Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!tomc
From: tomc@oakhill.UUCP (Tom Cunningham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: getting tar to do what it is told
Message-ID: <1725@bouwsma.oakhill.UUCP>
Date: 2 Dec 88 16:29:00 GMT
References: <738@mv07.ecf.toronto.edu>
Organization: Motorola Inc. Austin, Tx
Lines: 29

In article <738@mv07.ecf.toronto.edu>, apollo@ecf.toronto.edu (Vince Pugliese) writes:
> the tar problem reported is not an uncommon one, about not being able to
> open the device. what one has to do is to make certain that the tape has be 
> rewound to its starting position.  this can be done using the AEGIS rbak command.
> assuming your at one of the unix shells type the following:
>    /com/rbak -dev ct -rewind
> 
> once that is done then you can tar to your hearts content.

Well, I tried this from the csh and it seems to work OK, but when I follow
this with "tar cvf /dev/rct8 ... " the immediate response is:

    tar: cannot open /dev/rct8

It doesn't even appear to go out the the device, as there is no sign of
life from the drive.  Now I am wondering if the device files need to be
tweaked in some way.  I have checked and both rct8 and rct12 are in the
/dev directory.  Here is an ls -lg:

dspdom!/ [18] ls -lg /dev/rct8
   1 crwxrwxrwx  1 root     sys        0,   0 Feb 12  1988 /dev/rct8*

Any further clues?  By the way, thanks to the folks who responded via
email, all of whom had the same advice as Vince, above.  Given the
unanimity of the replies, this behavior really baffles me.
-- 

Tom Cunningham  Motorola Inc.  Austin TX
{sun,uunet!mnetor,cs.utexas.edu}!oakhill!tomc