/dev/st0?

Here a ye olde quick and dirty options script/program. Think of it as a
starting point. What st.c really needs is a /proc file to get the options
from (hmmm, I feel a plan comming 8-) ).

The 'C' part:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <error.h>
#include <sys/mtio.h>

int
main (
    int argc,
    char **argv
)
{
    int fd;
    struct mtop mtop;

    if((fd = open(argv[1], O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK)) == -1)
        perror("Can't open tape drive");
    mtop.mt_op = MTSETDRVBUFFER;
    mtop.mt_count = MT_ST_CLEARBOOLEANS | MT_ST_DEBUGGING;
    if(ioctl(fd, MTIOCTOP, &mtop) == -1)
        perror("ioctl failed");
    close(fd);
    exit(0);
}

And the script part:

mtdumpoptions /dev/st0

tail -4 /var/log/messages | cut -f7- -d' '