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8.1.2.1: Updating of header segments

Not only that the non-rewinding devices do not rewind the tape when the driver is closed, they also cache a lot of data which belongs to the header segments or the volume table segment. This is done because synchronising all that data with the data on the tape cartridge would mean to rewind the tape to BOT and then write and verify three floppy tape segments which would take some minutes.

However, this caching practice is dangerous as floppy tape drives provide no measure to prevent cartridges from being removed from the tape drive (there is no door that could be locked)(1). Therefore one has to be careful with the ftape driver in the sense that one must not forget to rewind a cartridge before removing it from the tape drive. Use

mt -f /dev/qft0 rew

before removing the cartridge; possibly replacing `/dev/qft0' by the device node you have used when writing to the cartridge used.


(1) No rule without exception: the Iomega Ditto Max drives indeed have load and unload commands as well as door locking facilities. ftape uses them if it detects such a tape drive.


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