NAME
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 vendors' 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, programs 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 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 of tape drives (HP DDS4, Seagate AIT).
AVAILABILITY
tapeinfo is currently being maintained
by Eric Lee Green <eric@badtux.org> formerly of
Enhanced Software Technologies Inc. The 'mtx' home page is http://mtx.sourceforge.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)