MAGCOPY -- Copy Data Between Tape and Disk

Copies the contents of a tape to a special disk file, or the contents of such a disk file to tape. This is primarily of use for exact duplication of tapes.

See Also: MAGSTRU

PARAMETERS

MAGCOPY is controlled by the following global parameters: 

Name     Prompt                                  Count     Type
FILI     Database Input File Name                1-64      Char
FILO     Database Output File Name               1-64      Char
REPORT   Report Mode: TERM/OFF/filename          1-16      Char

FILI

Specifies the disk file, or tape device to read from. If this parameter is defaulted the input will be the tape drive. Any other name is assumed to be the name of a disk file in PCI Tape Image Format which is used as input. 

 EASI>FILI="irvine.pti"

FILO

Specifies the disk file, or tape device to write to. FILO will be created automatically. Please specify a filename. If this parameter is defaulted the output will go to the tape drive. Any other name is assumed to be the name of a disk file, which is to be written with the output in PCI Tape Image Format. 

 EASI>FILO="irvine.pti"

REPORT

Specifies the file to which to append the generated report. 

 EASI>REPORT="filename"
Note: The following names have special meaning 

 EASI>REPORT="TERM"     | generates reports on your terminal
 EASI>REPORT="DISK"     | generates reports on file "IMPRPT.LST"
 EASI>REPORT="OFF"      | cancels report generation

DETAILS

MAGCOPY is a program for copying magnetic tapes. It runs in two modes, copy disk file to tape, or copy tape to disk file. To make a new copy of an existing tape it is necessary to first run MAGCOPY copying the tape to a temporary disk file, and then run MAGCOPY again copying the disk file to a second tape.

MAGCOPY is not capable of reading multiple volume tapes in a single run. Multi volume tape sets must be duplicated one tape at a time.

EXAMPLE

In order to duplicate a tape, the tape contents are copied from the tape to a disk file called tape.pti. 

 EASI> FILI=                    | Read from default tape drive
 EASI> FILO="tape.pti"          | Write to disk file
 EASI> RUN MAGCOPY
Unmount the first tape, and mount the second tape. Then copy the disk file to the second tape. 

 EASI> FILI="tape.pti"          | Read from the disk file
 EASI> FILO=                    | Write to default tape drive
 EASI> RUN MAGCOPY

FILE FORMAT

The PCI Tape Image Format is a simple file format designed to preserve record boundary information, and end-of-file marks.

The PCT Tape Image Format file consists of an 8 byte header string ("PCI-TAPE") followed by a series of record definitions. Each record definition consists of a four byte integer (SIZE) followed by SIZE bytes of data. An EOF mark is simply represented as a zero length record. Two zero length records in a row indicate the end of the PCI Tape Image Format file.

The four byte SIZE field is always written in native byte ordering, and MAGCOPY can read files in either byte ordering. The record lengths may never exceed 64512 (63Kb).

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