PREV UP NEXT The Ftape Installation and Usage Guide - Ioctls


8.8.1: The tape operation wrapper ioctl MTIOCTOP

The MTIOCTOP ioctl provides control over various tape operations. The following list may be incomplete and covers at most those operations that are supported by ftape-4.03. Please refer also to the file `/usr/include/sys/mtio.h'. Most of the operations below can be sent to a tape device using the mt program. There is probably a version of this program installed on your computer already, however, there is a modified version of the GNU mt program contained in the ftape-tools package(1). Please refer also to the manual page of the mt program (`man 1 mt') or to the documentation contained in the ftape-tools package in case you are using. See Ftmt (info file ftape-tools).

Some tape operations take and optional numerical argument which defaults to `1' when using the mt program. Each of the explanations below contains a (very) short example how to use the mt program to send the command to the drive.

MTRESET Reset drive and driver
MTFSF Skip forward over file marks
MTBSF Skip backward over file marks
MTFSR Skip forward over tape records
MTBSR Skip backwards over tape records
MTWEOF Write file mark
MTREW Rewind cartridge
MTOFFL Put drive off-line
MTNOP No op, set status
MTRETEN Retension the cartridge
MTBSFM Skip backwards over file marks
MTFSFM Skip forward over tape file marks
MTEOM Skip to end of recorded area
MTERASE Erase cartridge
MTSETBLK Setting the block size (ftape-3.04d (and later versions))
MTSETDENSITY Setting the debugging level (ftape-3.04d (and later versions))
MTSEEK Seek to absolute tape block (ftape-3.04d (and later versions))
MTTELL Request tape position, buggy
MTSETDRVBUFFER Set amount of driver memory (ftape-3.04d (and later versions))
MTLOCK Lock the tape door (Ditto Max)
MTUNLOCK Unlock the tape door (Ditto Max)
MTLOAD Unimplemented (Ditto Max)
MTUNLOAD Unimplemented (Ditto Max)
MTCOMPRESSION Switch compression on and off (ftape-3.04d (and later versions))
MTSETPART Set the active partition (Ditto Max)


(1) You can download the ftape-tools package from the
Ftape Home Page
or from ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/tapes/


ftape logo Use these buttons to jump to the top menu

TOP (previous node) TOP (parent node) TOP (next node) TOP (this node)