Subject: HEADS UP: default tape is now /dev/nrst0
To: None <current-users@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Luke Mewburn <lukem@connect.com.au>
List: current-users
Date: 04/24/1997 09:35:35
The default tape device for mt(1), dump(8), restore(8), and tcopy(1)
is now /dev/nrst0 - the non-rewinding device. The change was in the
definition of _PATH_DEFTAPE in <paths.h>.

The change was made to ensure that tape movement commands in mt(1)
on the default device actually did something (otherwise the default
rewinding device would rewind the tape after mt closed the device at
the end of the operation).

This may cause breakage in scripts that depended upon the default
device being the rewinding /dev/rmt8 (which is unlikely except on
platforms with rmt8, such as NetBSD/vax ?)

This decision was made after discussions of the subject on the
tech-userlevel mailing list, and was made with approval from
Charles Hannum <mycroft@netbsd.org>

--
Luke Mewburn <lukem@connect.com.au>
(Janov) Pelorat said, "It seems to me, Golan, that the advance of civilization
is nothing but an exercise in the limiting of privacy."
                                             -- `Foundations Edge', Isaac Asimov