> Wouldn't you use some 'tar' like format on the tape so there's a file > index Not "tar like". Tar. "Tar" stands for "tape archive". Without the -f option, tar will write to the location specified by the TAPE environment variable (or stdout if the variable is not set). Of course there are other utilities which can be used, such as cpio and fbackup, and I am sure some drives may have their own utilities. > you can search without having to scan the entire tape? Then you can just > "ffwd" (seek) to the position. _should_ be lots faster than reading all of > the > data from the beginning to the files location trying to find it. Or maybe > there's something I'm missing about tapes? Many tape drives cannot seek any faster than they can read. After all, a seek *IS* a read. Even if a particular drive can seek faster than it can read, however, it will still take a significant amount of time to seek to the location and read the data. How quickly depends on the drive, but under no circumstances will it be milliseconds, or even single-digit seconds. High end tape drives of course are much faster than lower cost tape drives. In the realm of what is within the budget of a consumer system, don't hold your breath waiting for the drive to find the data. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
