HP Storage Linear Tape File System (LTFS) Linux and Mac User Guide

4 Using HP LTFS
How to use LTFS
NOTE: On Mac OS X, you can execute steps 1–3 and 5 more easily using the HP StoreOpen
Standalone application, installed by default in your Applications folder when HP LTFS is installed.
This graphical user interface (GUI) application will guide you through the steps required to select
a tape drive, load and format a tape cartridge, and then mount the cartridge into the file system.
However command line tools are also installed and, if you prefer, you can use them instead of the
GUI application.
1. Open a terminal window on your system. Ensure that /usr/local/bin/ is in your command
search path. For example:
$ export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin"
2. Load a tape cartridge into the drive, and then format it in LTFS format:
For Linux:
$ mkltfs -d /dev/st0
For Mac OS X:
$ mkltfs -d 0
mkltfs options:
Tape device (required).
For Linux, use the device name, such as /dev/st0.
–d, -–device=<name>
For MacOS X, use the instance number of the tape drive, assigned
sequentially by the system, starting from 0.
Force to format medium-f, --force
Tape serial number (6 alphanumeric ASCII characters)–s, -–tape-serial=<id>
Tape volume name (empty by default)–n, -–volume-name=<name>
Rules for choosing files to write to the index partition. The syntax of
the rules argument is:
• size=1M
–r, -–rules=<rules>
• size=1M/name=pattern
• size=1M/name=pattern1:pattern2:pattern3
A file is written to the index partition if it is no larger than the given
size AND matches at least one of the name patterns (if specified).
The size argument accepts K, M and G suffixes. Name patterns
may contain the special characters ‘?’ (match any single character)
and ‘*’ (match zero or more characters).
Disallow mount-time data placement policy changes.-–no-override
Restore the LTFS medium to an unpartitioned medium (format to a
legacy scratch medium).
–w, -–wipe
Suppress informational messages. (Implies --force).–q, -–quiet
Enable function call tracing (only useful for debugging).–t, -–trace
This help–h, -–help
Full help, including advanced options–p, -–advanced-help
3. Mount the formatted tape cartridge:
$ mkdir /mnt/lto5
10 Using HP LTFS