davecb@nexus.yorku.ca (David Collier-Brown) (06/07/89)
Yesterday, one of my colleagues discovered an interesting interaction
between tar and nrst8 tapes under SunOS 4.0:
If one says "tar tvf /dev/nrst8; tar tvf /dev/nrst8" one gets the contents
of the first tar file displayed twice. If one says, instead, "tar tvf
/dev/nrst8; mt -f /dev/nrst8 fsf 1; tar tvf /dev/nrst8" one gets the
contents of the first **two** tar files on the tape.
On first glance, it looked like the "n" in nrst8 was not being honored.
On second glance, it looked like it wasn't being honored by tar. In fact,
the tape drive was backspacing successfully to the beginning of the tar
file it just read... as confirmed by watching and listening to the tape.
This is reproducible on at least a 3/160 running StunOS 4.0.0 export. We
do not know if it is true of 4.0.n domestic...
dave (:-}) c-b
David Collier-Brown, | davecb@yunexus, ...!yunexus!davecb or
72 Abitibi Ave., | {toronto area...}lethe!dave
Willowdale, Ontario, | Joyce C-B:
CANADA. 223-8968 | He's so smart he's dumb.