Mounting a Tape (repost)

[The Beach Bum]

In article <8341 at smoke.ARPA> gwyn at brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
>So long as no write is performed!  The mount should be read-only.
>1/2" magtape is not in general block-replaceable, unlike DECtape.

on a tu-11 a write-gap command can be issued several times after each
block.  this will allow the tape (modulo murphy's law) to be used for
read/write.  various dec operating systems (rt-11 comes to mind) use
this technique to create tapes which can be booted off of an run.
provided the driver skips the interrecord gaps before the next block
write, there should be no problem.  also, you must NOT write a file
mark after the last write to the device.
-- 
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