unix 'mtio' mag tape interface?

[George Young]

[python 2.1]
Has anyone taken a crack at a unix/linux (scsi) magnetic tape
control/status interface
for python?  I'm specifically interested in Solaris 7 and Linux 2.2.18
but any
*nix would be a starting point.  I'm putting together a dump system in
python, and
I'm getting very weary of parsing the output of popen('mt -f
/dev/nst0'), the format
of which varies a lot between systems.  

Failing anything code to steal, what's the cleanest way to take a C
header file
for the mtio ioctl's and produce a neat python interface?  Performance
is completely
irrelevant, just ease of development, and clarity and portability of the
result.

Thanks,
	George
-- 
 I cannot think why the whole bed of the ocean is
 not one solid mass of oysters, so prolific they seem. Ah,
 I am wandering! Strange how the brain controls the brain!
	-- Sherlock Holmes in "The Dying Detective"