TAPEINFO

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: TAPEINFO1.0
Index

NAME

tapeinfo - report SCSI tape device info

SYNOPSIS

tapeinfo -f <scsi-generic-device>

DESCRIPTION

The tapeinfocommand reads various information from SCSI tape drives that is notgenerally available via most vendors' tape drivers. It issues rawcommands directly to the tape drive, using either the operating system'sSCSI generic device ( e.g. /dev/sg0 on Linux, /dev/pass0 on FreeBSD) orthe raw SCSI I/O ioctl on a tape device on some operating systems. One good time to use 'tapeinfo' is immediately after a tape i/o operation hasfailed. On tape drives that support HP's 'tapealert' API, 'tapeinfo' willreport a more exact description of what went wrong. Do be aware that 'tapeinfo' is not a substitute for your operating system'sown 'mt' or similar tape driver control program. It is intended to supplement,not replace, programs like 'mt' that access your operating system's tapedriver in order to report or set information.

OPTIONS

The first argument, given following-f, is the SCSI generic device corresponding to your tape drive.Consult your operating system's documentation for more information (forexample, under Linux these are generally start at /dev/sg0 under FreeBSD these start at /dev/pass0).Under FreeBSD, 'camcontrol devlist' will tell you what SCSI devices youhave, along with which 'pass' device controls them. Under Linux,"cat /proc/scsi/scsi" will tell you what SCSI devices you have.

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

This program has only been tested on Linux with a limited number oftape drives (HP DDS4, Seagate AIT).

AVAILABILITY

tapeinfois currently being maintained by Robert Nelson <robertnelsonAATTusers.sourceforge.net> as part of the 'mtx' suite of programs. The 'mtx' home page is http://mtx.sourceforge.net and the actual code is currently available there and via SVN from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mtx.

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