[Info-vax] BACKUP to the null device

[AEF]

On Feb 10, 8:21 pm, moro... at world.std.spaamtrap.com (Michael Moroney)
wrote:
> AEF <spamsink2... at yahoo.com> writes:
> >On Feb 9, 1:08 pm, koeh... at eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob
> >Koehler) wrote:
> >> In article <60590914-65b1-4990-a57c-fb8143f8a... at g11g2000vbq.googlegroups.com>, AEF <spamsink2... at yahoo.com> writes:
>
> >> > But what fails with BACKUP works fine with COPY:
>
> >>    BACKUP is not COPY.
> >That was exactly my point.
> >Michael (whom I responded to) said null doesn't make sense for copying
> >to since you cannot make directories on it. But you "can" with COPY,
> >as my demo which you snipped off demonstrates. IOW, his reasoning
> >about why it doesn't work with BACKUP doesn't apply to COPY. So there
> >must be another reason it doesn't work with BACKUP.
>
> What I really meant is more on the lines that BACKUP was intended for
> backing up files.  Its output, if not a saveset, is a set of files that
> are a backup of the input files.  Doesn't make sense on a mailbox.
> (I just played around, the NL: behavior is the same as to an ordinary
> mailbox, BACKUP won't do it unless you add a /SAVESET [and then the
> mailbox must accepr records large enough])
>
> Copy is for copying things, it figures out that directories don't
> make sense on a mailbox (null or not) but figures you want to copy
> the data.  (Again, I think all this behavior is on the RMS level,
> but BACKUP doesn't use RMS except for savesets, sometimes)

I don't see why "figures you want to copy the data" applies to COPY
but not BACKUP. In BACKUP, such an operation is called a "copy
operation".

>
> It seems BACKUP has specific behaviors for different device types.

So does COPY, but they're not the same as those you get using BACKUP.

> Tapes are treated specially (as savesets without /SAVE, but handled
> differently), mailbox-types I just mentioned, and for giggles I
> tried backing up to terminal TTA0:.  It refuses, with or without /SAVE
> (hey, what if I have some weird saveset-writer thingy on the end of an
> RS232 link?).

AEF