MT(1)                      OpenBSD Reference Manual                      MT(1)

NAME
     mt, eject - magnetic tape and removable media manipulating program

SYNOPSIS
     mt [-f device] command [count]
     eject [-t] device

DESCRIPTION
     The mt utility sends commands to a magnetic tape drive.  By default, mt
     performs the requested operation once.  Operations may be performed mul-
     tiple times by specifying count.  Note that device must reference a raw
     (not block) tape device.  If device is of the form ``host:device'' or
     ``user@host:device'', mt writes to the named tape device on the remote
     host using rmt(8).  eject is simply an alias for mt, with the offline
     command specified.  eject may also be used to eject other types of remov-
     able media.

     The options for mt are as follows:

     -f device
             Operate on the device specified.

     The options for eject are as follows:

     -t      Insert the device instead of ejecting.  For the cd(4) driver,
             this requests that the tray be closed.

     The available commands are listed below.  Only as many characters as are
     required to uniquely identify a command need be specified.

     eof, weof  Write count end-of-file marks at the current position on the
                tape.

     fsf        Forward space count files.

     fsr        Forward space count records.

     bsf        Back space count files.

     bsr        Back space count records.

     rewind     Rewind the tape (count is ignored).

     offline, rewoffl
                Rewind the tape and place the tape unit off-line (count is
                ignored).  On non-tape removable media, the offline command
                causes the media to be ejected when the last operation on it
                closes (i.e., the filesystem is unmounted).

     status     Print status information about the tape unit.

     retension  Retension the tape (if this operation is supported by the tape
                unit).

     erase      Erase the tape (if this operation is supported by the tape
                unit).

     eom        Forward space to the end of the media.

     blocksize  Set the tape blocksize to count bytes.

     density    Set the tape density code to count as specified in the SCSI2
                specification.

     If a tape name is not specified, and the environment variable TAPE does
     not exist, mt uses the device /dev/rst0.  The TAPE variable is ignored by
     eject.

     mt returns a 0 exit status when the operation(s) were successful, 1 if
     the command was unrecognized, and 2 if an operation failed.

ENVIRONMENT
     If the following environment variable exists, it is utilized by mt.

     TAPE        mt checks the TAPE environment variable if the argument
                 device is not given.

FILES
     /dev/rst*                      raw SCSI tape interface
     /dev/rmt*                      raw magnetic tape interface
     /usr/src/sys/scsi/scsi_tape.h  list of SCSI2 density codes

EXAMPLES
     Eject the first CD device.  This will work even if there is no CD in the
     drive:

           $ eject /dev/rcd0c

SEE ALSO
     cdio(1), chio(1), dd(1), ioctl(2), mtio(4)

HISTORY
     The mt utility appeared in Version 2 AT&T UNIX.

OpenBSD 4.7                    November 3, 2007                              2
