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-4.04. 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 an 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)