kaufman@polya.STANFORD.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman) (04/27/88)
I would like to know if there are special archive formats for streaming tapes (e.g. Exabyte), or if 'standard' cpio, tar, etc. is used. Is there a problem retrieving individual files from the middle of the tape? UNIX formats are of most interest, but are there others? (for IBM/PC, MAC) Marc Kaufman (kaufman@polya.stanford.edu)
davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) (04/30/88)
There are standards on HOW to write a tape (QIC-24 and QIC-11, etc)
but you can use whatever you want to generate the data stream. tar and
cpio are popular, with cpio offering some advantages in most
implementations, due to creating directories (a) even if empty and (b)
with correct ownership and data modified. Many versions of tar don't do
this.
Think of the tape as a serial line; you can write any data you wnat on
it. "Bits is bits."
--
bill davidsen (wedu@ge-crd.arpa)
{uunet | philabs | seismo}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -mehenry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (05/04/88)
> ...[cpio does directories right] Many versions of tar don't do this.
To make that statement correct, change "Many" to "Old". Old versions
of cpio also had their problems.
--
NASA is to spaceflight as | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
the Post Office is to mail. | {ihnp4,decvax,uunet!mnetor}!utzoo!henry