tar tape backup query?

[Reshma Malusare]

Hello,

We are running tape backup...
Now we want to rewind the tape for file(6)
mt –f /dev/rmt/3cbn bsf 6

After rewinding, we start the backup using
tar -cvf option

Please let us know whether backup will start from start of tape or file 6????????

[Dennis Handly]

It depends. If you want to rewind, do that.

What you are doing is going back 6 files, and that depends where you are.

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi Reshma,

if you run "man mt", you will see the following:


..
Spacing operations (back or forward space file or record) leave the tape positioned past the object being spaced to in the direction of motion. That is, backspacing a file leaves the the tape positioned before the file mark, forward spacing a file leaves the tape positioned after the file mark. This is consistent with all classical usage on tapes.
..


hope this helps!

kind regards
yogeeraj