Linux in a Nutshell, Fifth Edition

mt | 319

Linux

Commands

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mt

mt [option] operation [count] [arguments]

Control a magnetic tape drive used to back up or restore system

data. The version of the mt command documented here is mt-st,

which includes support for the st driver for SCSI tape devices. The

operation argument determines what action will be taken, and,

unless the -f or -t option is used, the action is applied to the default

tape drive named in the TAPE environment variable. The count

argument determines how many times the operation is to be

repeated. If not specified, it defaults to 1. Some operations take one

or more arguments other than a count, as noted in the descriptions

below.

Options

-f device, -t device

Name the tape device to use. This may be a local device, a

character special file (see mknod), or a remote device, named

in the format host:/path/to/drive or user@host:path/to/drive.

-h, --help

Print usage message and exit. -h prints a simple usage

message, while --help also prints a list of commands.

-V, --version

Print version number and exit. Also tells you if you are

running mt-st or the GNU version of mt.

Operations

mt can perform the following operations on tape drives. Opera-

tions applicable only to SCSI tape drives are marked as such.

asf n

Move to file number n on the tape. This is the same as

rewinding the tape ...