Is it impossible to check tape status on AIX without disturbing position ??

jblackmore_at_post.com
Date: 10/11/05 

Date: 11 Oct 2005 08:29:49 -0700

We are migrating from a Tru64 to AIX V5.2 platform, and I have a bunch
of small utility scripts which need to move across.

One of which checked the backup tapes were loaded and not write
protected before I go home (system is at another site, and tapes are
changed by the support staff there).

On Tru64 the output from mt status shows media status, so you can tell
if tape is missing (DEV_OFFLINE) or write protected (DEV_WRTLCK).

On AIX mt status just seems to give the device status, so there is no
output difference between tape loaded/unloaded/write protected.

I googled usenet, and found someone suggesting doing a rewind and check
status, but if the tape is in the middle (waiting for an incremental
backup), this is no good - so can anyone suggest a way of checking tape
media status (loaded and not write protected!) without interfering with
the tape position - obviously this won't deliberately run during a
backup or restore, but would be nice to think it wouldn't matter if it
did.

The suggestion from google was to do a rewind and check status as
follows, this would show if tape loaded, but not if its write
protected:

tctl -f /dev/rmtX rewind
echo "Exit code= $?"
0 -> Tape in
2 -> Error

Thanks in advance for any suggestions !

James.

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