ST(4) BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual ST(4)NAMEst — SCSI/ATAPI tape driver
SYNOPSIS
st* at scsibus? target ? lun ?
st1 at scsibus0 target 4 lun 0
st* at atapibus? drive ? flags 0x0000
DESCRIPTION
The st driver provides support for SCSI and Advanced Technology Attach‐
ment Packet Interface (ATAPI) tape drives. It allows a tape drive to be
run in several different modes depending on minor numbers and supports
several different ‘sub-modes’. The device can have both a raw interface
and a block interface; however, only the raw interface is usually used
(or recommended).
SCSI and ATAPI devices have a relatively high level interface and talk to
the system via a SCSI or ATAPI adapter and a SCSI or ATAPI adapter driver
(e.g. ahc(4), pciide(4)). A SCSI or ATAPI adapter must also be sepa‐
rately configured into the system before a SCSI or ATAPI tape can be con‐
figured.
As the SCSI or ATAPI adapter is probed during boot, the SCSI or ATAPI bus
is scanned for devices. Any devices found which answer as ‘Sequential’
type devices will be attached to the st driver.
MOUNT SESSIONS
The st driver is based around the concept of a “mount session”, which is
defined as the period between the time that a tape is mounted, and the
time when it is unmounted. Any parameters set during a mount session
remain in effect for the remainder of the session or until replaced. The
tape can be unmounted, bringing the session to a close in several ways.
These include:
1. Closing an ‘unmount device’, referred to as sub-mode 00 below. An
example is /dev/rst0.
2. Using the MTOFFL ioctl(2) command, reachable through the ‘offline’
command of mt(1).
3. Opening a different mode will implicitly unmount the tape, thereby
closing off the mode that was previously mounted. All parameters
will be loaded freshly from the new mode (See below for more on
modes).
MODES AND SUB-MODES
There are several different ‘operation’ modes. These are controlled by
bits 2 and 3 of the minor number and are designed to allow users to eas‐
ily read and write different formats of tape on devices that allow multi‐
ple formats. The parameters for each mode can be set individually by
hand with the mt(1) command. When a device corresponding to a particular
mode is first mounted, The operating parameters for that mount session
are copied from that mode. Further changes to the parameters during the
session will change those in effect for the session but not those set in
the operation mode. To change the parameters for an operation mode, one
must compile them into the “quirk” table in the driver's source code.
In addition to the operating modes mentioned above, bits 0 and 1 of the
minor number are interpreted as ‘sub-modes’. The sub-modes differ in the
action taken when the device is closed:
00 A close will rewind the device; if the tape has been written, then
a file mark will be written before the rewind is requested. The
device is unmounted.
01 A close will leave the tape mounted. If the tape was written to, a
file mark will be written. No other head positioning takes place.
Any further reads or writes will occur directly after the last
read, or the written file mark.
10 A close will rewind the device. If the tape has been written, then
a file mark will be written before the rewind is requested. On
completion of the rewind an unload command will be issued. The
device is unmounted.
11 This is Control mode, which allows the tape driver to be opened
without a tape inserted to allow various ioctls (e.g. MTIOCGET or
MTIOCTOP to set density or blocksize) and raw SCSI command on
through. I/O can be done in this mode, if desired, with the same
rewind/eject behaviour as mode 01. This isn't really an 'action
taken on close' type of distinction, but this seems to be the place
to put this mode.
BLOCKING MODES
SCSI tapes may run in either ‘variable’ or ‘fixed’ block-size modes.
Most QIC-type devices run in fixed block-size mode, where most nine-track
tapes and many new cartridge formats allow variable block-size. The dif‐
ference between the two is as follows:
Variable block-size Each write made to the device results in a single
logical record written to the tape. One can never read or write part of
a record from tape (though you may request a larger block and read a
smaller record); nor can one read multiple blocks. Data from a single
write is therefore read by a single read. The block size used may be any
value supported by the device, the SCSI adapter and the system (usually
between 1 byte and 64 Kbytes, sometimes more).
When reading a variable record/block from the tape, the head is logically
considered to be immediately after the last item read, and before the
next item after that. If the next item is a file mark, but it was never
read, then the next process to read will immediately hit the file mark
and receive an end-of-file notification.
Fixed block-size Data written by the user is passed to the tape as a suc‐
cession of fixed size blocks. It may be contiguous in memory, but it is
considered to be a series of independent blocks. One may never write an
amount of data that is not an exact multiple of the blocksize. One may
read and write the same data as a different set of records, In other
words, blocks that were written together may be read separately, and
vice-versa.
If one requests more blocks than remain in the file, the drive will
encounter the file mark. Because there is some data to return (unless
there were no records before the file mark), the read will succeed,
returning that data. The next read will return immediately with an EOF
(as above, if the file mark is never read, it remains for the next
process to read if in no-rewind mode).
FILE MARK HANDLING
The handling of file marks on write is automatic. If the user has writ‐
ten to the tape, and has not done a read since the last write, then a
file mark will be written to the tape when the device is closed. If a
rewind is requested after a write, then the driver assumes that the last
file on the tape has been written, and ensures that there are two file
marks written to the tape. The exception to this is that there seems to
be a standard (which we follow, but don't understand why) that certain
types of tape do not actually write two file marks to tape, but when
read, report a ‘phantom’ file mark when the last file is read. These
devices include the QIC family of devices (it might be that this set of
devices is the same set as that of fixed block devices. This has not
been determined yet, and they are treated as separate behaviors by the
driver at this time).
EOM HANDLING
Attempts to write past EOM and how EOM is reported are handled slightly
differently based upon whether EARLY WARNING recognition is enabled in
the driver.
