On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 12:46, DG wrote: > On the subject of multiple dumps, how does one append several dumps to the > same tape? The dump man page does not seem to indicate an 'append' option. >
When you open a tape for writing (or reading) then writing (or reading) begins at wherever the tape happens to be positioned. So one just has to ensure that the tape is not rwound after the first dump is written. This is achieved by writing the first dump to device /dev/nsa0 (or some other beginning with 'n' which means no re-wind on close). If the tape has been rewound (perhaps to remove the cartridge for storage) then you can reposition the tape using 'mt fsf' followed by the number of dumps already written to the tape. If a tape has been used a number of times there is no way for the system to reliably distinguish the end of the valid information from futher junk that may have been written in previous use -- thus for normal tape drives an 'append' command would be quite flakey. Malcolm Kay _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
