reading files from tape not written by vms

From: Blaise Canzian (blaise_at_nofs.navy.mil)
Date: 10/29/04 

Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 10:52:45 -0700

I am trying to read files off old 9-track tapes. I am using a Microvax
with 9-track tape drive.

Some tapes were written on a Unix machine (Convex C-1) using the
"vmsbackup" 3rd party software. The resulting "backup" tapes are not
recognized by the microvax as valid backup tapes.

Other were written by 3rd-party software that wrote FITS format files
separated by the usual end-of-file marks.

I am looking for a combination of "mount" command options and "copy"
command options (assuming these are the right two commands to use to
mount the tape and copy files from the tape to disk) that will let me
read "bytes" from the tapes onto disk. I would like vms to properly
interpret end-of-file marks so that I can extract files from tape to
files on disk (and not bytes on disk in a single file that I then have
to parse for end-of-file characters and thus separate into files). I
then plan to move the files to a modern Unix system, where I can examine
the byte-order of the files, perhaps byte-swap them, and use some
specialized software to read the files.

Can anyone offer suggestions about how to mount and copy files off these
tapes, in the microvax vms environment, assuming that what I want are
"bytes in files" that I can then manipulate afterward in a different
environment? Thanks.

-- Blaise Canzian
    blaise@nofs.navy.mil

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