Re: Reading from 9 track tape

In article <37gu4l$nqq@emory.mathcs.emory.edu>, Peter Estabrook <estabroo@sea07s.navsea.navy.mil> wrote: >I'm looking for a unix utility to read EBCDIC data from a 9 track tape. Try the dd command, it works great. To get the data off correctly you'll need to know (1) the block size the tape was made with and (2) does the tape contain a volume header (i think thats what its called -- i'm no mainframer). If there's not a volume header, just dd the tape and hope you know the correct blocking factor If there is a volume header, you'll need to do two dd's -- one for the header and one for the actual data. The first dd must use a tape device which WILL NOT rewind the tape. The second should use a tape device which will rewind the tape (assuming, I hope, you want it to rewind). You can discard the header however it does contain the blocking factor for the second dd. I can't remember the exact location but it starts about the 10th character on the second line of the header file (when you looking at it thru a 80 character window). For some reason you can dd the header file without worry about the blocking factor. Hope this helps,