Subject: Re: ftape format warning!!!

From: "Daniel Lynes" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 96 00:49:33 +0700

On Mon, 19 Aug 96 16:33 EDT, [email-masked]
wrote:

>  tar generates a single Tape ARchive (that's why it is called `tar')
>  and knows nothing about multiple files or positioning of a tape, it
>  just reads or writes from/to a device. mt knows everyting about moving
>  the tape back and forth, but nothing about reading the data off the
>  tape.  As you might have guessed, tar and mt in conjunction, does the

Just one question...

Does taper implicitly call 'mt'?

Thanks in advance.

---

From: "Susan G. Kleinmann" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 1996 18:05:26 -0400

Hi Daniel --

> Does taper implicitly call 'mt'?

Well, no.  In fact, taper does its own ioctl calls, which is why it
is behind the other general-purpose utilities in supporting a broad array
of hardware.  I spent a long time studying both taper and tob, and I'm
strongly convinced that tob is the way to go. It is a shell script which
uses well-tested utilities to do the I/O, it's got a robust archive
system, and excellent (clear) documentation.  Give it a try.

Good luck,
Susan Kleinmann

---

From: Philippe Troin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 1996 16:25:48 -0700

> system, and excellent (clear) documentation.  Give it a try.

BTW, I've experienced complete system lockups when using ftape-2.09 with kernel 1.2.14. This happens whenever reading or writing to the tape.
Trying to use zftape-1.05 gives kernel Ooops.

Anyone have these working ?

Phil.