If EARLY WARNING recognitions is not enabled, then detection of EOM (as
reported in SCSI Sense Data with an EOM indicator) causes the write oper‐
ation to be flagged with I/O error (EIO). This has the effect for the
user application of not knowing actually how many bytes were read (since
the return of the read(2) system call is set to −1).
If EARLY WARNING recognition is enabled, then detection of EOM (as
reported in SCSI Sense Data with an EOM indicator) has no immediate
effect except that the driver notes that EOM has been detected. If the
write completing didn't transfer all data that was requested, then the
residual count (counting bytes not written) is returned to the user
application. In any event, the next attempt to write (if that is the next
action the user application takes) is immediately completed with no data
transferred, and a residual returned to the user application indicating
that no data was transferred. This is the traditional UNIX EOF indica‐
tion. The state that EOM had been seen is then cleared.
In either mode of operation, the driver does not prohibit the user appli‐
cation from writing more data, if it chooses to do so. This will continue
up until the physical end of media, which is usually signalled internally
to the driver as a CHECK CONDITION with the Sense Key set to VOLUME OVER‐
FLOW. When this or any otherwise unhandled error occurs, an error return
of EIO will be transmitted to the user application. This does indeed
mean that if EARLY WARNING is enables and the device continues to set EOM
indicators prior to hitting physical end of media, that an indeterminate
number of 'short write returns' as described in the previous paragraph
will occur. However, the expected user application behaviour (in common
with other systems) is to close the tape and rewind and request another
tape upon the receipt of the first EOM indicator, possibly after writing
one trailer record.
KERNEL CONFIGURATION
Because different tape drives behave differently, there is a mechanism
within the source to st to quickly and conveniently recognize and deal
with brands and models of drive that have special requirements.
There is a table (called the “quirk table”) in which the identification
strings of known errant drives can be stored. Alongside each is a set of
flags that allows the setting of densities and blocksizes for each of the
modes, along with a set of `QUIRK' flags that can be used to enable or
disable sections of code within the driver if a particular drive is rec‐
ognized.
IOCTLS
The following ioctl(2) calls apply to SCSI tapes. Some also apply to
other tapes. They are defined in the header file <sys/mtio.h>.
MTIOCGET (struct mtget) Retrieve the status and parameters of the tape.
Error status and residual is unlatched and cleared by the
driver when it receives this ioctl.
MTIOCTOP (struct mtop) Perform a multiplexed operation. The argument
structure is as follows:
struct mtop {
short mt_op;
daddr_t mt_count;
};
The following operation values are defined for mt_op:
MTWEOF Write mt_count end of file marks at the present
head position.
MTFSF Skip over mt_count file marks. Leave the head on
the EOM side of the last skipped file mark.
MTBSF Skip backwards over mt_count file marks. Leave
the head on the BOM (beginning of media) side of
the last skipped file mark.
MTFSR Skip forwards over mt_count records.
MTBSR Skip backwards over mt_count records.
MTREW Rewind the device to the beginning of the media.
MTOFFL Rewind the media (and, if possible, eject). Even
if the device cannot eject the media it will often
no longer respond to normal requests.
MTNOP No-op; set status only.
MTERASE Erase the media from current position. If the
field mt_count is nonzero, a full erase is done
(from current position to end of media). If
mt_count is zero, only an erase gap is written. It
is hard to say which drives support only one but
not the other option
MTCACHE Enable controller buffering.
MTNOCACHE Disable controller buffering.
MTSETBSIZ Set the blocksize to use for the device/mode. If
the device is capable of variable blocksize opera‐
tion, and the blocksize is set to 0, then the
drive will be driven in variable mode. This
parameter is in effect for the present mount ses‐
sion only, unless the device was opened in Control
Mode (in which case this set value persists until
a reboot).
MTSETDNSTY Set the density value (see mt(1)) to use when run‐
ning in the mode opened (minor bits 2 and 3).
This parameter is in effect for the present mount
session only, unless the device was opened in Con‐
trol Mode (in which case this set value persists
until a reboot). Any byte sized value may be
specified. Note that only a very small number of
them will actually usefully work. The rest will
cause the tape drive to spit up.
MTCMPRESS Enable or disable tape drive data compression.
Typically tape drives will quite contentedly
ignore settings on reads, and will probably keep
you from changing density for writing anywhere but
BOT.
MTEWARN Enable or disable EARLY WARNING at EOM behaviour
(using the count as a boolean value).
MTIOCRDSPOS
(uint32_t) Read device logical block position. Not all drives
support this option.
MTIOCRDHPOS
(uint32_t) Read device hardware block position. Not all
drives support this option.
MTIOCSLOCATE
(uint32_t) Position the tape to the specified device logical
block position.
MTIOCHLOCATE
(uint32_t) Position the tape to the specified hardware block
position. Not all drives support this option.
FILES
/dev/[n][e]rst[0-9] general form:
/dev/rst0 Mode 0, Rewind on close
/dev/nrst0 Mode 1, No rewind on close
/dev/erst0 Mode 2, Eject on close (if capable)
/dev/enrst0 Mode 3, Control Mode (elsewise like mode 0)
SEE ALSOmt(1), intro(4), mtio(4), scsi(4)HISTORY
This st driver was originally written for Mach 2.5 by Julian Elischer,
and was ported to NetBSD by Charles Hannum. This man page was edited for
NetBSD by Jon Buller.
BUGS
The selection of compression could possibly also be usefully done as with
a minor device bit.
BSD August 23, 1996 BSD
