At 11:58 AM 3/6/2001, John R. Jackson wrote:
> >According to the docs, the method is just :
> >
> >mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
> >dd if=/dev/nst0 bs=32 skip=1 | tar xv -
> >
> >but when I use the tar (yes, it's gtar, really) it complains
> >that the file is not a valid archive. ...
>
>You skipped a step. You have to position the tape with "mt fsf" to the
>proper file between doing the "rewind" and the "dd". What you did above
>was read the tape label (the first file on the tape) and pass an empty
>image to gtar.
Someone else email me privately and told me the sequence was as follows.
mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
mt -f /dev/nst0 fsf 1
dd if=/dev/nst0 bs=32 skip=1 | tar xvf -
When I try the above, the following is output:
tar: Hmm, this doesn't look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next file header
dd : /dev/nst0: I/O error
1023+0 records in
1023+0 records out
Yuri Pismerov replied and mentioned that some versions of Redhat have
a problem with 'skip' and suggested that I try it like so:
mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
mt -f /dev/nst0 fsf 1
dd if=/dev/nst0 of=/dev/null bs=32 count=1
dd if=/dev/nst0 bs=32 skip=1 | tar xvf -
which outputs a simple:
dd: /dev/nst0: I/O error
0+0 records in
0+0 records out
Which leads me to wonder about the integrity of my tape...
although if I do:
mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
dd if=/dev/nst0 bs=32 count=1
I see:
AMANDA: TAPESTART DATE 20010227 1+0 records in
1+0 records out
so obviously part of the tape is readable...
What Giveth!!?
Jer
