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

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 08/06/2018 07:39 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> 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?
> 

Actually, yes, making a boot tape for Ultrix-11 when all the
information about the structure of that tape had been lost.
It was fun but definitely doable.

bill