Re: SCSI tape drive and compression

[Philippe Troin <phil@fifi.org>]

Martin Sanborn <marty@delirium.cqe.nwu.edu> writes:

> Under linux, it's obvious I'm not using hardware compression. I'm using the 
> /dev/tapes/tape0/mtn device. There are other devices listed in the same 
> directory (mtan, mtmn, and mtlm) but none exist. The command,
> 
> mt -f /dev/tapes/tape0/mtn datcompression
> 
> gives
> 
> Compression off.
> Compression capable.
> Decompression capable.
> 
> How do I turn on the data compression? The mt man page indicates that
> 
> mt -f /dev/tapes/tape0/mtn datcompression [x]

mt datcompression 1 (default) reports the current state
mt datcompression 0 turns it off
mt datcompression 2 turns it on

You might also want to investigate the mt-st package which should give
you more control on SCSI tape behavior.

Phil.