Erase UNIX Tar file

[dmccarthy]

Silly question, just need to delete some tapes that have UNIX<br>tar files on them. Thought the command was tar -cvf/<br>but that doesn't work.<br><br>Any ideas ?

 

[MikeLacey]

Never needed to do this - you can re-use a tape without having to erase it first.<br><br>I think that the command<br><br>dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/tapedevice<br><br>(where tapedevice is your real tape device)<br><br>would do the trick. <p>Mike<br><a href=mailto:michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com>michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com</a><br><a href=

http://www.cargill.com/>

Cargill's Corporate Web Site</a><br>Please -- Don't send me email questions without posting them in Tek-Tips as well. Better yet -- Post the question in Tek-Tips and send me a note saying "Have a look at so-and-so in the thingy forum would you?"

 

[Octalman]

A nice strong magnetic field works <br><br>Many older shops used to have &quot;bulk erasers,&quot; which were just electro-magnetics with a powerful local field.&nbsp;&nbsp;Dangerous - have to keep anything you want to keep away. <p>Octalman<br><a href=mailto: > </a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[coily2]

Just a helpful reminder, the tar -cvf command is for extracting tar files, it will not delete the source tar file.<br><br>Mount the tape and manually delete the tar files:<br><br>rm -R *.tar <p> <br><a href=mailto: > </a><br><a href= > </a><br>Yahoo Messenger: coily2

 

[AndyBo]

Oops!&nbsp;&nbsp;The <FONT FACE=monospace>tar -cvf <i>filename</i></font> command will <b>erase</b> tar files or tape archives.<br><br><FONT FACE=monospace>tar -xvf <i>filename</i></font> command will <b>extract</b> archives.<br><br>Think &quot;c = Create&quot; and &quot;x = eXtract&quot;.<br><br>Don't know about mounting tapes, but if you want to delete a tar archive file then &quot;rm filename.tar&quot; will work.<br><br>Also, &quot;tar cvf /path/to/tape/device&quot; without any files specified will just write a new tar header to the tape.&nbsp;&nbsp;The original data will still be there.&nbsp;&nbsp;If you truly want to erase the tape, use a bulk eraser as Octal suggests.&nbsp;&nbsp;(As an alternative, you may be able to do something along the lines of &quot;<FONT FACE=monospace>dd if=/dev/null of=/path/to/tape/device</font>&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp;Then sit back and wait while <FONT FACE=monospace>dd</font> writes \0's all over your tape...)<br><br>Hope this helps.

 

[MikeLacey]

The &quot;dd if=/dev/null of=/path/to/tape/device&quot; trick will write an EOF to the tape - should work fine. <p>Mike<br><a href=mailto:michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com>michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com</a><br><a href=

http://www.cargill.com/>

Cargill's Corporate Web Site</a><br>Please -- Don't send me email questions without posting them in Tek-Tips as well. Better yet -- Post the question in Tek-Tips and send me a note saying "Have a look at so-and-so in the thingy forum would you?"