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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards,net.periphs
Subject: Re: seek on raw magtape
Message-ID: <6276@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Jan-86 16:37:48 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6276
Posted: Thu Jan  9 16:37:48 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Jan-86 16:37:48 EST
References: <6267@utzoo.UUCP>, <1277@sdcsvax.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 14
Keywords: misunderstanding, answering wrong question

> The reason you cannot randomly access tapes for writing...

Who said anything about randomly accessing tapes for writing?  If you
study my initial posting, you'll see that what I want is to read some,
back up slightly, and then start writing from there.  No random-access
writes are involved.

Random-access writes are indeed impossible unless you're really confident
about media integrity.  (It's been done, at low densities with good tapes,
but I wouldn't try it at 6250!)  Random seeking followed by sequential
writing isn't the same thing.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry