A friend of mine wrote this little script to find the creation date:
#!/usr/bin/ksh
######################################################################
#
# Determine when an Ignite tape was created
#
# Author: Tony Contratto
# Date: 07/18/2002
#
# Usage: $0 [tape device]
# [tape device] defaults to /dev/rmt/0mnb
#
######################################################################
# set a path
PATH=/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin
export PATH
# Define vars
SCRIPT_NAME=$(basename $0)
TAPE=/dev/rmt/0mnb
TMP_TAPELIF=/tmp/${SCRIPT_NAME}.tapelif.$$
TMP_LIFLS=/tmp/${SCRIPT_NAME}.lifls.$$
# check if they want a different tape device
if [[ -n "$1" ]]; then
TAPE=$1
fi
# echo what tape device we are using
echo "\nUsing tape in device: ${TAPE}\n"
# check that the tape device is really a character special file
if [[ ! -c $TAPE ]]; then
echo "\"${TAPE}\" does not exist or is not a character special file!"
exit 1
fi
# rewind the tape
mt -t $TAPE rew
if [ $? != 0 ];then
echo "Rewind of tape in device $TAPE failed!"
exit 1
fi
# dd off the lif area of the tape
dd if=$TAPE of=$TMP_TAPELIF bs=2048 count=10 > /dev/null 2>&1
if [ $? != 0 ];then
echo "Could not read lif area of tape in device $TAPE"
exit 1
fi
# list the contents of the lif area
lifls -l $TMP_TAPELIF > $TMP_LIFLS
if [ $? != 0 ];then
echo "Could not read contents of lif area!"
exit 1
fi
# munch up the lif area contents to get the date and time
awk ' BEGIN {
# create an array with the month names
months = "Jan,Feb,Mar,Apr,May,Jun,Jul,Aug,Sep,Oct,Nov,Dec"
monSize = split(months, month, ",")
}
/^HPUX/ {
# get the date and time out of the line
tapedate = $6
tapetime = $7
# split the date into an array so we can reformat it
sizeOfArray = split(tapedate, date, "/")
# force numeric type of the month
date[2] += 0
# if the year is less than 70 first part of year is 20
# else the first part is 19
century = ( ( date[1] + 0 ) < 70 ) ? "20" : "19"
# create the output line
out= "Ignite tape created at " tapetime " on "
out = out month[date[2]] " " date[3] ", " century date[1] "\n"
# print it
print out
}' $TMP_LIFLS
#cleanup
mt -t $TAPE rew
rm $TMP_TAPELIF
rm $TMP_LIFLS
If it has wheels or a skirt, you can't afford it.
