MT(1)

🎀 NAME 🎀

okay bestie, this is the mt manual 💖 and it's all about controlling magnetic tape drive operation 📼✨

mt - control magnetic tape drive operation

🧚 SYNOPSIS 🧚

mt [-V] [-f device] [--file=device] [--rsh-command=command] [--version]
operation [count]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

okay so this page documents the GNU version of mt 🫶 mt runs the given operation on a tape drive. The operation has to be one of the tape operations listed below, and no cap, it's giving main character energy 👑

The default tape device comes from the file /usr/include/sys/mtio.h when mt gets compiled 🦋 You can override it by setting the environment variable TAPE to a device file name, or by using a command line option (see below). The command line option beats the environment variable too, so it always wins 💜

The device has to be either a character special file or a remote tape drive. Want to use a tape drive on another machine as your archive? Use a filename that starts with HOSTNAME: 🌸 You can put a username and an @ in front of the hostname to access the remote tape drive as that user, as long as you have permission (usually that's an entry in that user's ~/.rhosts file) 🙈

The available operations are listed below. Unique abbreviations are accepted, so you don't have to type the whole thing 🍓 Not every operation works on every system or on every type of tape drive, so ngl, check your vibe first 💀 Some operations can take a repeat count, which goes after the operation name and defaults to 1 ✨

• eof, weof — write count EOF marks at the current position 🌈
• fsf — forward space count files. The tape gets positioned on the first block of the next file 🦋
• bsf — backward space count files. The tape gets positioned on the first block of the next file 🦋
• fsr — forward space count records 🫶
• bsr — backward space count records 🫶
• bsfm — backward space count file marks. The tape gets positioned on the beginning-of-the-tape side of the file mark 🧚
• fsfm — forward space count file marks. The tape gets positioned on the beginning-of-the-tape side of the file mark 🧚
• asf — absolute space to file number count. It's the same as a rewind followed by fsf count 👑
• seek — seek to block number count 🎯
• eom — space to the end of the recorded media on the tape (for appending files onto tapes) 🍓
• rewind — rewind the tape 🔁
• offline, rewoffl — rewind the tape and, if applicable, unload the tape 📤
• status — print status information about the tape unit 📊
• retension — rewind the tape, then wind it to the end of the reel, then rewind it again 🎀
• erase — perform a long erase of the tape. If count is 0, it does a short erase instead (some devices don't support this, so be warned 🙈) 💅

mt exits with a status of 0 if the operation succeeded, 1 if the operation or device name you gave was invalid, or 2 if the operation failed 🔥

🦋 OPTIONS 🦋

• -f, --file=device — use device as the file name of the tape drive you want to operate on 💖 To use a tape drive on another machine, use a filename that starts with HOSTNAME:. You can put a username and an @ before the hostname to access the remote tape drive as that user, if you have permission (typically an entry in that user's ~/.rhosts file) 🌸
• --rsh-command=command — tells mt to use command to talk to remote devices instead of /usr/bin/ssh or /usr/bin/rsh 🫶
• -V, --version — print the version number of mt ✨

🚨 BUG REPORTS 🚨

found a bug? report it to <bug-cpio@gnu.org> 💌

📜 COPYRIGHT 📜

Copyright © 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 🌈

License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law 🫶

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that's the whole manual, bestie 💖 it's GNU cpio, dated January 28, 2014, and it's officially iconic 🎀✨