SYNOPSIS

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


DESCRIPTION

       This manual page documents the GNU version of mt.  mt per­
       forms  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 environ­
       ment  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  `HOST­
       NAME:'.  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  abbre­
       viations  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 posi­
              tioned  on  the  beginning-of-the-tape  side of the
              file mark.

       fsfm   Forward space count file marks.  The tape is  posi­
              tioned  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.
              reel, then rewind it again.

       erase  Erase the tape.

       fss    (SCSI tapes) Forward space count setmarks.

       bss    (SCSI tapes) Backward space count setmarks.

       wset   (SCSI tapes) Write count setmarks at current  posi­
              tion (only SCSI tape).

       eod, seod
              Space  to end of valid data.  Used on streamer tape
              drives to append data to the logical and of tape.

       setblk (SCSI tapes) Set the block size  of  the  drive  to
              count bytes per record.

       setdensity
              (SCSI  tapes)  Set  the tape density code to count.
              The proper codes to use with each drive  should  be
              looked up from the drive documentation.

       drvbuffer
              (SCSI tapes) Set the tape drive buffer code to num­
              ber.  The proper value for unbuffered operation  is
              zero and "normal" buffered operation one. The mean­
              ings of other values can be found in the drive doc­
              umentation  or, in case of a SCSI-2 drive, from the
              SCSI-2 standard.

       stoptions
              (SCSI tapes) Set the driver options bits  to  count
              for  the  device.  The bits can be set by oring the
              following values: 1 to enable write buffering, 2 to
              enable asynchronous writes, 4 to enable read ahead,
              8 to enable debugging output (if it has  been  com­
              piled to the driver).

       stwrthreshold
              (SCSI  tapes)  The  write  threshold  for  the tape
              device is set to count kilobytes. The value must be
              smaller than or equal to the driver buffer size.

       seek   (SCSI  tapes)  Seek to the count block on the tape.
              This operation is available on  some  Tandberg  and
              Wangtek streamers and some SCSI-2 tape drives.

       tell   (SCSI  tapes) Tell the current block on tape.  This
              operation is available on some Tandberg and Wangtek
              streamers and some SCSI-2 tape drives.

       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  `HOST­
              NAME:'.  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  communi­
              cate with remote devices instead of /usr/bin/ssh or
              /usr/bin/rsh.

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



                                                           MT(1L)

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