gtar failing, please help!

[tedm at toybox.placo.com (Ted Mittelstaedt)]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions_(_at_)_freebsd_(_dot_)_org
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions_(_at_)_freebsd_(_dot_)_org]On Behalf Of David Bear
> Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 5:22 PM
> To: freebsd-questions_(_at_)_freebsd_(_dot_)_org
> Subject: Re: gtar failing, please help!
> 
> 
> for me, my experience down scsi tape units and freebsd has been a road
> into the black abyss. I've finally got the tape dumps to work -- but
> it took many hours of trial and error. 
> 
> btw, I wonder how many tape unit users get burned by the fact that
> they don't test their tapes -- and when they need the tape find that
> it was bad..
> 

Probably lots - I always use the compare switch in my tar backup
scripts to avoid that.

Have you ever had the un-pleasure of working with Sun's tar, though?
no compare switch, and the kernel only reports tape block errors
to the console.  (assuming your lucky enough to have a tapedrive
that reports errors back to the kernel that the kernel understands)

Ted