[Info-vax] The (now lost) future of Alpha.

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2018-08-07 01:05, Chris wrote:
> On 08/06/18 19:23, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> 
>>
>> The C library is good when you want to do basic, simple things. Tapes
>> are not among the basic, simple things under Unix.
>>
>> Johnny
>>
> 
> Most unices have the mt command, which you can use to navigate around
> tapes prior to reading from or writing to them. dd is also useful for
> recovering or writing new data and there are loads of options. Have
> always found tapes to be pretty well covered, both reel to reel and
> various cartridge drives...

dd is totally useless here. As soon as you have tape records of 
different lengths (quite common with tapes), dd totally loose it.

mt is a very useful tool, for what it is designed for, which is just 
moving the tape around.

Have you ever tried to read, write, or copy a tape under Unix, using the 
standard tools?

   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