Writing Device Drivers

Tape Drivers

Tape drivers should be tested by performing several archive and restore operations. The cpio(1) and tar(1) commands can be used for this purpose. The dd(1M) command can be used to write an entire disk partition to tape, which can then be read back and written to another partition of the same size, and the two copies compared. The mt(1) command will exercise most of the I/O controls that are specific to tape drivers (see mtio(7I)); all the options should be attempted. The error handling of tape drivers can be tested by attempting various operations with the tape removed, attempting writes with the write protect on, and removing power during operations. Tape drivers typically implement exclusive-access open(9E) calls, which should be tested by having a second process try to open the device while a first process already has it open.