banddriftsbibliotek

Banddriftsbibliotek is a software library that provides an abstraction layer for controlling magnetic tape banddrives and managing data transfer in archival and data-storage environments. The library is designed to support legacy tape hardware as well as contemporary drive controllers, enabling automation and integration within larger storage systems.

Its API exposes common drive operations such as initialize, load and unload, reposition, read and write, and tape formatting. It includes features for error detection, retries, and media inventory management, along with streaming capabilities that support backpressure, buffering, and position tracking. A pluggable driver system allows the library to support different hardware interfaces without changing application code, while a comprehensive logging and diagnostics subsystem assists monitoring and debugging.

Its architecture is modular, with layers for a low-level driver interface, a transport layer for streaming, a scripting/API surface, and a persistence layer for inventory data. Cross-language bindings for C, C++, and Python enable embedding in various software stacks. The design emphasizes thread-safety and predictable latency, making it suitable for batch jobs, scheduled migrations, and ongoing archival operations.

Typical use cases include automated archival backups, data migrations between generations of tape libraries, and long-term preservation workflows in research and cultural heritage institutions.

Banddriftsbibliotek is described as an open-source project developed by contributors in the archival technology community and released under an open-source license.