This user's guide documents the characteristics and capabilities of the Tape Management Facility (TMF). It explains the ways in which you can work with TMF and provides many examples of commonly used commands. It provides information on using tape formats, performing basic tape procedures, and writing C tape applications. It includes the following topics:
Software overview and basic terminology
Structure of tape formats
Commands that access tapes by using TMF as well as the tape status and information commands
Use of TMF from C programs
TMF system messages
TMF user man-page list
This guide is one of a set of manuals that describes TMF. The following manuals are also in the set:
TMF Administrator's Guide
TMF Release and Installation Guide
The following publication contains additional information that may be helpful:
Application Programmer's I/O Guide
In addition to printed and online documentation, several online man pages describe aspects of TMF. Each man page includes a general description of one or more commands, system calls, or other topics, and provides usage details (command syntax, parameters, and so on). Man pages exist for the user commands, devices (special files), file formats, miscellaneous topics, and administration commands. Man page section identifiers appear in parentheses after man page names, as follows:
| User commands | (1) | |
| Devices (special files) | (4) | |
| File formats | (5) | |
| Miscellaneous topics | (7) | |
| Administration commands | (8) |
You can access these man pages by using the man(1) command as shown in the following example:
% man tmstat |
You can print copies of online man pages by using the pipe symbol with the man(1), col(1), and lpr(1) commands. In the following example, these commands are used to print a copy of the tmstat(1) man page:
% man tmstat | col -b | lpr |
You can obtain SGI documentation in the following ways:
See the SGI Technical Publications Library at: http://docs.sgi.com. Various formats are available. This library contains the most recent and most comprehensive set of online books, release notes, man pages, and other information.
If it is installed on your SGI system, you can use InfoSearch, an online tool that provides a more limited set of online books, release notes, and man pages. With an IRIX system, select Help from the Toolchest, and then select InfoSearch. Or you can type infosearch on a command line.
You can also view release notes by typing either grelnotes or relnotes on a command line.
You can also view man pages by typing man title on a command line.
The following conventions are used throughout this document:
| Convention | Meaning | |
| command | This fixed-space font denotes literal items such as commands, files, routines, path names, signals, messages, and programming language structures. | |
| variable | Italic typeface denotes variable entries and words or concepts being defined. | |
| user input | This bold, fixed-space font denotes literal items that the user enters in interactive sessions. (Output is shown in nonbold, fixed-space font.) | |
| [ ] | Brackets enclose optional portions of a command or directive line. | |
| ... | Ellipses indicate that a preceding element can be repeated. |
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| Technical Publications |
| SGI |
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