I meant of course SMOP issues. Without tape header/trailer files, additional programs/scripts are needed to handle V and U raw data correctly. (Note that I said DATA, not unloaded PDS/E or other backup-type tapes) With tape header/trailer files there are (or at least there ought to be . . .) available PC utilities that can copy the captured binary tape data with header and trailer to AWSTAPE or similar format for subsequent correct binary upload to MF without any loss of data or formatting. Or for distribution to archives, online or not.
Even with header/trailer files, that kind of process may also require yet another SMOP, but I haven't had to do any such tape recovery myself yet, so I could be wrong. Assuming you meant IEBCOPY-format or other types of backup files and not U format DATA files, you’re right of course - the format is documented and available. Peter -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin Sent: Friday, June 4, 2021 5:37 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [External] Re: access to 9-track reel tape drive On Fri, 4 Jun 2021 18:03:04 +0000, Farley, Peter x23353 wrote: >Variable and U format will always be issues. > No. Why? > ... Converting them on the PC to unlabeled AWSTAPE has similar issues. > No. Why? Labels is just bytes. The format is documented and irrelevant. We once had an offline, in-house "Tape Replication System", hardware and software supplied by an overseas vendor. At some point the decision was made to move the system, physically and logically, to an out-of-state contractor and supply electronic images rather than physical tapes. I was tasked with replicating the internal data format. (hot AWSTAPE; should have been. I was not part of the specification process and would nor have bee aware of AWSTAPE in thee day.) I reverse-engineered the vendor's data format from their source code and wrote a Rexx program to generate the vendor's format from our master tapes, mounted overriding to RECFM=U,LABEL=BLP. Worked readily. My code didn't need to understand the formats of labels, BDWs, or RDWs. Bytes is bytes. One wrinkle was that Rexx in the day didn't handle RECFM=U -- I needed to add a REPRO step to convert U to VB. >BUT I believe that IFF the original tape has standard header and trailer >files, then AWSTAPE is realistic to use. Then the AWSTAPE file can be binary >transferred to the MF and processed there with the mainframe AWSTAPE utility >(or is it a HET utility? I don’t remember now). > >The key step is to capture the binary data with no translation from degrading >9-track. Figuring out how to successfully use it can come after that step. > >PC utilities like HXD (HexEdit) can view binary EBCDIC files with ease so you >know what you are dealing with after you capture the data. -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and delete the message and any attachments from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
