Re: Default tar revisited

[Joseph Garcia <bsd_usr@xxxxxxxxx>]

Matthew Dillon wrote:
>     Hmm.  It sounds ok to me but I do seem to recall that some issues
>     popped up when FreeBSD did this, so my provisio in importing bsdtar
>     is that you (Peter) review the FreeBSD mailing lists for bsdtar related
>     discussions and put together a summary of any issues that may have come
>     up and whether the latest release addresses them (assuming the issues are
>     even important).
>
>     Direct support for tape has never been at the top of my list.  As long
>     as pipes work, a tar piped through a dd or vise versa ought to work just
>     fine for tape.  I think the last time I actually used tar *directly* on
>     a tape device was over 15 years ago.
>
> 						-Matt

I was using tar (gtar, I guess) with tape just a few months ago (hmm, I 
really do need to do another backup). Why? Because it's simple and it 
seemed to work.

I guess there are other alternatives, but tape support would have been 
nice. I can always use gtar still. I guess I can also learn to use the 
alternatives (pax, etc) as well.

I'm not that much of a seasoned pro at using tape drives with Unix. Give 
me an AS/400 and I'll backup and restore objects and libraries all day long.

Joey

P.S. I have this Compaq autochanger tape library. Anyone ever use and 
autochanger on BSD before?