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From: greg@ncr-sd.UUCP (Greg Noel)
Newsgroups: net.unix,net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: need help with multi-reel cpio
Message-ID: <477@ncr-sd.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-May-86 22:41:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: ncr-sd.477
Posted: Wed May  7 22:41:39 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 9-May-86 10:40:47 EDT
References: <520@sdcc13.UUCP> <461@ncr-sd.UUCP> <529@isis.UUCP>
Reply-To: greg@ncr-sd.UUCP (Greg Noel)
Organization: NCR Corporation, San Diego
Lines: 23
Keywords: cpio tape backup
Xref: watmath net.unix:7803 net.unix-wizards:17990

In article <529@isis.UUCP> jay@isis.UUCP (Jay Batson) writes:
>..... I dummy up a fix by calculating the amount of tape I've used, and
>simply close the tape file before I reach the EOT marker.
>..... I waste maybe 50 - 100 feet of tape from time to time,
>and it forces me to incorporate this dummy-fix write routine to make any
>tape volumes that must be read reliably by other systems.  (PS - I'm doing
>all this on a Systech multibus controller/Cipher 1/2" drive on an
>``NCR Tower'' (Greg take note!!)

Uh, I'll take note, but the Towers are done elsewhere.

The close after writing some number of feet is how most Unix programs write
to tape; it works most of the time, but what happens if you have a short
reel?  It's not handled very gracefully, as a rule......  That's why a
standard, industry-compatible way of doing it would be such a blessing.

>.......  Greg, has NCR done it in Rel 3....?

Not as far as I know.  Again, the Tower development is done in Columbia, SC,
and I can't speak for them.  If you want it done, send in a bug report via
your NCR rep.  As a "real user" you probably have more leverage than do I.
-- 
-- Greg Noel, NCR Rancho Bernardo    Greg@ncr-sd.UUCP or Greg@nosc.ARPA