Paul The -overlooked- hyphen of dd was the culprit. I now get the desired response from the drive. Thanks
Gerrit Hommersom Hommersom, Gerrit (G) wrote: > For emergency testing I want to read the amanda files with standard > Unix/Linux tools > > W Curtiss preson's book suggests that amanda tapes can be read with > the command dd -if=/dev/nst0 bs=32k count=1 Note that dd does not take options with a hyphen, at not on any OS that I have access to. > > Attempting to move it to the next file with > mt /dev/nst0 fsf 1 > dd -if=/dev/nst0 bs=32k count=1 > persistingly returned the amanda header, nothinbg else Which amanda header? There are two kinds: an amanda tapeheader and one amandaheader for each archivefile on tape. > > This returns indeed the Amanda header but not the backup software used > (tar in my case) Show us the header... > Forcing a listing with dd -if=/dev/nst0 bs=32k skip=x | tar -t - > returned either not output or the message "not a tar file" Was it compressed archive? If yes then you also need the "-z" flag. Also you need to skip exactly 1 block (the amanda archive header), not "x" blocks. Also reading from stdin is accomplished by the "-f -" combination. Without the "-f" tar takes the argument as the file to extract from the archive. (The amandaheader in each archive even contains the commandline!) That said, it probably boils down to: mt -t /dev/st0 rewind mt -t /dev/nst0 fsf 1 dd if=/dev/nst0 bs=32k count=1 This gives the amanda archive header of the first archive. Take a look at the commandline that amanda suggests for you. mt -t /dev/st0 rewind mt -t /dev/nst0 fsf 1 dd if=/dev/nst0 bs=32k skip=1 | gtar -ztvf - now you get a listing (omit the -z flag if the archive was not compressed). -- Paul Bijnens, Xplanation Tel +32 16 397.511 Technologielaan 21 bus 2, B-3001 Leuven, BELGIUM Fax +32 16 397.512 http://www.xplanation.com/ email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *********************************************************************** * I think I've got the hang of it now: exit, ^D, ^C, ^\, ^Z, ^Q, F6, * * quit, ZZ, :q, :q!, M-Z, ^X^C, logoff, logout, close, bye, /bye, * * stop, end, F3, ~., ^]c, +++ ATH, disconnect, halt, abort, hangup, * * PF4, F20, ^X^X, :D::D, KJOB, F14-f-e, F8-e, kill -1 $$, shutdown, * * init 0, kill -9 1, Alt-F4, Ctrl-Alt-Del, AltGr-NumLock, Stop-A, ... * * ... "Are you sure?" ... YES ... Phew ... I'm out * ***********************************************************************