[comp.unix.questions] reading in ascii files on a tape using tar?

fuentes@romulus.rutgers.edu (Carlos 666 Trott) (01/19/91)

I just got my own unix boxes and am  new to the unix world...so 
forgive the stupid question...

I will be getting several dozen labelled and unlabelled ascii
tapes (some created on vaxen, others on big blue).  What command
whould I use to copy these files from tape to disk.


-Carlos
Citicorp*Lynch, Jones & Ryan

mike (Michael Stefanik) (01/20/91)

In article <Jan.18.12.09.28.1991.8794@romulus.rutgers.edu> romulus.rutgers.edu!fuentes (Carlos 666 Trott) writes:
>I will be getting several dozen labelled and unlabelled ascii
>tapes (some created on vaxen, others on big blue).  What command
>whould I use to copy these files from tape to disk.

Assuming that you know what the device name is for your tape (let's use
/dev/rmt0 in this example), your best bet is 'dd'; such as:

	dd if=/dev/rmt0 of=/tmp/diskfile

The 'dd' tool assumes nothing about the way that the tapes were created, etc.
It will just dump from the tape to a file; if the architecture that you're
read from is "backwards" (bytes are swapped), then add "conv=swab" to
the above line (ie: dd if=/dev/rmt0 of=/tmp/diskfile conv=swab).  This should
do it ... those files will be in one large file which you will have to
split up (by hand, or by writing a program to do it).

Good luck!
-- 
Michael Stefanik, Systems Engineer (JOAT), Briareus Corporation
UUCP: ...!uunet!bria!mike
--
technoignorami (tek'no-ig'no-ram`i) a group of individuals that are constantly
found to be saying things like "Well, it works on my DOS machine ..."

ewoods@hemel.bull.co.uk (Eoin Woods) (01/25/91)

lgdelta!email!tachost!BRL.MIL!Info-Unix-Request@tachost.af.mil (The Moderator) writes:

>I will be getting several dozen labelled and unlabelled ascii
>tapes (some created on vaxen, others on big blue).  What command
>whould I use to copy these files from tape to disk.

Take a look at the dd(1) command, a command like :

   $dd if=/dev/tape of=/users/fred/ibmfile conv=ibm

would read an IBM tape, converting the IBM EBCDIC to ASCII.
To swap byte ordering use the conv=swab option.

(The list of perms and combs for this command is huge!)

Eoin.
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