Command Reference Guide

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STANDARD Printed by: Nora Chuang [nchuang] STANDARD
/build/1111/BRICK/man1/!!!intro.1
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m
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 driver only).
rel Release tape drive from sole use by the host issuing the mt command (stape 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 classi-
cal 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
. Please refer to 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. Refer to st(1M) for more details.
The reserve/release functionality can only be issued to drives using the stape driver.
EXAMPLES
Rewind the tape associated with the device file
/dev/rmt/0mnb:
mt -f /dev/rmt/0mnb rew
FILES
/dev/rmt/* Raw magnetic tape interface
HP-UX Release 11i: December 2000 − 1 − Section 1−−551
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