Copying SunOS distribution tapes

[Morris Katz]

In article <2099 at brazos.Rice.edu>, MIKE at UCDHEP writes:
>Hence, I'd like to do what seems to me to be the obvious thing, namely,
>just copy the 1/4" tape to a 1/2" tape compatible with my drive.  I've
>asked people around here who are more knowledgeable than I about SunOS if
>that were possible.  The general sense of the replies is ``it's possible
>in principle but not easy to do'', for reasons which are vague, at least
>to me.
>
>Mike Hannon                              mike at ucdhep     (Bitnet)
>ucdhep::mike          (HEPnet)           42385::mike     (HEPnet)
>jmhannon at ucdavis.edu  (Internet)         916-752-4966    (Telephone)

The problem is that the distribution tapes come with a directory at the
begining that lists their contents.  This directory is used by the
installation software.  Since the different size tapes are of different
length, one cannot just blindly copy the bits from one tape to another and
have things work since splitting one tape over several tapes will cause
the directory to be incorrect and cause problems.  I have never tried it,
but the last time I looked, the directory was just in ascii, so I imagine
that one can build the correct directory by hand and store it at the
begining of each tape.  In the past, the documentation has specified what
files are located on each real of the distribnution tapes of each type.

P.S.  I suspect that it is easiest just to get a loaned copy of the tapes
from sun and copy them.  Sun has a disk to tape/tape to disk copy program
that makes this easy.  Try and cajole you local sales rep into giving you
a copy.

-- Morry Katz