SUMMARY (question #1) Solaris 2.3 and the 4mm DAT HP 35480A: what device to use?

From: Kevin Layer (layer@franz.com)
Date: Tue Oct 04 1994 - 04:29:29 CDT


   I did a "boot -r" and the drive showed up fine, creating these
   device files in /dev:

           rst2
           rst26

   and their `n' (non-rewinding) counterparts. What is the difference
   between rst2 and rst26?

The answer to the above is simple, if you look in the right place.
First, I needed to notice that /dev/*rst* are all links to /dev/rmt/,
and the files in the latter directory follow the following convention:

     /dev/rmt/[0- 127][l,m,h,u,c][b][n]
                 where l,m,h,u,c specifies the density (low,
                 medium, high, ultra/compressed), b the optional
                 BSD behavior (see mtio(7)), and n the optional
                 no rewind behavior. For example, /dev/rmt/0lbn
                 specifies unit 0, low density, BSD behavior, and
                 no rewind.

/dev/rmt/0ub seems to be the one for my drive (I have evidence from
another source for this).

Thanks to

        Mike Raffety <mike_raffety@il.us.swissbank.com>
        bharrell@digit.com (Bruce L. Harrell)

for the hints.

Still no answer for this:

   Also, I noticed a big difference in speed (10x) between specifying, to
   tar, no blocking factor and one of 500--the latter was much faster.
   What is the optimal blocking factor (for dump and tar) for this tape
   drive?

Kevin Layer, Franz Inc. 1995 University Avenue, Suite 275
layer@Franz.COM (internet) Berkeley, CA 94704 USA
Phone: (510) 548-3600 FAX: (510) 548-8253



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