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Can Tar98 read and/or write tapes written with the UNIX DD or cpio commands?

April 26, 2017commands cpio read tapes tar98 Unix write written

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Can Tar98 read and/or write tapes written with the UNIX DD or cpio commands?

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No, Tar98 can only read and/or write tapes using the tar format. This includes the tar format that most brands of UNIX support. A few examples would be Sun Solaris, HP HP-UX, IBM AIX, SCO, and Linux. SGI IRIX uses a byte-swapped version of tar that is also supported in Tar98 both when writing and reading tar tapes. One restriction that does exist with Tar98 is the blocking factor that can be used. The tape device drivers in Windows NT 4.0 restrict Tar98 from using blocking factors of over approximately 1024 (can vary depending on the tape device). This means that Tar98 sometimes can not read tapes written in UNIX at high blocking factors. This is generally not a problem since most tar tapes written in UNIX are blocked at 20, but SGI IRIX is an example of a platform that defaults to high blocking factors that can sometimes be a problem.