mt.1 (2010 09)

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mt(1) mt(1)

NAME

mt - magnetic tape manipulating program

SYNOPSIS

mt [-f tapename ] command [ count ]

Obsolescent

mt [-t tapename ] command [ count ]

DESCRIPTION

mt is used to give commands to the tape drive. If tapename is not speciﬁed, the environment variable

TAPE is used; if TAPE is not deﬁned, the default drive is used.

mt winds the tape in the requested direction (forward or backward), stopping after the speciﬁed count

EOF marks or records are passed. If count is not speciﬁed, one is assumed. Each EOF mark counts as

one record. When winding backwards, the tape always stops at the BOT marker, regardless of the

number remaining in count .

mt accepts the following commands:

eof Write count EOF marks.

fsf Forward space count ﬁles.

fsr Forward space count records.

bsf Backward space count ﬁles.

bsr Backward space count records.

rew Rewind tape.

offl Rewind tape and go ofﬂine.

eod Seek to end of data (DDS and QIC drives only).

smk Write count setmarks (DDS drives only).

fss Forward space count setmarks (DDS drives only).

bss Backward space count setmarks (DDS drives only).

status Print status information about the tape drive.

res Reserve tape drive for sole use by the host issuing the mt command (stape or estape

driver only).

rel Release tape drive from sole use by the host issuing the mt command (stape or estape

driver only).

Spacing operations (back or forward space ﬁle or record) leave the tape positioned past the object being

spaced to in the direction of motion. That is, backspacing a ﬁle leaves the the tape positioned before the

ﬁle mark, forward spacing a ﬁle leaves the tape positioned after the ﬁle mark. This is consistent with all

classical usage on tapes.

WARNINGS

Only raw, no-rewind Berkeley-type devices should be speciﬁed. This type of device will not reposition the

tape upon close. An example of such a device is /dev/rmt/0mnb or /dev/rtape/tape1_BESTnb.

See mt(7) for more details.

It is possible to wind the tape beyond the EOT marker and off the end of the reel.

A reservation may only be cleared with a release by the host that issued the original reserve. In the event

that the host that holds the reservation is no longer available, the

st command may be used to reclaim

the device by issuing a bus device reset. See st(1M) for more details.

The reserve/release functionality can only be issued to drives using the

stape or estape driver.

EXAMPLES

Rewind the tape associated with the device ﬁle

/dev/rmt/0mnb or /dev/rtape/tape1_BESTnb (if

legacy DSF is disabled):

HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1

Summary of content (2 pages)

PAGE 1
mt(1) mt(1) NAME mt - magnetic tape manipulating program SYNOPSIS mt [-f tapename ] command [ count ] Obsolescent mt [-t tapename ] command [ count ] DESCRIPTION mt is used to give commands to the tape drive. If tapename is not specified, the environment variable TAPE is used; if TAPE is not defined, the default drive is used. mt winds the tape in the requested direction (forward or backward), stopping after the specified count EOF marks or records are passed. If count is not specified, one is assumed.
PAGE 2
mt(1) mt(1) mt -f /dev/rmt/0mnb rew FILES /dev/rmt/* /dev/rtape/* /dev/rmt/0mnb Raw magnetic tape interface (stape) Raw magnetic tape interface (estape) Default tape interface. If legacy DSF is disabled, the default value is /dev/rtape/tape1_BESTnb. AUTHOR mt was developed by the University of California, Berkeley. SEE ALSO dd(1), st(1M), intro(7), mt(7).