man page: explain what erase exactly means

iustin / mt-st

Magnetic tape control tools for Linux SCSI tapes

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man page: explain what erase exactly means #16

Open jonasstein opened 4 years ago

jonasstein commented 4 years ago

The man page writes

erase Erase the tape. Note that this is a long erase, which on modern (high-capacity) tapes can take many hours, and which usually can't be aborted.

I suggest to write more about the erase command. As far I know there are different erase commands for tapes. Such as

erase the data by overwriting with 0x00
erase the magnetic servo tracks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_Tape-Open#Erasing

exuvo commented 2 years ago

As far as i know a LTO drive does not expose commands for erasing the servo tracks so that is never a valid consideration.

AGSPhoenix commented 2 weeks ago

I also think erase could use more documentation. With the sparse info on it, I assumed it would completely wipe the tape, but this answer on the Unix SE states that it actually erases from the current head position to the end of the partition. I'm fortunate enough to not be storing sensitive data and selling off old wiped tapes, but others in that position might find this to be a nasty surprise.