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MTIO(4) Device Drivers Manual (vax) MTIO(4)

mtioUNIX magtape interface

The special files named /dev/mt0 and /dev/rmt0 through /dev/mt23 and /dev/rmt23 refer to UNIX magtape drives, which may be on the MASSBUS using the TM03 formatter ht(4), or TM78 formatter, mt(4), or on the UNIBUS using either the TM11 or TS11 formatters tm(4), TU45 compatible formatters, ut(4), or ts(4). These devices are typical tape block devices, see physio(4).

The following table of the converntional device names is applicable to any of the transport/controller pairs. (But note that only 1600 BPI is available with the TS11.)

800 BPI 1600 BPI 6500 BPI
Em or lowest density or second density or third density
Rewind mt0/rmt0 mt8/rmt8 mt16/rmt16
Rewind mt1/rmt1 mt9/rmt9 mt17/rmt17
Rewind mt2/rmt2 mt10/rmt10 mt18/rmt18
Rewind mt3/rmt3 mt11/rmt11 mt19/rmt19
No-rewind nmt4/nrmt4 nmt12/nrmt12 nmt20/nrmt20
No-rewind nmt5/nrmt5 nmt13/nrmt13 nmt21/nrmt21
No-rewind nmt6/nrmt6 nmt14/nrmt14 nmt22/nrmt22
No-rewind nmt7/nrmt7 nmt15/nrmt15 nmt23/nrmt32

The rewind devices automatically rewind when the last requested read, write or seek has finished, or the end of the tape has been reached. The letter ‘n’ is usually prepended to the name of the no-rewind devices.

Unix tapes are written in multiples of 1024 byte block records. Two end-of-file markers mark the end of a tape, and one end-of-file marker marks the end of a tape file. If the tape is not to be rewound it is positioned with the head in between the two tape marks, where the next write will over write the second end-of-file marker.

All of the magtape devices may be manipulated with the mt(1) command.

A number of ioctl(2) operations are available on raw magnetic tape. The following definitions are from ⟨sys/mtio.h⟩:

/*
 * Structures and definitions for mag tape io control commands
 */

/* structure for MTIOCTOP - mag tape op command */
struct	mtop	{
	short	mt_op;		/* operations defined below */
	daddr_t	mt_count;	/* how many of them */
};

/* operations */
#define MTWEOF	0	/* write an end-of-file record */
#define MTFSF	1	/* forward space file */
#define MTBSF	2	/* backward space file */
#define MTFSR	3	/* forward space record */
#define MTBSR	4	/* backward space record */
#define MTREW	5	/* rewind */
#define MTOFFL	6	/* rewind and put the drive offline */
#define MTNOP	7	/* no operation, sets status only */
#define MTCACHE 8	/* enable controller cache */
#define MTNOCACHE 9	/* disable controller cache */

/* structure for MTIOCGET - mag tape get status command */

struct	mtget	{
	short	mt_type;	/* type of magtape device */
/* the following two registers are grossly device dependent */
	short	mt_dsreg;	/* ``drive status'' register */
	short	mt_erreg;	/* ``error'' register */
/* end device-dependent registers */
	short	mt_resid;	/* residual count */
/* the following two are not yet implemented */
	daddr_t	mt_fileno;	/* file number of current position */
	daddr_t	mt_blkno;	/* block number of current position */
/* end not yet implemented */
};

/*
 * Constants for mt_type byte.  These are the same
 * for controllers compatible with the types listed.
 */
#define	MT_ISTS		0x01		/* TS-11 */
#define	MT_ISHT		0x02		/* TM03 Massbus: TE16, TU45, TU77 */
#define	MT_ISTM		0x03		/* TM11/TE10 Unibus */
#define	MT_ISMT		0x04		/* TM78/TU78 Massbus */
#define	MT_ISUT		0x05		/* SI TU-45 emulation on Unibus */
#define	MT_ISCPC	0x06		/* SUN */
#define	MT_ISAR		0x07		/* SUN */
#define	MT_ISTMSCP	0x08		/* DEC TMSCP protocol (TU81, TK50) */
#define MT_ISCY 	0x09		/* CCI Cipher */
#define MT_ISCT 	0x0a		/* HP 1/4 tape */
#define MT_ISFHP	0x0b		/* HP 7980 1/2 tape */
#define MT_ISEXABYTE	0x0c		/* Exabyte */
#define MT_ISEXA8200	0x0c		/* Exabyte EXB-8200 */
#define MT_ISEXA8500	0x0d		/* Exabyte EXB-8500 */
#define MT_ISVIPER1	0x0e		/* Archive Viper-150 */
#define MT_ISPYTHON	0x0f		/* Archive Python (DAT) */
#define MT_ISHPDAT	0x10		/* HP 35450A DAT drive */

/* mag tape io control commands */
#define	MTIOCTOP	_IOW('m', 1, struct mtop)	/* do a mag tape op */
#define	MTIOCGET	_IOR('m', 2, struct mtget)	/* get tape status */
#define MTIOCIEOT	_IO('m', 3)			/* ignore EOT error */
#define MTIOCEEOT	_IO('m', 4)			/* enable EOT error */

#ifndef KERNEL
#define	DEFTAPE	"/dev/rmt12"
#endif

#ifdef	KERNEL
/*
 * minor device number
 */

#define	T_UNIT		003		/* unit selection */
#define	T_NOREWIND	004		/* no rewind on close */
#define	T_DENSEL	030		/* density select */
#define	T_800BPI	000		/* select  800 bpi */
#define	T_1600BPI	010		/* select 1600 bpi */
#define	T_6250BPI	020		/* select 6250 bpi */
#define	T_BADBPI	030		/* undefined selection */
#endif

/dev/mt?
 
/dev/rmt?
 

mt(1), tar(1), tp(1), ht(4), tm(4), ts(4), mt(4), ut(4)

The mtio manual appeared in 4.2BSD.

The status should be returned in a device independent format.

The special file naming should be redone in a more consistent and understandable manner.

BSD 4.2 June 5, 1993 MTIO(4)