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From: bware@slate.mines.colorado.edu (Bob Ware)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: RS/6000 Tape questions
Message-ID: <1991Apr25.185518.26952@slate.mines.colorado.edu>
Date: 25 Apr 91 18:55:18 GMT
References: <1991Apr22.195656.10564@panix.uucp> <1991Apr23.194408.14080@midway.uchicago.edu> <6984@awdprime.UUCP>
Organization: Colorado School of Mines
Lines: 28


>rtp1@quads.uchicago.edu (raymond thomas pierrehumbert) writes:
>|Under AIX, the command "tctl" is the equivalent of "mt".  It works,
>|so far as I can tell.  Don't ask me why they changed the name.
>|
>|I couldn't find this out via info explorer either.  I had to ask my
>|software engineer.  It underscores that searching in info explorer
>|is not as useful as it could be.  
>
>I think I'm responsible for this...the point was to take the many BSD commands
>and put them into tctl (if they would logically go there) so that a user
>would only have to look in one place to find tape control functions....
>
...
>-- 
>Mark Brown    IBM PSP Austin, TX.     (512) 823-3741   VNET: MBROWN@AUSVMQ

One of the most serious problems with tctl is the lack of a way to take
a tape offline.  This means that after making a backup of user files,
ANYONE can read what is on the tape until the operator manually takes
the tape offline.  In effect, this creates a window when anyone can
read anyone else's files!!  ....a very serious security hole.  If an
operator were to start a backup at night just before they leave, the
window would be several hours.
-- 
Bob Ware, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Co 80401, USA
(303) 273-3987
bware@mines.colorado.edu bware@slate.mines.colorado.edu bware@mines.bitnet