Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!sgi!ciemo@bananapc.wpd.sgi.com
From: ciemo@bananapc.wpd.sgi.com (Dave Ciemiewicz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: Problem reading foreign TAR tapes
Summary: Tapes may be byte swapped
Message-ID: <42613@sgi.sgi.com>
Date: 6 Oct 89 04:05:53 GMT
References: <8910051647.aa22396@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>
Sender: ciemo@bananapc.wpd.sgi.com
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 35

In article <8910051647.aa22396@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>, levine%fidler.decnet@NWC.NAVY.MIL ("FIDLER::LEVINE") writes:
> 
> 	I am vax cluster system manager with a user who just got a 
> Silicon Graphics IRIS 4D/240GTX running  IRIX (AT&T System V with 
> BSD Extentions) V3.1 . He wants to be able to exchange data between his 
> computer and my cluster useing mag-tapes. I used the TARWRITE program
> supplied in the Spring 89 VAX/L&T SIG Tape VAX000.TOOLS directory to
> build a tar tape, but he is unable to read it even useing the command
> 
>  dd | tar . . .
> 
> is there anything else to try on the VAX or Silicon Graphics to be able
> to produce a readable tar tape, or is there a way on the Silicon Graphics
> to read/write blocked tapes?
> 
> 	Please respond directly as I do not get the INFO-IRIS conference.
> 
> Michael N. LeVine  Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, Ca 93555, USA
> Internet: levine%fidler.decnet@nwc.navy.mil,levine%fidler.decnet@26.3.0.85
> (619) 939-2614  avn  437-2614 

IRISes and VAXen typically create tapes with different byte ordering.
For your dd | tar try:

	dd conv=swab | tar . . .

The conv=swab selects byte swapping in dd.

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
			Cosmo Ciemo, Silicon Valley Dude

I was traipsing through the fields of my mind when I stepped in something that
smelled rather ripe.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------