Tar issue

[Rahul Pednekar]

Dear All

I'm using tar to take backups and my query is after taking backups can I delete files directly from tape?

Thanks in advance

[Ludovic Derlyn · Accepted solution]

hi,

for me , it's not possible to delete directly on from tape

regards

L-DERLYN

[Rajeev Shukla]

No once you have backed the files on to the tape you cant delete them from there. Only option is untar them somewhere else and delete the file and again tar them to tape.

[Peter Godron]

Rahul,
No

The tar utiltity builds a single tar file out of the number of files you specify. When you write this file to tape, you are creating a sequential tape file. If you would be able to remove/add files directly on tape, you would end up with 'data holes' on the tape or with following files being overwritten.