NAME

       tapeinfo - report SCSI tape device info

SYNOPSIS

       tapeinfo -f <scsi-generic-device>

DESCRIPTION

       The  tapeinfo command reads various information from SCSI tape drives that is not generally available via
       most vendors' tape drivers. It issues raw commands directly to the tape drive, using either the operating
       system's  SCSI  generic device ( e.g. /dev/sg0 on Linux, /dev/pass0 on FreeBSD) or the raw SCSI I/O ioctl
       on a tape device on some operating systems.

       One good time to use 'tapeinfo' is immediately after a tape i/o operation has failed. On tape drives that
       support HP's 'tapealert' API, 'tapeinfo' will report a more exact description of what went wrong.

       Do  be  aware  that  'tapeinfo'  is not a substitute for your operating system's own 'mt' or similar tape
       driver control program. It is intended to supplement, not replace, programs like 'mt'  that  access  your
       operating system's tape driver in order to report or set information.

OPTIONS

       The  first  argument,  given  following -f , is the SCSI generic device corresponding to your tape drive.
       Consult your operating system's documentation for more information (for example, under  Linux  these  are
       generally start at /dev/sg0 under FreeBSD these start at /dev/pass0).

       Under  FreeBSD,  'camcontrol  devlist'  will tell you what SCSI devices you have, along with which 'pass'
       device controls them. Under Linux, "cat /proc/scsi/scsi" will tell you what SCSI devices you have.

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

       This program has only been tested on Linux with a limited number of tape drives (HP DDS4, Seagate AIT).

AVAILABILITY

       tapeinfo is currently being maintained by Robert Nelson <robertnelson@users.sourceforge.net> as  part  of
       the  'mtx'  suite  of  programs. The 'mtx' home page is http://mtx.sourceforge.net and the actual code is
       currently available there and via SVN from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mtx.

SEE ALSO

       mt(1),mtx(1),scsitape(1),scsieject(1),loaderinfo(1)

                                                   TAPEINFO1.0                                       TAPEINFO(1)