On Fri, 13 Nov 1998, Perry E. Metzger wrote:

: > : Just as there is a reserved bit in the tape device minor number to
: > : control rewind/norewind, it would be very handy to have a bit that
: > : controls whether compression is enabled or not.
: > 
: > What's wrong with "mt compress 1"/"mt compress 0"?
: 
: Why do we need rewinding devices when we have mt rew?

Good point, but the semantics are a little bit different.  You can "mt rew"
a rewinding device with well defined behavior.

What "mt compress 0/1" does on the compress/nocompress device is a little
more vague; should it keep state on a device declared with a given
compression state?

-- 
-- Todd Vierling (Personal tv@pobox.com; Bus. todd_vierling@xn.xerox.com)