You can use the mtlib command to query individual tape volumes, there is a
field called volume type which will tell you the tape format.

mtlib -l/dev/lmcp0 -qV -V#####

Replace ##### with your tape number.

This is really only good for checking one or two tapes, but you could
write a script to do this for many different tapes,

John Monahan
Senior Consultant Enterprise Solutions
Computech Resources, Inc.
Office: 952-833-0930 ext 109
Cell: 952-484-5435
http://www.compures.com





"Blair, Georgia" <georgia.blair AT USAA DOT COM>
Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
02/14/2002 11:45 AM
Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager"


        To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
        cc:
        Subject:        tape volume format


Is there a command to use that displays the format of  a tape volume?

We did an upgrade of our tapedrives from b1a to e1a. Tapes were marked
read-only and data was moved off. If some of the tape volumes were not
marked read-only or put in read/write erroneously how can you detect which
they are?



Thanks
georgia.blair AT usaa DOT com