On Sat, 1 Feb 1997, Rick Copeland wrote:

> ... (whats that no rewind on close about?) ...

Each tape device in the system has three corresponding files in the /dev
directory.  The first file presents a block interface to the tape
drive.  The other two present a character, or `raw' interface. These two
files, although they refer to the same device, change the behavior of the
drive when the program using it decides to close it.

The block interface is simply the name of the tape device (/dev/st0.)
The raw interfaces are named by the tape device, prefixed with an 'r'.
(/dev/rst0.)  This interface will rewind the tape when closed.   The
non-rewinding raw interface is prefixed with an 'nr'.  Since you indicated
that you are using st0, your non-rewinding interface is /dev/nrst0.

-J