AMDEVCHECK(8)

📦
version 3.5.4 · 8 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

🌸 AMDEVCHECK(8) — aka amdevcheck 💅

okay bestie, welcome to amdevcheck, the little system administration command that goes "hey, is this Amanda device actually alive and does it have a labeled volume or nah" 🔍✨

✨ NAME ✨

amdevcheck — validate an Amanda device and volume, fr fr 🎀

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

amdevcheck [--label] [-properties list] [-o configoption...] config
           [device-name]

like… that's the whole vibe. copy it exactly, don't get creative 💖

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So amdevcheck is literally your vibe-check tool for an Amanda device. It checks:

  • is this particular Amanda device actually accessible? 👀
  • does it have a volume in it or not? 🎀
  • and if it does, is that volume labeled? 🏷️

and here's the tea, bestie: some devices are lowkey bad at telling those cases apart. Like, a missing volume and an unlabeled volume might spit out the exact same error code. Not their fault, it's just how the hardware is. So in those messy cases, this tool reports all possible causes of the error instead of guessing. 🙈

Optionally, this tool also lists the properties for the device. cute, right?

If you want the whole Amanda lore, go read the amanda(8) man page. And for the device deep-dive, amanda-devices(7) has you covered. 📚

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • config — the Amanda configuration you wanna use, periodt. Heads up tho: amdevcheck ignores any tape changer configuration. Like it simply does not see it. 🙈
  • device — the Amanda device to use. This one overrides any tapedev configuration you set in the configuration file. main character energy, it wins. 👑
  • --label — get the device's label. If you pass this, the usual check output is omitted and instead the label of the loaded volume gets printed to stdout. Returns with error if the label is not found. 😭
  • --properties [list] — list device properties. If you pass this, the usual check output is omitted, and property values get printed to stdout, one per line, in the format: a property name, then =, then the property value. Returns with error if properties are not available. 😤
    • If list is given, it's treated as a comma-separated list of properties to display. If it's omitted, then all supported properties are displayed. slay ✨
  • -o configoption — see the "CONFIGURATION OVERRIDE" section in amanda(8). iykyk 📖

🔥 OUTPUT 🔥

okay so the exit code tea ☕:

amdevcheck exits with code 0 if the device is working, or if it gets an expected error — in that case go read the MESSAGE line for the deets. It exits with code 1 if it gets an unexpected error. 💀

amdevcheck returns one or more of the following lines. And listen: if multiple lines show up, then at least one, but not necessarily all of the messages apply. That happens when you're dealing with hardware or operating systems that can't tell the difference — like between a malfunctioning drive and a functional-but-unloaded drive. literally the worst 😭

  • SUCCESS — a tape is ready. we love to see it 🎉
  • DEVICE_ERROR — a device error has occurred. oop 😬
  • DEVICE_BUSY — the device is busy. give it a sec bestie ⏳
  • VOLUME_MISSING — no tape is loaded in the drive. empty. void. 🕳️
  • VOLUME_UNLABELED — the tape in the drive is unlabeled. who is she?? 🏷️❓
  • VOLUME_ERROR — a volume error has occurred. 🙃
  • MESSAGE text — where text provides a human-readable description of the problem. the translator of chaos 🫶

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

amanda(8), amanda-devices(7)

The Amanda Wiki: : http://wiki.zmanda.com/ 🌐

🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

Ian Turner <ian@zmanda.com> Zmanda, Inc. (http://www.zmanda.com) 💜

and that's the whole page bestie, courtesy of Amanda 3.5.4 dated 08/26/2026 — AMDEVCHECK(8), out. 💅✨🎀 stay labeled, stay accessible 🦋

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