Sun TAR (and Masscomp)

[Haral Tsitsivas]

In article <2103 at epiwrl.EPI.COM> parker at epiwrl.EPI.COM (Alan Parker) writes:
>In the particular case of Masscomp<->Sun cartridge tapes:   we have
>found that we can read a tar cartridge tape on the Sun (3) made on the
>Masscomp if the blocking factor is 20 (I think).   This seems to be
>pretty reliable.   We have found that sometimes we can read tapes on the
>Masscomp, made on the Sun; but it often doesn't work.   I don't
>understand why it is unreliable in this direction.

The confusion seems to come from the fact that the tar default device on Sun
systems is /dev/rst0 (low density, can fit 40 MB/cartridge) instead of
/dev/rst8 (higher density, can fit 60 MB/cartridge).  /dev/rst8 is the format
that most other vendors (and cartridge recording formats) are compatible
with...

Try using /dev/rst8 on your Sun the next time...

--Haral Tsitsivas
  UniSolutions Associates
  (213) 641-6739
  ...!uunet!scgvaxd!ashtate!unisol!haral