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From: gfm@devel.cats.oz (Graham Menhennitt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.nsc.32k
Subject: Re: ICM3216: appending on tapes.
Message-ID: <258@devel.cats.oz>
Date: Mon, 20-Jul-87 18:53:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: devel.258
Posted: Mon Jul 20 18:53:09 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 22-Jul-87 06:37:12 EDT
References: <1857@imag.UUCP> <885@nscpdc.NSC.COM>
Reply-To: gfm@devel.cats.oz (Graham Menhennitt)
Distribution: world
Organization: Cats Co., Melbourne, Australia
Lines: 19

In article <885@nscpdc.NSC.COM> joer@nscpdc.UUCP (Joe Rawlings) writes:
>
>There is a difference between the way an end of file (EOF) is marked and
>the end of media (EOM) is marked on a cartridge tape.  Skipping the
>technical jargon, the EOM is basically two or more EOF markers.  Using the
>"mt fsf x" command will take the tape the the EOF marker corresponding to the

If your tape device driver is written correctly you won't have this problem.
The correct way of handling a close on a tape device that has been open for
writing is to mark it with an EOM. As Joe says this is simply two EOF marks.
The trick is that after writing the second mark the device driver should
backspace the tape to the point between the two marks. Then, if the non-rewind
tape device was used and the device is subsequently re-opened for writing,
the second EOF will be overwritten and the tape will correctly have one EOF
between the two files.
-- 
Graham Menhennitt		    ACSnet: gfm@devel.cats.oz
Networking II Project Manager	    UUCP: ...!seismo!munnari!devel.cats.oz!gfm
Cats Co., Melbourne, Australia.	    Phone: +61 3 5224246