IBM, HONEYWELL OCTAL CODES TO UNIX PROBLEM

[Mike Muuss]

There are several aspects to your problem:

1)  You should have your mainframe system write "export tapes" in a
fixed-blocked (RECFM=FB) or unblocked (RECFM=U) format;  using
variable-blocked or variable-blocked-spanned records for "export" to
another system makes for lots of extra trouble.

2)  Often, the easiest way to process foreign tapes on a UNIX system
is to read them onto disk, using the "DD" program, and the **raw**
tape drive interface (often called /dev/rmt0).  You can be certain
that the tape drive interface is RAW if the first character output
by "ls -l" is the letter "c", (eg, "crw-rw-rw- ...").
Once you have the data on disk, usually a small "C" program can
unravel things.  That kind of data handling in COBOL or FORTRAN
will be very painful, compared to using C or PASCAL.

If you need more help, contact your local Information Systems Command
(ISC) detatchment;  ISC is busy doing to the Army's computer systems
what they did to the Army's telephones.

	Best,
	 -Mike