This manual page
documents the GNU version of
mt.
mt
performs the given
operation,
which must be one of the tape operations listed below, on a tape
drive.
The default tape device to operate on is taken from the file
/usr/include/sys/mtio.h
when
mt
is compiled. It can be overridden by giving a device file name in
the environment variable
TAPE
or by a command line option (see below), which also overrides the
environment variable.
The device must be either a character special file or a
remote tape drive. To use a tape drive on another machine as the
archive, use a filename that starts with `HOSTNAME:'. The
hostname can be preceded by a username and an `@' to access the remote
tape drive as that user, if you have permission to do so (typically an
entry in that user's `~/.rhosts' file).
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.
Some operations optionally take a repeat count, which can be given
after the operation name and defaults to 1.
eof, weof
Write
count
EOF marks at current position.
fsf
Forward space
count
files.
The tape is positioned on the first block of the next file.
bsf
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.
bsfm
Backward space
count
file marks.
The tape is positioned on the beginning-of-the-tape side of
the file mark.
fsfm
Forward space
count
file marks.
The tape is positioned on the beginning-of-the-tape side of
the file mark.
asf
Absolute space to file number
count.
Equivalent to rewind followed by fsf
count.
seek
Seek to block number
count.
eom
Space to the end of the recorded media on the tape
(for appending files onto tapes).
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.
erase
Erase the tape.
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.
OPTIONS
-f, --file=device
Use
device
as the file name of the tape drive to operate on.
To use a
tape drive on another machine, use a filename that
starts with `HOSTNAME:'. The hostname can be preceded by a
username and an `@' to access the remote tape drive as that user, if
you have permission to do so (typically an entry in that user's
`~/.rhosts' file).
--rsh-command=command
Notifies
mt
that it should use
command
to communicate with remote devices instead of
/usr/bin/ssh
or
/usr/bin/rsh.
