[Info-vax] Backup TK50 tapes

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2013-02-25 01:00, ChrisQ wrote:
> On 02/24/13 19:28, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>
>>
>> Unix is just so broken in some ways, it will never be fixed.
>>
>> Johnny
>>
>
> Funny how the rest of the world thinks that unix / linux gets it
> right. Variable size tape blocks, who would have thought of
> such a thing ?. Face it, VMS is now the odd man out now, irrespective
> of how fine a system it is. Connectivity and portability are everything
> these days. The network really is the computer..

Well, the bottom fact is that every tape drive, even today, do variable 
size blocks. It's the hardware. Now, if you have a OS that can't deal 
with the actual hardware, you have a problem. No matter how fancy you 
think you are.

> The original 4.3bsd mag tapes that I copied using Tru64, tk50Z and
> dd were all of different sizes and forget how many times netbsd boot tapes
> have been created for vax using the same drive...

I'm not saying it can't be done. Just that dd is absolutely the wrong 
tool for it. With the limited number of block sizes used by the above 
installation tapes, it is possible to use dd. It is not a fun exercise.

You can write your own program that do it right. I did. It's probably 
less than 100 lines of C in total. It's really not that hard.

Trying to force dd into this role is the proverbial hammer and 
everything looks like a nail syndrome.

And no standard tool in Unix deals with tapes in a good way in general. 
Unix just don't want to acknowledge that in reality not everything fits 
well with the stream of bytes paradigm.

Why not just admit it and move on?

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol