[Gllug] Slurp an entire tape to file with dd

[Tethys]

Mike Brodbelt writes:

>What you do then is another matter, and depends on how Veritas stores
>data on the tape, and whether you have any documentation for the
>format. <Insert lesson on evils of proprietary formats here>.

For a proprietary software company, Veritas actually came very close to
getting it right here. In the simple case, they simply write to tape in
tar format, and thus the tapes are easily readable from a shell prompt.
Where it gets complicated is when you try and multiplex backups -- if
you try and backup multiple machines to a single backup device, Veritas
will interleave the data in its own proprietary way, and hence you've
lost the benefits you once had.

Tet
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