source: trunk/minix/man/man1/mt.1@ 15

Last change on this file since 15 was 9, checked in by Mattia Monga, 14 years ago

Minix 3.1.2a

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[9]1.TH MT 1
2.SH NAME
3mt \- magnetic tape control
4.SH SYNOPSIS
5.B mt
6.RB [ \-f
7.IR device ]
8.RI [ count ]
9.SH DESCRIPTION
10.B Mt
11is a user interface to the magnetic tape commands described in
12.BR mtio (4).
13It allows one to space a tape forwards or backwards, write end of file
14markers, etc.
15.PP
16With the
17.B \-f
18option a tape device can be named, otherwise the environment variable
19.B TAPE
20is used if set. Standard input is used if the tape name is a dash (\-). The
21.I count
22argument is used to tell how many blocks or files to space or how many file
23markers to write. It may be a C-style decimal, octal or hexadecimal constant,
24by default "1".
25.PP
26.I Command
27is the action to perform, it may be one of the following, or any
28unambiguous prefix (like
29.B st
30for
31.BR status ):
32.TP 15
33.B eof, weof
34Write
35.I count
36end-of-file markers.
37.TP
38.B fsf
39Forward space
40.I count
41file markers.
42.TP
43.B fsr
44Forward space
45.I count
46records. (The size of a record depends on the tape, and may even be
47variable, depending on the size of the writes.)
48.TP
49.B bsf
50Backwards space
51.I count
52files. The count may be zero to backspace to the start of the current file.
53(A tape device need not support backwards movement, or may be very slow
54doing it. Rewinding and forward spacing may be better.)
55.TP
56.B bsr
57Backwards space
58.I count
59records. The tape is positioned after the last block of the previous file
60if you hit a filemark when spacing backwards. The block count is set to -1
61to indicate that the driver has no idea where it is on the previous file.
62.TP
63.B eom
64Forward space to the end of media.
65.TP
66.B rewind
67Rewind the tape.
68.TP
69.B offline, rewoffl
70Rewind and take offline. This may cause some drives to eject the tape.
71.TP
72.B status
73Shows the status of the drive, the sense key of the last SCSI error,
74current file number, current record number, residual count if the last
75command that encountered end-of-file, and the current block size.
76.TP
77.B retension
78Removes tape tension by winding and rewinding the tape completely.
79.TP
80.B erase
81Erases the tape completely and rewinds it.
82.TP
83.B density
84Sets the density code to read or write the tape to
85.IR count .
86Density codes supported depend on the drive. This command need not be
87used if the drive senses the proper density on read and can only write
88one density.
89.TP
90.B blksize, blocksize
91Sets the block size used to read or write the tape to
92.IR count .
93This command may be used to select a fixed block size for a variable block
94size tape. This will speed up I/O for small block sizes. Use a zero
95.I count
96to use variable sized blocks again.
97.SH ENVIRONMENT
98.TP 15n
99.B TAPE
100Tape drive to use if set.
101.SH FILES
102.TP 15n
103.B /dev/nrst4
104Default tape device.
105.SH "SEE ALSO"
106.BR mtio (4),
107.BR st (4).
108.SH AUTHOR
109Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl)
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