Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 16:55:41 +0000 From: Bob Bishop <rb@gid.co.uk> To: Stephen McKay <syssgm@detir.qld.gov.au>, Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au> Cc: Matthew Jacob <mjacob@feral.com>, "Rodney W. Grimes" <freebsd@gndrsh.dnsmgr.net>, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org, Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, Thomas David Rivers <rivers@dignus.com>, Joerg Wunsch <joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de>, Hauke Fath <hf@Melog.DE>, syssgm@detir.qld.gov.au Subject: Re: filemarks? Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.19991221165541.007b7480@192.168.255.1> In-Reply-To: <199912211014.UAA21880@nymph.detir.qld.gov.au> References: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9912211946160.11122-100000@alphplex.bde.org> <Pine.BSF.4.10.9912211946160.11122-100000@alphplex.bde.org>
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At 08:14 PM 12/21/99 +1000, Stephen McKay wrote: >[...] >We should consider the nature of programs that will write to tape. How >should "cat" work when writing a tape? I expect it would write until >physical end of media with this model and run the 1/2" tape right off the >reel. That would be fine by me since "cat" is not a normal tape writing >program. On 1/2" tape, EOT was a reflective marker on the back of the tape. You were supposed to have something like 30ft of tape after the marker, at least 10ft of which had to be writeable. So the drive could complete the block being written at EOT, and still write two tape marks thereafter (but data writes would fail IIRC). Only a broken drive (not unknown) would let you run the tape off the reel. ISTR (and you will appreciate this is a while ago) that drivers would return the block size for the block written over EOT and zero for any subsequent data write attempt. Closing the file wrote two tape marks. -- Bob Bishop +44 118 977 4017 rb@gid.co.uk fax +44 118 989 4254 (0800-1800 UK) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message
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