tapeinfo - report SCSI tape device info


SYNOPSIS

       tapeinfo -f <scsi-generic-device>


DESCRIPTION

       The  tapeinfo  command reads various information from SCSI
       tape drives that is not generally available via most  ven­
       dors' tape drivers. It issues raw commands directly to the
       tape drive,  using  either  the  operating  system's  SCSI
       generic  device  (  e.g.  /dev/sg0 on Linux, /dev/pass0 on
       FreeBSD) or the 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 has failed. On tape drives that support
       HP's  'tapealert' API, 'tapeinfo' will report a more exact
       description of what went wrong.

       Do be aware that 'tapeinfo' is not a substitute  for  your
       operating system's own 'mt' or similar tape driver control
       program. It is intended to supplement, not  replace,  pro­
       grams  like  'mt' that access your operating system's tape
       driver 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
       (for  example,  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 you have, along with which 'pass' device con­
       trols 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 of tape drives (HP DDS4, Seagate AIT).


AVAILABILITY

       tapeinfo is currently being maintained by Eric  Lee  Green
       <eric@badtux.org>  formerly of Enhanced Software Technolo­
       gies  Inc.  The  'mtx'  home  page  is  http://mtx.source­
       forge.net and the actual code is currently available there
       and via CVS from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mtx/ .


SEE ALSO

       mt(1),mtx(1),scsitape(1)


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