NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     tcopy -- copy and/or verify mag tapes

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     tcopy [-cvx] [-s maxblk] [src [dest]]

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The tcopy utility is designed to copy magnetic tapes.  The only assumption
 made about the tape is that there are two tape marks at the end.
     The tcopy utility with only a source tape (/dev/sa0 by default) specified
     will print information about the sizes of records and tape files.	If a
     destination is specified a copy will be made of the source tape.  The
     blocking on the destination tape will be identical to that used on the
     source tape.  Copying a tape will yield the same output as if just printing
 the sizes.

     Options:

     -c        Copy src to dest and then verify that the two tapes are identical.


     -s maxblk
	       Specify a maximum block size, maxblk.

     -v        Given the two tapes, src and dest verify that they are identical.


     -x        Output all informational messages to the standard error.  This
	       option is useful when dest is /dev/stdout.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     mtio(4)

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     The tcopy command appeared in 4.3BSD.

BUGS    [Toc]    [Back]

     Writing an image of a tape to a file does not preserve much more than the
     raw data.	Block size(s) and tape EOF marks are lost which would otherwise
 be preserved in a tape-to-tape copy.

     EOD is determined by two sequential EOF marks with no data between.
     There are old systems which typically wrote three EOF's between tape
     files.  The tcopy utility will erroneously stop copying early in this
     case.

     When using the copy/verify option -c tcopy does not rewind the tapes
     prior to start.  A rewind is performed after writing prior to the verification
 stage.  If one doesn't start at BOT then the comparison may not be
     of the intended data.


FreeBSD 5.2.1			April 17, 1994			 FreeBSD 5.2.1