How do I untar multiple archives from tape?

Question

I have a tape with multiple tar files on it. I do not know how many (it was created by a third party and sent to me with minimal information). How do I untar all the files without having to repeat the tar -xvf /dev/st2 command 100 times. I need to repeat this for 45 tapes, each with possibly a 100 files

Most *nix tape drivers have a non-rewinding variant (probably `/dev/rst2` in your case). Use that as the device, and look into the `mt` program, that allows you to forward- and backward-space over individual files on the tape. — , Oct 30 '12 at 21:22
They put a 100 archives on each tape? Or one archive with a 100 files? — Hennes, Oct 30 '12 at 23:06
Seems like it. Its from a third party, I am trying to follow up with them to find out why they did that! — Anu, Oct 30 '12 at 23:56
Seems like a script is the way to go. ServerFault will not let me post an answer to my question until tomorrow...but the answer is a simple script with a loop in it to extract the tar files — Anu, Oct 30 '12 at 23:56
A csh one liner might even be enough. Something using the return value from tar. E.g. while (! tar -xf /dev/nst0 ) echo "Another file done. Repeating for the next one!" — Hennes, Oct 31 '12 at 00:35
Litte late, but closing the loop here. Hennes' answer worked. — Anu, Sep 12 '13 at 19:37
@Anu - then you should give his question the checkmark to indicate this for future visitors — Mark Henderson, Sep 12 '13 at 23:33

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 12 '13 at 19:57

If the tape drive has a non-rewinding interface you can use a loop to extract one file after another.

Typical examples of tape drive name are: /dev/rst2 for raw access to a rewinding SCSI tapedrive, and /dev/nrst2 or /dev/tape/nrst2 for the same device without rewinding (non rewinding)

This can be combined with the exit code from tar. Like all unix program exit code 0 means "success, no problems."

This you can use a somewhat ugly one liner in a shell:
while (! tar -xf /dev/nst0 ) echo "Another file done. Repeating for the next one!"

Or write a somewhat neater program:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
return_value=0
counter=$1
while [ return_value -eq 0 ]
do
   echo starting on file number $1
   return_value=$(( tar -xf /dev/nst0 ))
   echo file nu,ber $1 extracted from tape.
   counter=$(( $counter + 1 ))
done
echo Reached end of tape or tar returned an error.
echo exiting.

_{Untested script!}

How do I untar multiple archives from tape?

1 Answers1