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