steven@lakesys.UUCP (Steven Goodman) (08/25/88)
I am running an AT&T 3B15 w/UNIX 2.1.2, recently been having some problems with "tar" and would apreciate if someone could forward me to a utility that might solve a problem. We sometimes receive source tapes written in this format on BSD 4.3 machines, "tar" like to return the error "directory checksum error" at this point tar bombs out. Is there a utility available which would allow me to read such tapes? I was able to extract some data from this tape (4 Meg from 15 Meg). If so please direct me to such source - any mail should be forwarded to: manager@marque -- Steven M. Goodman Lake Systems - Milwaukee, Wisconsin uwvax!uwmcsd1!lakesys!steven uunet!marque!lakesys!steven
pss@unh.UUCP (Paul S. Sawyer) (09/13/88)
In article <985@lakesys.UUCP>, steven@lakesys.UUCP (Steven Goodman) writes: > > I am running an AT&T 3B15 w/UNIX 2.1.2, recently been having some > problems with "tar" and would apreciate if someone could forward > me to a utility that might solve a problem. We sometimes > receive source tapes written in this format on BSD 4.3 machines, > "tar" like to return the error "directory checksum error" at this > point tar bombs out. > The block limit on my 3B5 tape drive is 8192 bytes. The BSD tape was probably written with a larger block size. This has happened to me. > Is there a utility available which would allow me to read such tapes? > I was able to extract some data from this tape (4 Meg from 15 Meg). > If so please direct me to such source - any mail should be forwarded > to: manager@marque The only thing I could come up with at the time was to ask someone with a tape drive without such limits to rewrite the tape for me! Hope you have a way to do this. If ATT is listening, or CDC, who make the drives, where is the limitation, and ARE there any workarounds? These drives also do not seem to be able to be unloaded by software, so semi-automatic backups leave the tapes loaded and writable... > -- > Steven M. Goodman > Lake Systems - Milwaukee, Wisconsin > uwvax!uwmcsd1!lakesys!steven > uunet!marque!lakesys!steven -- = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Paul S. Sawyer uunet!unh!unhtel!paul paul@unhtel.UUCP UNH Telecommunications Durham, NH 03824-3523 VOX: 603-862-3262 FAX: 603-862-2030
res@ihlpb.ATT.COM (Rich Strebendt) (09/15/88)
In article <650@unh.UUCP>, pss@unh.UUCP (Paul S. Sawyer) writes: > In article <985@lakesys.UUCP>, steven@lakesys.UUCP (Steven Goodman) writes: > > > > I am running an AT&T 3B15 w/UNIX 2.1.2, recently been having some > > problems with "tar" and would apreciate if someone could forward > > me to a utility that might solve a problem. We sometimes > > receive source tapes written in this format on BSD 4.3 machines, > > "tar" like to return the error "directory checksum error" at this > > point tar bombs out. > > > The block limit on my 3B5 tape drive is 8192 bytes. The BSD tape was > probably written with a larger block size. This has happened to me. > If ATT is listening, or CDC, who make the drives, where is the limitation, and > ARE there any workarounds? There are several tape controllers available for the 3B15. The older one, called the Intelligent Tape Controller (ITC) has a microprocessor and a buffer memory on it that allow it to do the job of transferring data from memory to tape with a minimum of involvement on the part of the CC. The buffer is 8K bytes in size -- hence the 8K limit. A newer controller with a faster microprocessor and a larger buffer is available (called the Accelerated Tape Controller (ATC)). The buffer on the ATC is 32K bytes in size and has that as its block size limit. There is also a SCSI controller that works with tape units. I am not famililar with that controller or its limits, though. Since the limits are in the hardware rather than software, I do not know of any way around the problem. Rich Strebendt ...!att!ihlpb!res