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Re: Tape question



Dr Andrey Tsouladze wrote:
> If I log into the system as root, everything is fine. Tape programs (mt,
> tar) point to /dev/st0 by default.
> 
> If I log as a regular user, funny things start to happen. mt still points
> to /dev/st0, however tar does not. Moreover, behavior of tar depends on a
> user default shell, at least it seems so. Here are examples:

Such differences make me suspect the environment.  Try printing your
environment variables (with env(1) or whatever your shell supports)
and look for an envariable called 'TAPE' or anything that mentions
the tape devices.  You should also look at the manual pages of the
programs
you use in order to find what envariables they refer to (talking about
RTFM....).

If this is the problem then you probably want to either undefine or
re-define the TAPE envariable in your .cshrc/.login/.bashrc or whatever.

> 3. Is it safe to delete devices /dev/nst0 and /dev/nrft0 and create them
> anew as links to /dev/st0? A problem may arise if there are other
> programs that use these device names.

No!  The names indicate that the '/dev/n*' devices are 'no-rewind'
devices, which is a feature very important for tapes.

Please let me know if this helps,

Cheers,

--Amos


References: