*BSD News Article 67938


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From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@FreeBSD.org>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Exybytes Tape Drive
Date: Tue, 07 May 1996 16:49:30 -0700
Organization: Walnut Creek CDROM
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <318FE18A.FF6D5DF@FreeBSD.org>
References: <4mjqhg$6et@flood.xnet.com>
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To: vchiu@quake.xnet.com

vchiu@quake.xnet.com wrote:
> 1. How can I make sure the tape drive is working? If any Unix command
> I can issue to check?

mt -f /dev/rst0 status

> 2. I heard the tape must be preformatted before it can be used. If
> this is true how can I format the tape under FreeBSD?

That's totally untrue.  You're thinking of *floppy tapes*.

> 3. Do I need to rewind the tape when I every time "tar" the files to
> backup? Is the command "mt" to serve this?

You do not, if you use the default /dev/rst0 device it will rewind
itself on close.
-- 
- Jordan Hubbard
  President, FreeBSD Project