User guide

Installing a DLT, SDLT, VS, LTO, or DAT Tape Drive Into a Linux Operating System
6464215-01, Rev B
January 2006
Accessing Devices Using /dev/st* Device Nodes 14
Identifying Device
Nodes
0
Linux supports up to 32 tape devices [(n)st0* through (n)st31*). Device nodes
are numbered consecutively beginning with
0.
Each operating system presets a certain number of device nodes as follows.
You may add more manually if needed (up to 32 total). The following table
shows two examples:
Sixth
column
Mmm DD
YYYY
Date. Not applicable.
Seventh
column,
section
heading
(n)stna
n
represents
a numeric
character;
a
represents
an alpha
character.
In the
example:
(n)st0*
Device Node Description. This is also the actual file name.
(n)st identifies the device node as either auto-rewind or no-rewind as
follows:
•
st identifies the device node as auto-rewind. See Creating Auto-Rewind
Device Nodes on page 16 for more information.
•
nst identifies the device node as no-rewind. See Creating No-Rewind
Device Nodes on page 16 for more information.
n (the numeric character) identifies the tape device. “0” identifies the first
device; “
1” identifies the second device; “2” identifies the third device, and
so forth. See Identifying Device Nodes
for more information.
a (the alpha character) identifies the mode. (No alpha character means
mode 1.) See Identifying Device Modes
for a list of modes.
Operating System Preset Device Nodes
RHEL3 (n)st0* through (n)st31*
SuSE9 (n)st0* through (n)st7*
Column Text Format Description