--- name: "ftmt" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "ftape-util" version: "1:1.09.2002.03.21-0.3" release: "Debian 3.1 (Sarge)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/ftmt" --- # ftmt(1) control magnetic tape drive operation ## NAME mt - control magnetic tape drive operation ## SYNOPSIS **mt** \[-V\] \[-f device\] \[--file=device\] \[--version\] 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. - asf Absolute space to file number *count*. Equivalent to rewind followed by fsf *count*. - eof, weof Write *count* EOF marks at current position. - eom, seod Space to the end of the recorded media on the tape (for appending files onto tapes). - erase Erase the tape. Old versions of the floppy tape driver **ftape** required that the tape had to be erased before EOF marks could be used. Recent versions of **zftape** no longer have this restriction. - fsf Forward space over *count* EOF marks. The tape is positioned at the end-of-the-tape side of the EOF mark. - bsf Backward space over *count* EOF marks. The tape then is positioned on the end-of-the-tape side of the last skipped EOF mark, i.e. **mt bsf 1** (equivalent to **mt bsf** ) always stays within the same tape volume and has the effect to position the tape at the beginning of the current volume. - fsfm Forward space over *count* file marks. The tape is positioned on the beginning-of-the-tape side of the last skipped file mark. - bsfm Backward space over *count* file marks. The tape is positioned on the beginning-of-the-tape side of the last skipped file mark. - fsr Forward space *count* records. - bsr Backward space *count* records. - offline, rewoffl Rewind the tape and, if applicable, unload the tape. For the **ftape** floppy tape driver this has the effect of the a soft eject: the tape driver will reject all operations with the exception of a reset command until a new cartridge is inserted. A reset command has the same effect for the **ftape** driver as inserting a new cartridge. - ras1 Run self test 1 (non-destructive). Implemented on some QIC-02 drives. - ras2 Run self test 2 (destructive). Implemented on some QIC-02 drives. - ras3 Run self test 3 (reserved). - reset Reset the drive in case of problems. - retension Rewind the tape, then wind it to the end of the reel, then rewind it again. - rewind Rewind the tape. When using the **ftape** floppy tape driver, one always should issue this command (or **offline, rewoffl** ) before removing a cartridge, because **ftape** caches information that has to be stored in the header segments of a floppy tape cartridge. - seek Seek to the *count* th block of the tape (absolute from BOT, Tandberg tape drives, relative to the current file resp. volume for zftape QIC-117 floppy tape driver) - setblk Set the length of a tape block to *count bytes (SCSI tapes and zftape-driver for QIC-117 floppy-tapes).* A value of 0 means to select variable block size mode. - getblk Get the length of tape blocks (zftape-driver for QIC-117 floppy-tapes) in bytes. - setdensity Set the tape density according to *count* for SCSI tapes. For the **zftape** version of the **ftape** floppy tape driver for Linux, this has the special meaning to set the trace level that specifies the amount of debugging output printed to the system log files. - setdrvbuffer Set the drive buffering according to SCSI-2. For **zftape** this has the special meaning to set the number of 32kb dma buffers the driver uses. - status Print status information about the tape unit. Usually this results in sending an *MTNOP* MTIOCTOP command to the tape drive followed by a *MTSTATUS* command. This version of **mt** also sends a *MTIOCVOLINFO* ioctl to get information about the current volume and a *MTIOCGETSIZE* command to query the capacity of the inserted tape catridge. These two are special ioctls supported by the **zftape** floppy tape device driver for **Linux.** - tell Tell the current block-number (zftape QIC-117 driver, Tandberg tapedrives, for zftape relative to the current file resp. volume). - getseg Read an arbitrary segment, including the header segments, of a floppy tape drive (zftape QIC-117 floppy tape driver). This results in up to 29kb of data written to stdout (don't forget to redirect stdout to a file). - getsize Query the tape capacity of the tape cartridge (zftape QIC-117 floppy tape driver). This results in printing the total data capacity, the used data capacity and the remaining data capacity. **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). - *-V, --version* Print the version number of **mt**.