MT(1) manual page
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mt - control magnetic tape drive operation
mt
[-V] [-f device] [--file=device] [--rsh-command=command] [--version] operation [count]
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.
- -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.
Report bugs to <bug-cpio@gnu.org>.
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.
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