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From: GELINASJ@CMR001.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: Tar and multiple physical tapes?
Message-ID: <900601.18544621.008834@CMR.CP6>
Date: 1 Jun 90 23:54:44 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 52


What about GNU tar? Has somebody got it working on an APOLLO?
The reason i have not even even tried is the sorry state of
the /dev dir on my machine: only root can use some devices!
This means rsh is not working, but we can still use crp.

% ls -lT /dev/pty*
pty        crw-------   1 root       9,   0 Feb  7 10:17 /dev/ptyp0
pty        crw-------   1 root       9,   1 Feb  7 10:17 /dev/ptyp1
pty        crw-------   1 root       9,   2 Feb  7 10:17 /dev/ptyp2
                ......................
pty        crw-------   1 root       9,  15 Feb  7 10:17 /dev/ptypf

Here is an excerpt from the GNU tar manual (not a verbatim copy ;-)

==========================================
This manual describes the GNU tape archive, @code{tar}, and how you
can use it to store copies of a file or a group of files in an
@dfn{archive}.  This archive may be written directly to a magnetic
tape or other storage medium, stored as a file, or sent through a
pipe to another program.  @code{Tar} can also be used to add files
to an already existing archive, list the files in an archive, or
extract the files in the archive.

GNU @code{tar} was written by John Gilmore, and modified by many
people.  The GNU enhancements were written by Jay Fenlason.
Copyright @copyright{} 1988 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

==========================================
The GNU version of @code{tar} has special features that allow it to be
used to make incremental and full dumps of all the files in a
filesystem.

==========================================
@item -M
The @samp{-M} option causes @code{tar} to write a @dfn{multi-volume}
archive--one that may be larger than will fit on the medium used to
hold it.

When this option is used, @code{tar} will not abort when it cannot
read or write any more data.  Instead, it will ask you to prepare a
new volume.  If the archive is on a magnetic tape, you should change
tapes now; if the archive is on a floppy disk, you should change
disks, etc.

Each volume of a multi-volume archive is an independent tar archive,
complete in itself.  For example, you can list or extract any volume
alone (just don't specify @samp{-M}).  However, if one file in the
archive is split across volumes, the only way to extract it
successfully is with a multi-volume extract command (@samp{-xM})
starting on or before the volume where the file begins.
==========================================