TAPELIST(5)

📦
version 3.5.4 · 8 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

🎀 TAPELIST(5) — the ^tea on Amanda's tape list ✨

okay bestie, so this is the manual page for tapelist, from the File formats and conventions part of the Amanda world. It's section 5, she's a file format, she's iconic, she's a little weird. Let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

tapelist — the list of Amanda volumes in use 💖

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

The tapelist file is literally the roster of tapes that are in active use. Plot twist though: you do not normally edit this file or even poke at it manually. Its format might change, or it might get deleted entirely, in future versions of Amanda. So like… don't get attached, bestie 😭. It contains lines shaped like this:

YYYYMMDDHHMMSS label flags [BARCODE:barcode] [META:meta] [BLOCKSIZE:blocksize] [POOL:pool] [STORAGE:storage] [CONFIG:config] [#comment]

Where:

  • YYYYMMDDHHMMSS is the time the tape was written ⏰
  • label is the tape's label, as written by amlabel
  • flags is one of "reuse" or "no-reuse", and it tells Amanda whether the tape may be reused.

A non-reusable tape will not be overwritten, even if it's older than dumpcycle dumps. See the reuse options of amadmin(8) for that whole situation.

The optional barcode is prefixed with BARCODE if the volume has a barcode.

The optional meta label is prefixed with META if the volume is on a meta volume.

The optional blocksize is prefixed with BLOCKSIZE.

The optional pool is prefixed with POOL — it's the name of the tape-pool.

The optional storage is prefixed with STORAGE — it's the name of the storage.

The optional config is prefixed with CONFIG — it's the name of the config that

is using that volume. This is useful for sharing the tapelist across multiple configs.

The optional comment is prefixed with a # and continues to the end of the line.

Amanda will maintain this comment until the tape is overwritten. And heads up: comments are not allowed on blank lines 🙅‍♀️.

💅 the defaulting rules (iykyk)

  • An entry without POOL is in the tape-pool with the name of the config running name.
  • A new labelled volume has a timestamp of "0" and has no STORAGE and no CONFIG.
  • A used volume with timestamp != "0" without STORAGE is in the storage with the name of the running config.
  • A used volume with timestamp != "0" without CONFIG is in the running config.

It is possible to share the same tapelist across multiple configs, if the POOL, STORAGE and CONFIG are correctly set. Slay, but only when it's set up right 💁‍♀️.

🦋 the sorting (it's giving very organized)

The file is sorted such that the most-recently used tape appears on the first line, and the oldest tape appears on the last line. Main character tape goes first, periodt.

🔥 the rules that will humble you

amdump and amflush will by default refuse to write to an unlabeled tape, or to a labeled tape that is considered active or marked "no-reuse". They're not being difficult, they're being responsible 💀.

⚠️ There must be more tapes in active rotation (see the tapecycle option) than there are runs in the backup cycle (see the dumpcycle option) to prevent overwriting a backup image that would be needed to do a full recovery. This is not a drill, bestie. Get this ratio wrong and you're cooked 😭

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

👑 AUTHORS 👑

  • James da Silva <jds@amanda.org>
  • Stefan G. Weichinger <sgw@amanda.org>
  • Dustin J. Mitchell <dustin@zmanda.com>

and that's the whole page, bestie 💜 this was Amanda 3.5.4, dated 08/26/2026 — tapelist said what she said, and honestly? she ate 🎀✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from