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8.5.1: 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 the zftape driver. Please refer also to the file /usr/include/sys/mtio.h. Most of the operations below can be send to a tape device using the mt program, please refer to the manual page of the mt program contained in the ftape `./contrib/gnumt' directory (`man 1 ftmt')(1). Some of these commands take an optional numerical argument which defaults to `1' when using the mt program. Each of the explanations below contains a 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 (zftape)
MTSETDENSITY Setting the debugging level (zftape)
MTSEEK Seek to absolute tape block (zftape)
MTTELL Request tape position, buggy
MTSETDRVBUFFER Set amount of driver memory (zftape)
MTCOMPRESSION Switch compression on and off (zftape)


(1) The explanations below are partially stolen from the manual page of the mt program contained in the GNU cpio package


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