un*x box tape drive

[barmar@Think.COM]

   Date: Tue, 2 Oct 90 10:11:25 -0700
   From: bruno@oz.geology.washington.edu (Steve Willis)

   hello,
      has anyone successfully used a unix box tape drive (say /dev/nrmt8 ) 
   from a lisp machine??  Software support assures me that they don't know
   how to do it, although we can't imagine that it hasnt been done.  Don't
   the UX400's use the host tape drives and other devices??  Does our 70
   need special software for this, do I need to modify the namespace, or
   (god forbid) do we need to get the appropriate protocals and services
   built into the unix kernal??  I would be grateful for any enlightenment
   anyone could provide.
   thanks,
   steve willis

Load the files sys:embedding;ux;unix-protocols and
sys:embedding;ux;unix-tape, or load the systems RPC, Embedding Support, and
UX Support.  Add the service triple "TAPE TCP UNIX-REXEC" to the Unix
host's namespace entry.

Note that there are deficiencies in Unix's remote tape access protocol
(having to do with determining how many writes failed when end-of-tape is
reached) that prevent this from being usable for dumping to Exabyte (8mm)
tape drives.  But it should work for half-inch reel-to-reel tapes and
cartridge tapes.