Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 12:07:16 -0800 (PST) From: David Wolfskill <dhw@whistle.com> To: bde@zeta.org.au, rb@gid.co.uk, syssgm@detir.qld.gov.au Cc: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org, freebsd@gndrsh.dnsmgr.net, grog@lemis.com, hf@Melog.DE, joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de, mjacob@feral.com, rivers@dignus.com Subject: Re: filemarks? Message-ID: <199912232007.MAA65565@pau-amma.whistle.com> In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.19991221165541.007b7480@192.168.255.1>
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>Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 16:55:41 +0000 >From: Bob Bishop <rb@gid.co.uk> [Sorry about the delay; had a backlog.... dhw] >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. Please also note that it was hardly unknown for those reflective Mylar strips to become detached from the tape; I recall at least one 3820 (or was it a 3810? It *was* a while ago!) where that happened, with the (unsurprising) result that the tape came off the supply reel. (And yes, I recall the little boxes of adhesive-backed reflective Mylar strips that were kept near the 38xx drives, along with a pair of scissors for trimming the end of the tape when it became too frayed. Later, there was a special semi-circular punch to make a nice, round leader to thread....) Cheers, david -- David Wolfskill dhw@whistle.com UNIX System Administrator voice: (650) 577-7158 pager: (888) 347-0197 FAX: (650) 372-5915 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message
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