explanation about mt status command

[Ho_5]

Hi everybody,

Can someone explain me the printout of "mt status" command??

eg.
dns2:/#mt status
Drive: HP C1537A
Format: DDS-2 format
Status: [81112400] EOF online compression immediate-report-mode
File: 2
Block: -1
dns2:/#
What do they mean:
-Status: EOF online compression immediate-report-mode and BOT online compression immediate-report-mode
-File: 2
-Block: -1

Thanks in advance.

//john

[John Palmer · Accepted solution]

These are what I think they mean...
BOT - Beginning of tape, tape is rewound.
EOF - End of file, tape is positioned after a tape mark.
online - A tape is loaded.
compression - Hardware compression of data is ON.
immediate-report-mode is a SCSI status.
File: n - tape is positioned to relative file n, in your case the second file on tape.
Block: n - Current block number within the current file.

Your example file 2, block -1 suggests that the tape is positioned to the tape mark before the second file on the tape.

Test it out with mt fsf and bsf to position the tape. To test block positioning, you'll have to use the Berkeley device (/dev/rmt/?mnb) as this doesn't automatically skip to EOF when the file is closed.

Regards,
John