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#### 5.4.2 Magnetic Tape Control

Backup scripts access tape device using special hook functions. These functions take a single argument — the name of the tape device. Their names are kept in the following variables:

Backup variable: MT_BEGIN

  The name of begin function. This function is called before accessing the drive. By default it retensions the tape:

      MT_BEGIN=mt_begin

      mt_begin() {
          mt -f "$1" retension
      }

Backup variable: MT_REWIND

  The name of rewind function. The default definition is as follows:

      MT_REWIND=mt_rewind

      mt_rewind() {
          mt -f "$1" rewind
      }

Backup variable: MT_OFFLINE

  The name of the function switching the tape off line. By default it is defined as follows:

      MT_OFFLINE=mt_offline

      mt_offline() {
          mt -f "$1" offl
      }

Backup variable: MT_STATUS

  The name of the function used to obtain the status of the archive device, including error count. Default definition:

      MT_STATUS=mt_status

      mt_status() {
          mt -f "$1" status
      }