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

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2018-08-07 13:15, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> 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.

Unix boot tapes for Ultrix (or BSD) is a rather special case, which can 
be dealt with. All files only have a specific block size. No variable 
sized records at all.
Try another tape...

   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