SUMMARY : VMSTAR and DUTAR

From: jean.schuller <schuller_at_sbgal4.in2p3.fr>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 11:22:38 +0200 (MET DST)

I give up ... I'm sure ftp is a good way to supply my tar problem.

Great thanks to :
Alex Kok,
Dr. Tom Blinn,
John Richards,
Mike Hatz


I got the followings answers :

>From Alex Kok <c753330_at_nlzcl1.decnet.philips.nl>
I was able to reproduce this using files. On VMS:

mc1$ tar cvf login.tar login.com
mc1$ tar tvf login.tar
   644 1378 Mar 4 09:22:39 1997 ./login.com
   
ftp it to Dunix:

scdw$ tar tvf login.tar
blocksize = 20
-rw-r--r-- 3/8 1378 Mar 4 1997:39 1997 ./login.com
tar: login.tar : This doesn't look like a tar archive
tar: login.tar : Skipping to next file...
tar: Ready for volume 2
tar: Type "go" when ready to proceed (or "quit" to abort):
tar: Ready for volume 2
tar: Type "go" when ready to proceed (or "quit" to abort): quit
tar: Aborted
scdw$ uname
OSF1

Same tar archive on HP-UX:

mid1$ tar tvf login.tar
rw-r--r-- 3/8 1378 Mar 4 10:22 1997 ./login.com
mid1$ uname
HP-UX

So apparently something is wrong with tar on Dunix.

-----------------------------------------------------------

>From "Dr. Tom Blinn, 603-881-0646" <tpb_at_zk3.dec.com>
VMS likes to put ANSI labels on tapes. UNIX doesn't have much in the
way of support for tape labels.

Load the system exerciser optional kernel subset. Look at the tapex
utility. Notice that it can read a tape and tell you the sizes of the
records and the numbers of records in each file on the tape. Use it.

You probably need to use the mt utility to skip over the label file on
the tape, then use tar with /dev/nrmt1h (no rewind) to get to the data
on the tape, which is probably in the second file. tar probably reads
the label data, concludes it's not tar records, discards it, sees the
tape mark, the tape rewinds, tar prompts for the next volume, you tell
it "OK" and it reads the labels again, etc.

In other words, welcome to the world of magnetic tape.
-----------------------------------------------------------
>From John Richards <john_at_zyqad.co.uk> :

Which version of DU? We have DU 3.0 & 3.2 and tar on both of them is randomly
incompatable with other vendors tar. I have built GNU tar and now use this in
preference. I did hear that the tar on version 3.x was seriously broken but I
have never seen any official recognition of this. Sometimes the extract -x
will
work even if the list flag -t doesn't so it may be readable.

If you have another machine, not DEC, you could try reading the tar file on
that.
-----------------------------------------------------------
>From Mike Hatz <mhatz_at_raven.phs.com> :

Maybe you can 'dd' the image off of the tape and put it on the DU file
system?

Something like "dd if='tape device' of=/tmp/foo.tar" You'll probably
need to fiddle around with the block size too.

See the dd man page.



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Received on Fri Sep 12 1997 - 11:40:11 NZST

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