Provided by: mt-st_1.1-6ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
mt - control magnetic tape drive operation
SYNOPSIS
mt [-h] [-f device] operation [count] [arguments...]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents the tape control program mt. mt performs the given operation, which must be
one of the tape operations listed below, on a tape drive. The commands can also be listed by running the
program with the -h option. The version of mt is printed with the -v or --version option. The path of the
tape device on which to operate can be given with the -f or -t option. If neither of those options is
given, and the environment variable TAPE is set, it is used. Otherwise, a default device defined in the
file /usr/include/sys/mtio.h is used (note that the actual path to mtio.h can vary per architecture
and/or distribution).
Some operations optionally take an argument or repeat count, which can be given after the operation name
and defaults to 1. The postfix k , M , or G can be used to give counts in units of 1024, 1024 * 1024, or
1024 * 1024 * 1024, respectively.
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.
fsf Forward space count files. The tape is positioned on the first block of the next file.
fsfm Forward space count files. The tape is positioned on the last block of the previous file.
bsf Backward space count files. The tape is positioned on the last block of the previous file.
bsfm Backward space count files. The tape is positioned on the first block of the next file.
asf The tape is positioned at the beginning of the count file. Positioning is done by first rewinding
the tape and then spacing forward over count filemarks.
fsr Forward space count records.
bsr Backward space count records.
fss (SCSI tapes) Forward space count setmarks.
bss (SCSI tapes) Backward space count setmarks.
eod, seod
Space to end of valid data. Used on streamer tape drives to append data to the logical end of
tape.
rewind Rewind the tape.
offline, rewoffl, eject
Rewind the tape and, if applicable, unload the tape.
retension
Rewind the tape, then wind it to the end of the reel, then rewind it again.
weof, eof
Write count EOF marks at current position.
wset (SCSI tapes) Write count setmarks at current position (only SCSI tape).
erase Erase the tape. Note that this is a long erase, which on modern (high-capacity) tapes can take
many hours, and which usually can't be aborted.
status Print status information about the tape unit. (If the density code is "no translation" in the
status output, this does not affect working of the tape drive.)
seek (SCSI tapes) Seek to the count block on the tape. This operation is available on some Tandberg
and Wangtek streamers and some SCSI-2 tape drives. The block address should be obtained from a
tell call earlier.
tell (SCSI tapes) Tell the current block on tape. This operation is available on some Tandberg and
Wangtek streamers and some SCSI-2 tape drives.
setpartition
(SCSI tapes) Switch to the partition determined by count. The default data partition of the tape
is numbered zero. Switching partition is available only if enabled for the device, the device
supports multiple partitions, and the tape is formatted with multiple partitions.
partseek
(SCSI tapes) The tape position is set to block count in the partition given by the argument after
count. The default partition is zero.
mkpartition
(SCSI tapes) Format the tape with one (count is zero) or two partitions (count gives the size of
the second partition in megabytes). The tape drive must be able to format partitioned tapes with
initiator-specified partition size and partition support must be enabled for the drive.
load (SCSI tapes) Send the load command to the tape drive. The drives usually load the tape when a new
cartridge is inserted. The argument count can usually be omitted. Some HP changers load tape n if
the count 10000 + n is given (a special funtion in the Linux st driver).
lock (SCSI tapes) Lock the tape drive door.
unlock (SCSI tapes) Unlock the tape drive door.
setblk (SCSI tapes) Set the block size of the drive to count bytes per record.
setdensity
(SCSI tapes) Set the tape density code to count. The proper codes to use with each drive should
be looked up from the drive documentation.
densities
(SCSI tapes) Write explanation of some common density codes to standard output.
drvbuffer
(SCSI tapes) Set the tape drive buffer code to number. The proper value for unbuffered operation
is zero and "normal" buffered operation one. The meanings of other values can be found in the
drive documentation or, in the case of a SCSI-2 drive, from the SCSI-2 standard.
compression
(SCSI tapes) The compression within the drive can be switched on or off using the MTCOMPRESSION
ioctl. Note that this method is not supported by all drives implementing compression. For
instance, the Exabyte 8 mm drives use density codes to select compression.
stoptions
(SCSI tapes) Set the driver options bits for the device to the defined values. Allowed only for
the superuser. The bits can be set either by ORing the option bits from the file
/usr/include/linux/mtio.h to count, or by using the following keywords (as many keywords can be
used on the same line as necessary, unambiguous abbreviations allowed):
buffer-writes buffered writes enabled
async-writes asynchronous writes enabled
read-ahead read-ahead for fixed block size
debug debugging (if compiled into driver)
two-fms write two filemarks when file closed
fast-eod space directly to eod (and lose file number)
no-wait don't wait until rewind, etc. complete
auto-lock automatically lock/unlock drive door
def-writes the block size and density are for writes
can-bsr drive can space backwards as well
no-blklimits drive doesn't support read block limits
can-partitions drive can handle partitioned tapes
scsi2logical seek and tell use SCSI-2 logical block addresses instead of device dependent
addresses
sili Set the SILI bit is when reading in variable block mode. This may speed up reading
blocks shorter than the read byte count. Set this option only if you know that the
drive supports SILI and the HBA reliably returns transfer residual byte counts.
Requires kernel version >= 2.6.26.
sysv enable the System V semantics
stsetoptions
(SCSI tapes) Set selected driver options bits. The methods to specify the bits to set are given
above in the description of stoptions. Allowed only for the superuser.
stclearoptions
(SCSI tapes) Clear selected driver option bits. The methods to specify the bits to clear are
given above in description of stoptions. Allowed only for the superuser.
stshowoptions
(SCSI tapes) Print the currently enabled options for the device. Requires kernel version >= 2.6.26
and sysfs must be mounted at /sys.
stwrthreshold
(SCSI tapes) The write threshold for the tape device is set to count kilobytes. The value must be
smaller than or equal to the driver buffer size. Allowed only for the superuser.
defblksize
(SCSI tapes) Set the default block size of the device to count bytes. The value -1 disables the
default block size. The block size set by setblk overrides the default until a new tape is
inserted. Allowed only for the superuser.
defdensity
(SCSI tapes) Set the default density code. The value -1 disables the default density. The density
set by setdensity overrides the default until a new tape is inserted. Allowed only for the
superuser.
defdrvbuffer
(SCSI tapes) Set the default drive buffer code. The value -1 disables the default drive buffer
code. The drive buffer code set by drvbuffer overrides the default until a new tape is inserted.
Allowed only for the superuser.
defcompression
(SCSI tapes) Set the default compression state. The value -1 disables the default compression. The
compression state set by compression overrides the default until a new tape is inserted. Allowed
only for the superuser.
sttimeout
sets the normal timeout for the device. The value is given in seconds. Allowed only for the
superuser.
stlongtimeout
sets the long timeout for the device. The value is given in seconds. Allowed only for the
superuser.
stsetcln
set the cleaning request interpretation parameters.
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.
AUTHOR
The program is written by Kai Makisara <Kai.Makisara@kolumbus.fi>.
COPYRIGHT
The program and the manual page are copyrighted by Kai Makisara, 1998-2008. They can be distributed
according to the GNU Copyleft.
SEE ALSO
st(4)
April 2008 MT(1)