PREV UP NEXT The Ftape Installation Guide - zftape devices


8.1.3.3: Notes on compatibility with ftape-2.x

Except when using the driver with the raw devices `/dev/(n)rawft*' the driver detects tapes that were already used by the original ftape-2.x driver and the sftape driver from pre-3.04 ftape distributions, i.e. tapes that have the `Linux raw format V*' label written to the header segments(1).

The driver then switches to read-only mode to prevent the recorded data to be overwritten. This is necessary even if the tape is not full because zftape uses the third segment on tape for a volume table, according to the QIC-113 standard (http://www.qic.org).

Thus allowing write access to tapes already used by the original ftape-2.x or sftape could result in the damage of the data of the first segment and therefore I imagined it a good idea to disable write access to those tapes. This over-write protection is ignored when the tape is positioned at begin of tape (referred to as BOT) in which case the tape label and the original file marks are silently overwritten.

The driver allows read access to such tapes and it also provides full file-mark support: one still can use the MTFSF, MTBSF and related tape operations. See MTFSF, see MTBSF.


(1) The first 58 kilobytes of a tape cartridge are used to store status information about the tape cartridge and are referred to as header segments.


Use these buttons to jump to the top menu

TOP (parent node)

TOP (previous node) TOP (this node) TOP (next node)