[plug] Erasing a file from the end of a tape

[Julian Clark]

Just a quick thought....

Did you add a count to the dd?

otherwise I think it'll write just one zero.

Cheers,

Julian


Ryan wrote:
> On Tue, 2004-10-19 at 16:42, Julian Clark wrote:
> 
>>Hi Ryan
>>Umm, I'm no expert in this, but perhaps the dd command may be of some 
>>use to you. If I'm completely wrong, hopefully someone will set me straight.
>>
>>Anyway.. something like this could do the trick.
>>dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/your_tape_drive 
>>seek=num_blocks_to_start_of_long_file bs=some_block_size
>>
>>As always, man dd will give you a better explanation than I can.
> 
> 
> Before posting I did try this by seeking to the end of the last complete
> file and just writing /dev/zero and hoping it would write to the end of
> the tape, get an I/O error and stop.  I couldn't get dd to accept my
> tape as an output device though :(
> 
> Anyone know if 'dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/tape' is meant to work as we are
> both anticipating?  For me it just exists instantly with 0 blocks
> written.
> 
> Ryan
> 
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