Linux Pocket Guide

Name

mt [-f device] command — mt-st

Synopsis

/bin stdin stdout - file -- opt --help --version

The mt (magnetic tape) command performs simple operations on a tape drive, such as rewinding, skipping forward and backward, and retensioning. Some common operations are:

status	Show the status of the drive.
rewind	Rewind the tape.
retension	Retension the tape.
erase	Erase the tape.
offline	Take the tape drive offline.
eod	Move forward on the tape to the end of data.

For example:

$ mt -f /dev/tape rewind

You can also move through the tape, file by file or record by record, but often you’ll use a tape reading/writing program for that, such as tar or restore.