Compatibilty of 'tar' archived tapes.

[Paul S. Sawyer]

In article <331 at bu-tyng.bu.edu>, draper at bu-tyng.bu.edu (Sir Dave of Wentworth) writes:
> 
> 	1) If I dump the stuff to tape using 'tar' will I be
> 	   able to read it with other machines running Unix
> 	   or a close derivative of it?

Probably;  For me to read it, it would have to have a block size no larger
than 8192, since my tape controller has an 8k buffer...  I nearly went crazy
once trying to read from a tar tape blocked at 20k!!!

> 	2) I have a copy of source code for 'tar' that is
> 	   supposedly for a VAX running VMS. Since it almost
> 	   looks like my next stop with be in a VMS shop
> 	   will I be able to read the tape in there?
> 	   (I know I will have to get tar up and running on
> 	    the VAX first)

(Sounds reasonable.  Or make them run ULTRIX.  B-)

> 	3) Since we have a high density/low density tape
> 	   drive, which is the better format to use?
 
Is your drive 800/1600 or 1600/6250 bpi (or even something else, I s'pose)?
"Better" is what works.  Again, speaking for my own site, I can ONLY read
1600 bpi (which the vendor calls MEDIUM density).  I think 1600 is possibly
most widespread amongst 9-track drives.

> Any comments suggestions on formats to store this information so
> I will be able to get at it and use it later will be appreciated.

( IBM EBCDIC ??? Doesn't EVERYTHING read that?    }B-)

Good luck.
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Paul S. Sawyer              uunet!unh!unhtel!paul     paul at unhtel.UUCP
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