tbtape: the spawn of Satan

I have been dealing with attempts to run IFX-O/L's tbtape backup program from w/i a script for unattended backups. The main problem seems to be that tbtape doesn't handle exceptional conditions (like an early EOF) gracefully. Try this: tbtape -s </dev/null I noticed this when using tbtape w/i a script: echo "\\n0" | tbtape -s for an unattended level 0 backup. If (for some reason) the tape drive isn't ready right away, tbtape will consume stdin looking for it. When the drive is ready, stdin will be consumed and tbtape will go into a hiugh-speed loop prompting for the backup level. Now, as if that isn't bad enough- I tend to redirect stdout and stderr to a file so the unattended B/U script can mail the results to me as the SysOp. When the prompting does this, the tbtape output will do it's level best to fill the disk. I'll probably need to spawn a backup watchdog to see this (or else check the tape drive *first*) to handle this exceptional condition. The current tbtape truly emulates intergalactic vacuum. Will DSA (I think Informix 7.0+) have a more rational tape backup/restore (f)utility? Or will we have the tools to write our own??? -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ John R. Campbell, Speaker to Machines | Grace is sufficient; email: soup%penrij@kd3bj.ampr.org | Joy is now unemployed. snail: 1438 SchoolHouse Road, Perkasie, PA 18944 | - Heather Campbell