind followed by a fsf count. If count is specified with any of the following commands, the count is ignored and the command is performed only once. eom Spaces to the end of recorded media on the tape. This is useful for appending files onto previ- ously written tapes. rewind Rewinds the tape. offline Rewinds the tape and, if rewoffl appropriate, takes the drive unit off-line by unloading the tape. status Prints status information about the tape unit. Status information can include the sense key reported by the drive, the residual and retries for the last operation, the current tape position reported in file number, and the number of blocks from the begining of that file. It might also report that WORM media is loaded in that drive. retension Rewinds the cartridge tape com- pletely, then winds it forward to the end of the reel and back to beginning-of-tape to smooth out tape tension. reserve Allows the tape drive to remain reserved after closing the SunOS 5.11 Last change: 5 Aug 2006 2 User Commands mt(1) device. The drive must then be explicitly released. release Re-establishes the default behavior of releasing at close. forcereserve Breaks the reservation of the tape drive held by another host and then reserves the tape drive. This command can be executed only with super-user privileges. erase Erases the entire tape. Caution: Some tape drives have option set- tings where only portions of the tape may be erased. Be sure to select the correct setting to erase the whole tape. Erasing a tape may take a long time depend- ing on the device and/or tape. Refer to the device specific manual for time details. config Reads the drives current confi- guration from the driver and displays it in st.conf format. See st(7D) for definition of fields and there meanings. + tell Gets and prints current logical + tape position. + + seek Positions to requested logical + tape position. + + fssf forward spaces over requested number + of sequential file marks. Not + supported by all drives. + + bssf backward spaces over requested number + of sequential file makes. Not + supported by all drives. + + + load Requests drive load and thread current + media. Not supported by all drives. + + + + EXIT STATUS 0 All operations were successful. 1 Command was unrecognized or mt was unable to open the specified tape drive. 2 An operation failed. FILES /dev/rmt/* magnetic tape interface ATTRIBUTES SunOS 5.11 Last change: 5 Aug 2006 3 User Commands mt(1) See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri- butes: ____________________________________________________________ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | |_____________________________|_____________________________| | Availability | SUNWcsu | |_____________________________|_____________________________| SEE ALSO tar(1), tcopy(1), ar.h(3HEAD), attributes(5), mtio( 7I), st(7D) BUGS Not all devices support all options. Some options are hardware-dependent. Refer to the corresponding device manual page. mt is architecture sensitive. Heterogeneous operation (that is, SPARC to x86 or the reverse) is not supported. SunOS 5.11 Last change: 5 Aug 2006 4