The mt command is very useful for performing tape functions such as rewinding tapes, showing the status, and retension a tape:
1) Rewinding a tape
# mt –f /dev/rmt/0 rewind
2) Display the status of a tape drive
# mt –f /dev/rmt/0 status
It displays information as tape is loaded, offline, total files, blocks etc.
3) Retensioning a tape
# mt –f /dev/rmt/0 retension
