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How to control a tapestreamer under Linux (DAT/QIC/other)
Problem:
After hooking up a tapestreamer, backing up and restoring files with tar, ftape or dump can be an awkward (if not impossible) process without a certain degree of control over the streamer mechanics.
 
Solution:
Use "mt", a small command-line utility. (mt is an acronym for "magnetic tape". Ofcourse...)

Here are some examples of how to use mt:
1. "mt -t /dev/st0 status" - Report the current tape status
2. "mt -t /dev/st0 rewind" - Rewind the tape (duh)
3. "mt -t /dev/st0 tell" - Report current block number

See "man mt" for more. WARNING: mt can sometimes appear to "hang" if the tapestreamer exhibits weird behaviour. This can almost always be solved with a kill -9 and then unloading/reloading the SCSI board driver. This is one reason why tapestreamers should go on a separate host adapter whenever possible.
 
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