diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'share/man/man4/sa.4')
-rw-r--r-- | share/man/man4/sa.4 | 24 |
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/share/man/man4/sa.4 b/share/man/man4/sa.4 index 1d0a013..46b987e 100644 --- a/share/man/man4/sa.4 +++ b/share/man/man4/sa.4 @@ -60,12 +60,14 @@ driver is based around the concept of a 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 +until replaced. +The tape can be unmounted, bringing the session to a close in several ways. These include: .Bl -enum .It Closing a `rewind device', -referred to as sub-mode 00 below. An example is +referred to as sub-mode 00 below. +An example is .Pa /dev/rsa0 . .It Using the MTOFFL @@ -77,7 +79,8 @@ command of .El .Pp It should be noted that tape devices are exclusive open devices, except in -the case where a control mode device is opened. In the latter case, exclusive +the case where a control mode device is opened. +In the latter case, exclusive access is only sought when needed (e.g., to set parameters). .Sh SUB-MODES Bits 0 and 1 of the minor number are interpreted as @@ -95,7 +98,8 @@ No other head positioning takes place. Any further reads or writes will occur directly after the last read, or the written file mark. .It 10 -A close will rewind the device. If the tape has been +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. @@ -117,7 +121,8 @@ written to the tape. One can never read or write .Em 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 +single write is therefore read by a single read. +The block size used may be any value supported by the device, the .Tn SCSI adapter and the system (usually between 1 byte and 64 Kbytes, @@ -125,13 +130,15 @@ sometimes more). .Pp 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, +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. .It Fixed block-size: Data written by the user is passed to the tape as a succession 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 +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, @@ -145,7 +152,8 @@ of 0. (As above, if the file mark is never read, it remains for the next process to read if in no-rewind mode.) .El .Sh FILE MARK HANDLING -The handling of file marks on write is automatic. If the user has +The handling of file marks on write is automatic. +If the user has written 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 |