Path: utzoo!utgpu!utcsri!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!me!radio!helios!root
From: root@helios.toronto.edu (Operator)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: tape handling under VMS
Message-ID: <535@helios.toronto.edu>
Date: 30 Mar 88 21:07:30 GMT
Article-I.D.: helios.535
Posted: Wed Mar 30 16:07:30 1988
References: <261@umn-d-ub.D.UMN.EDU> <689@nitrex.UUCP> <903@ddsw1.UUCP>
Reply-To: sysruth@helios.toronto.edu (Ruth Milner)
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy Computing Consortium
Lines: 29

In article <903@ddsw1.UUCP> michael@ddsw1.UUCP (Michael Duebner) writes:
>
>Try the DISMOUNT/NOUNLOAD MUA0:	
>
>That should simply dismount the drive without rewinding it.  Then hit the
>red button the rewind the tape manually.
>

Dismount/nounload will rewind the tape without *unloading* it, so that you
can then do another operation without having to take it out and put it
in again. A rewind appears to be implicit in the DISMOUNT command.

At least, that's how it has always behaved on our systems, with both
TK50's and 1/2" magtapes. I make use of it frequently for such things
as getting a directory of all savesets on a tape (which requires native
mount) and then restoring something from a particular one (which needs
/foreign mount). We don't have dismount defined in any special way, so
it's the default behaviour in effect.

Dismount/unload is generally faster, since you won't be able to do any
subsequent operations on the tape anyway without manual intervention,
and therefore VMS doesn't force you to wait for the rewind to finish.


-- 
 Ruth Milner                     UUCP - {uunet,pyramid}!utai!helios!sysruth
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