.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $Id: rmt.8.in,v 1.10 2003/03/30 15:40:40 stelian Exp $ .\" .TH RMT 8 "version __VERSION__ of __DATE__" BSD "System management commands" .SH NAME rmt \- remote magtape protocol module .SH SYNOPSIS .B rmt .SH DESCRIPTION .B Rmt is a program used by the remote .BR dump (8), .BR restore (8) or .BR tar (1) programs in manipulating a magnetic tape drive through an interprocess communication connection. .B Rmt is normally started up with an .BR rexec (3) or .BR rcmd (3) call. .PP The .B rmt program accepts requests specific to the manipulation of magnetic tapes, performs the commands, then responds with a status indication. All responses are in .B ASCII and in one of the following two forms. .PP Successful commands have responses of: .RS .B A\fInumber\fR\en .RE .PP where .I number is an .B ASCII representation of a decimal number. .PP Unsuccessful commands are responded to with: .RS .B E\fIerror-number\fR\en\fIerror-message\fR\en .RE .PP where .I error-number is one of the possible error numbers described in .BR intro (2) and .I error-message is the corresponding error string as printed from a call to .BR perror (3). .PP The protocol is comprised of the following commands, which are sent as indicated - no spaces are supplied between the command and its arguments, or between its arguments, and \en indicates that a newline should be supplied: .TP .B O\fIdevice\fR\en\fImode\fR\en Open the specified .I device using the indicated .IR mode . .I Device is a full pathname and .I mode is an .B ASCII representation of a decimal number suitable for passing to .BR open (2). If a device had already been opened, it is closed before a new open is performed. .TP .B C\fIdevice\fR\en Close the currently open device. The .I device specified is ignored. .TP .B L\fIwhence\fR\en\fIoffset\fR\en Perform an .BR lseek (2) operation using the specified parameters. The response value is that returned from the .B lseek call. .TP .B W\fIcount\fR\en Write data onto the open device. .B Rmt reads .I count bytes from the connection, aborting if a premature end-of-file is encountered. The response value is that returned from the .BR write (2) call. .TP .B R\fIcount\fR\en Read .I count bytes of data from the open device. If .I count exceeds the size of the data buffer (10 kilobytes), it is truncated to the data buffer size. .B Rmt then performs the requested .BR read (2) and responds with .B A\fIcount-read\fR\en if the read was successful; otherwise an error in the standard format is returned. If the read was successful, the data read is then sent. .TP .B I\fIoperation\fR\en\fIcount\fR\en Perform a .B MTIOCOP .BR ioctl (2) command using the specified parameters. The parameters are interpreted as the .B ASCII representations of the decimal values to place in the .B mt_op and .B mt_count fields of the structure used in the .B ioctl call. The return value is the .I count parameter when the operation is successful. .IP By issuing the .B I-1\en0\en command, a client will specify that he is using the VERSION 1 protocol. .IP For a VERSION 0 client, the .I operation parameter is the platform .B mt_op value (could be different if the client and the .B rmt server are on two different platforms). For a VERSION 1 client, the .I operation parameter is standardized as below: .RS .TP .B 0 Issue a .B MTWEOF command (write .I count end-of-file records). .TP .B 1 Issue a .B MTFSF command (forward space over .I count file marks). .TP .B 2 Issue a .B MTBSF command (backward space over .I count file marks). .TP .B 3 Issue a .B MTFSR command (forward space .I count inter-record gaps). .TP .B 4 Issue a .B MTBSR command (backward space .I count inter-record gaps). .TP .B 5 Issue a .B MTREW command (rewind). .TP .B 6 Issue a .B MTOFFL command (rewind and put the drive offline). .TP .B 7 Issue a .B MTNOP command (no operation, set status only). .RE .TP .B i\fIoperation\fR\en\fIcount\fR\en Perform an extended .B MTIOCOP .BR ioctl (2) command using the specified parameters. The parameters are interpreted as the .B ASCII representations of the decimal values to place in the .B mt_op and .B mt_count fields of the structure used in the .B ioctl call. The return value is the .I count parameter when the operation is successful. The possible operations are: .RS .TP .B 0 Issue a .B MTCACHE command (switch cache on). .TP .B 1 Issue a .B MTNOCACHE command (switch cache off). .TP .B 2 Issue a .B MTRETEN command (retension the tape). .TP .B 3 Issue a .B MTERASE command (erase the entire tape). .TP .B 4 Issue a .B MTEOM command (position to end of media). .TP .B 5 Issue a .B MTNBSF command (backward space count files to BOF). .RE .TP .B S Return the status of the open device, as obtained with a .B MTIOCGET .B ioctl call. If the operation was successful, an \*(lqack\*(rq is sent with the size of the status buffer, then the status buffer is sent (in binary, which is non-portable between different platforms). .TP .BI s sub-command This is a replacement for the previous .B S command, portable across different platforms. If the open device is a magnetic tape, return members of the magnetic tape status structure, as obtained with a .B MTIOCGET ioctl call. If the open device is not a magnetic tape, an error is returned. If the .B MTIOCGET operation was successful, the numerical value of the structure member is returned in decimal. The following sub commands are supported: .RS .TP .B T return the content of the structure member .B mt_type which contains the type of the magnetic tape device. .TP .B D return the content of the structure member .B mt_dsreg which contains the "drive status register". .TP .B E return the content of the structure member .B mt_erreg which contains the "error register". This structure member must be retrieved first because it is cleared after each .B MTIOCGET ioctl call. .TP .B R return the content of the structure member .B mt_resid which contains the residual count of the last I/O. .TP .B F return the content of the structure member .B mt_fileno which contains the file number of the current tape position. .TP .B B return the content of the structure member .B mt_blkno which contains the block number of the current tape position. .TP .B f return the content of the structure member .B mt_flags which contains MTF_ flags from the driver. .TP .B b return the content of the structure member .B mt_bf which contains the optimum blocking factor. .RE .PP Any other command causes .B rmt to exit. .SH DIAGNOSTICS All responses are of the form described above. .SH SEE ALSO .BR rcmd (3), .BR rexec (3), .I /usr/include/sys/mtio.h, .BR rdump (8), .BR rrestore (8) .SH BUGS People should be discouraged from using this for a remote file access protocol. .SH AUTHOR The .B dump/restore backup suit was ported to Linux's Second Extended File System by Remy Card . He maintained the initial versions of .B dump (up and including 0.4b4, released in january 1997). .PP Starting with 0.4b5, the new maintainer is Stelian Pop . .SH AVAILABILITY The .B dump/restore backup suit is available from .SH HISTORY The .B rmt command appeared in 4.2BSD.