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SMT(1)			    Schily's USER COMMANDS			SMT(1)

NAME
       smt - magnetic tape control

SYNOPSIS
       smt [ -f	tapename ] command [ count ]

DESCRIPTION
       The  smt	 program  sends	 commands to a local or	a remote magnetic tape
       drive.

       The count operand specifies the number of times the  requested  command
       is to be	performed. If count is omitted,	the value of count defaults to
       one.

OPTIONS
       -help  Prints a summary of the options for smt(1) and exits.

       -version
	      Prints the smt version number string and exists.

       -debug print additional debug messages.

       -f tapename

       -t tapename
	      Set the raw tape device to use, otherwise	smt uses a system spe-
	      cific  default  for  the rtape device.  If smt is	installed suid
	      root or if it has	been called by root, tapename may be in	remote
	      syntax: user@host:filename as in rcp(1) even if invoked  by  non
	      root users.  See SUID NOTES for more information.

	      To make a	file local although it includes	a colon	(:), the file-
	      name must	start with: '/', './' or '../'

	      Note  that  if  smt  talks to an old rmt remote tape server that
	      does not support symbolic	open modes, it does not	open a	remote
	      tape  with the O_CREAT open flag because this would be extremely
	      dangerous.  If the rmt server on	the  other  side  is  the  rmt
	      server  that  comes with star or the GNU rmt server, smt may use
	      the symbolic mode	for the	open flags.  Only  the	symbolic  open
	      modes allow sending all possible open modes in a portable	way to
	      remote tape servers.

	      It  is  recommended  to use the rmt server that comes with star.
	      It is the	only rmt server	that gives platform  independent  com-
	      patibility with BSD, Sun and GNU rmt clients and it includes se-
	      curity features that may be set up in /etc/default/rmt.

	      See  ENVIRONMENT section for information on how to use ssh(1) to
	      create a remote tape server connection.

       -wready
	      Wait for the tape	drive to become	 ready	before	executing  the
	      command.

COMMANDS
       The following commands are supported:

       eof

       weof	   Write count EOF (FILE) marks	at the current position	on the
		   tape.

		   This	command	may be run remotely with any BSD compliant old
		   rmt server.

       fsf	   Forward skip	over count FILE	marks.	The tape is positioned
		   on the first	block of the file.

		   This	command	may be run remotely with any BSD compliant old
		   rmt server.

       bsf	   Backward  skip count	FILE marks.  The tape is positioned on
		   side	of the FILE mark that is closer	to  the	 beginning  of
		   the tape.

		   This	command	may be run remotely with any BSD compliant old
		   rmt server.

       asf	   Absolute  FILE mark positioning to file number count.  This
		   is equivalent to a rewind followed by a fsf count.

		   A RMT version 1 server is needed to run this	command	 on  a
		   remote tape drive.

       fsr	   Forward skip	count tape records.

		   This	command	may be run remotely with any BSD compliant old
		   rmt server.

       bsr	   Backward skip count tape records.

		   This	command	may be run remotely with any BSD compliant old
		   rmt server.

       rewind	   Rewind the tape.

		   This	command	may be run remotely with any BSD compliant old
		   rmt server.

       offline

       rewoffl	   Rewind the tape.  If	the specified tape drive allows	one to
		   take	 the  drive off-line or	to unload the tape, a off-line
		   or unload operation is performed in addition.

		   This	command	may be run remotely with any BSD compliant old
		   rmt server.

       status	   Retrieve and	print status information for the tape drive.

		   A RMT version 1 server is needed to get correct status  in-
		   formation on	a remote tape drive.

       nop	   No  operation.  If you only like to wait for	the tape drive
		   to become ready, call smt -wready nop.

		   This	command	may be run remotely with any BSD compliant old
		   rmt server.

       retension   Retension the tape. This only makes	sense  with  cartridge
		   tape	drives.

		   A  RMT  version 1 server is needed to run this command on a
		   remote tape drive.

       erase	   Erase the entire tape. This may take	a  long	 time  (up  to
		   several hours) depending on the tape	drive and the medium.

		   A  RMT  version 1 server is needed to run this command on a
		   remote tape drive.

       eom	   Position the	tape to	the end	of the recorded	 media.	  This
		   allows one to append	data to	previously written tapes.

		   A  RMT  version 1 server is needed to run this command on a
		   remote tape drive.

       nbsf	   Backward skip count FILE marks.  The	tape is	positioned  on
		   side	 of  the  FILE	mark  that is closer to	the end	of the
		   tape. This is before	the first block	of the file.  The nbsf
		   command is equivalent to count+1 bsf's followed by one fsf.

		   A RMT version 1 server is needed to run this	command	 on  a
		   remote tape drive.

       load	   If  the  specified  tape drive allows one to	take the drive
		   on-line or to load the tape,	a on-line or load operation is
		   performed.  in addition.  For remote	tape drives, this com-
		   mand	only works if the remote tape server supports symbolic
		   open	modes as the command needs the O_NDELAY	flag  to  suc-
		   ceed.

		   A  RMT  version 1 server is needed to run this command on a
		   remote tape drive.

ENVIRONMENT
       RSH    If the RSH environment is	present, the  remote  connection  will
	      not be created via rcmd(3) but by	calling	the program pointed to
	      by  RSH.	 Use  e.g.   RSH=/usr/bin/ssh to create	a secure shell
	      connection.

	      Note that	this forces smt	to create a pipe to the	rsh(1) program
	      and disallows smt	to directly access the network socket  to  the
	      remote  server.	This makes it impossible to set	up performance
	      parameters and slows down	the connection compared	to a root ini-
	      tiated rcmd(3) connection.

       RMT    If the RMT environment is	present, the remote tape  server  will
	      not  be  the program /etc/rmt but	the program pointed to by RMT.
	      Note that	the remote tape	server program name will be ignored if
	      you log in using an account that has been	created	with a	remote
	      tape server program as login shell.

       TAPE   In  case	no -f option pas been specified, the default tape name
	      is taken from the	TAPE environment.

SEE ALSO
       spax(1),	suntar(1), scpio(1), tar(1), cpio(1), pax(1),  rcp(1),	mt(1),
       rmt(1),	match(1),  dd(1),  sdd(1), rsh(1), ssh(1), star(1), star(4/5),
       rcmd(3),

NOTES
       If the remote tape server is running Linux and the remote  tape	server
       on  such	 a  system is not the rmt server that comes with star(1), then
       completely unexpected results (including	unexpectedly erased tapes) may
       occur. This is because Linux ignores the	numbering values for the  mag-
       netic  tape op codes and	only the rmt server from star(1) maps to stan-
       dard values.  The standard rmt server on	Linux for this reason may  not
       be called BSD compliant.

BUGS
       None currently known.

       Mail  bugs and suggestions to schilytools@mlists.in-berlin.de or	open a
       ticket at https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/issues.

       The mailing list	archive	may be found at:

       https://mlists.in-berlin.de/mailman/listinfo/schilytools-mlists.in-berlin.de.

AUTHOR
       Joerg Schilling and the schilytools project authors.

SOURCE DOWNLOAD
       The source code for smt is included in the schilytools project and  may
       be retrieved from the schilytools project at Codeberg at

       https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools.

       The download directory is

       https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/releases.

Joerg Schilling			  2022/09/09				SMT(1)

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