Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!cadre.dsl.pitt.edu!km
From: km@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu (Ken Mitchum)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Can I make DOS-compiled pax or pdtar write RAW cpio or tar floppies?
Keywords: MS-DOS, pax, pdtar, tar, cpio
Message-ID: <1989Dec11.175212.5535@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu>
Date: 11 Dec 89 17:52:12 GMT
References: <1649@ctisbv.cti-software.nl>
Reply-To: km@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu (Ken Mitchum)
Organization: Decision Systems Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.
Lines: 26


>I have source to both PDTAR and PAX but have not yet attempted
>to compile them under MS-DOS. Looking at the source, I suspect
>the only thing these programs will be able to do is write
>tar or cpio archive files on an MS-DOS filesystem.
>
>I would prefer them to write RAW, non-filesystem floppies,
>so I can read multivolume backups created on DOS,
>on a *NIX system without using doscp or the like.
>
>Is there any way I can accomplish this? 

Yes. The MKS Toolkit includes a dos version of the Unix "dd" utility,
which can be used to redirect stdout to raw floppy. The only trick
is that when you use multiple disk types in the same drive, "dd" 
assumes that the floppy you are using as a raw device has the same
physical characteristics as the last floppy used in a file operation
on the same drive. I don't know if there is a free version of "dd"
for dos available, but the MKS version works nicely for this purpose.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Ken Mitchum MD  KY3B
   Decision Systems Labs
   University of Pittsburgh
   km@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu