MT

Section: GNU CPIO (1)
Updated: January 28, 2014
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NAME

mt - control magnetic tape drive operation

SYNOPSIS

mt [-V] [-f device] [--file=device] [--rsh-command=command] [--version] operation [count]

DESCRIPTION

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: Perform long erase of tape. If count is 0, perform short erase of tape (some devices do not support this).

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.
-V, --version: Print the version number of mt.

BUG REPORTS

Report bugs to <bug-cpio@gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.