Erasing a Tape

[Michael42]

I used tar, cpio and ufsdump to write to tape. What is the best way to erase a tape used by these?

This is what I am doing now: mt -f /dev/rmt/1 eof

Not sure if it is ideal or has any bad side effects.

Thanks for your advice,
Michael

 

[jamisar]

mt -f /dev/rmt/1 erase.
do you really need this ? ------------ jamisar
Einfachheit ist das Resultat der Reife. (Friedrich Schiller)
Simplicity is the fruit of maturity.

 

[Michael42]

>> do you really need this

To be honest...I do not know.

Does creating a new tar or cpio file on tape automatically erase the tape overwriting the previous contents?

Thanks jamisar
Michael

 

[jamisar]

they not automatically erase the tape, but overwrite the previous contents and set and EOF mark at the end of writted file.

i need 'erase' only for tests!
------------ jamisar
Einfachheit ist das Resultat der Reife. (Friedrich Schiller)
Simplicity is the fruit of maturity.

 

[Michael42]

jamisar,

Thanks very much for confirming this.
Michael