Tape Drive Device Names

On Lobachevskii, use device names /dev/tape for non-auto-rewinding, and /dev/nrtape for SGI's default byte-swapped style. To read and write tapes compatible with everybody else, use the non-byte-swapped devices /dev/tapens and /dev/nrtapens. Lobachevskii's drive can read either 60MB or 150MB tapes, but can only write in the 150MB format.

Klein's Exabyte tape drive is also addressable as /dev/[nr]tapens for its default fixed-block-mode 8500 (5GB) density. It cannot handle compressed-format tapes, like those written by the Exabyte 8505. The SGI-style byte swapped device is probably pointless, so always use the *ns device names. For variable -block mode or to write tapes at other densities, use the full device names: /dev/rmt/tps0d6[nr]ns[v].[8200|8500]. Here v selects variable -block mode (best not to use it unless you already know it's desired), nr selects the non-rewinding tape device (use it only if you're dealing with multi-file tapes), and 8200 or 8500 selects the tape density (when writing new tape; density is determined automatically when reading or appending to a tape). For example, to write a variable -block-mode tape in 2GB (Exabyte model 8200 format), you could use

gnutar cvf /dev/rmt/tps0dnsv.8200 myfiles ...

Klein's DAT drive is /dev/rmt/tps0d7[nr]ns.

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Created: Fri Sep 8 11:39:00 1995 --- Last modified: Jun 18 1996