Backups (mt command)
 

Hello,

I have a lto-4 tape drive that works but I have some questions on the MT command.

I can write to it - tar -czf /dev/st0 /blah

So once that is done, is there something to mark that spot on the tape? Can I write something else or do you have to use one command to write everything? Is there a way to see how much space you have left?

Thanks,
A

If you write to st0 then the tape will rewind once the tar finishes. You can use nst0 which will stop the tape rewinding. As regarding finding remaining space etc. might be worth looking at backup software instead.

My preference is to tar with a full list of folders that I want on the tape rather than doing appends etc.