dds-dd(1L)

📦
version 2.5.2 · 2 versions
, in opensuse-leap 16.0

💅 dds-dd — the tape-reading bestie (section 1L of the manual, iykyk)

okay so real talk: dds-dd is a tool to read a dds device. that's it, that's the whole vibe. she's a little legend from section 1L and she's here to slurp data off your DAT tape and hand it to you on stdout. 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

dds-dd [ -f device ]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

dds-dd reads a dds tape device (DAT, bestie — the chunky lil cartridge kind). Every single block gets read and then written straight out to stdout. no gatekeeping, no drama.

and here's the iconic part: a tape with an unknown block size, or even blocks of different sizes, can still be read. she does not care. she does not judge. she simply reads. 👑

The default device is /dev/rmt0 — but that can be overridden with the environment variable TAPE, which in turn can be overridden with the -f device option. so it's like a whole priority chain, very main character energy. 🦋

⭐ heads up bestie: the device must be a character special file. no cap, that's a hard requirement.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -f device — this is where you tell her which device to read, bestie. The device of the tape archive, and yeah, the default is /dev/rmt0. it must be a character special file connected to a dds tape device — that part is not negotiable, fr fr.
  • -V, --version — prints the version number of mt-dds to stderr and exits immediately. that's it, that's the whole moment. ✨ (and yes, it says mt-dds — not me, that's literally what the page says, i'm just the messenger 🫶)
  • --help — prints some screens of online help with examples, piped through a pager, then exits immediately. cute lil guided tour, then she's out. 💖

🧚 EXAMPLES 🧚

Example: read the tape and make a listing:

dds-dd | tar ft -

Example: read the tape and make a listing:

dds-dd | cpio -it

(yes those two example descriptions are literally identical in the original and honestly? slay. two paths, same dream. 🌈)

🍓 ENVIRONMENT 🍓

The environment variable TAPE overrides the default tape device /dev/rmt0. so if you're the kind of girlie who sets env vars and never looks back — this one's for you. 💜

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

go read those too, bestie, they're all in the same friend group. 💀

⭐ HISTORY ⭐

This program was created to use it in conjunction with dds2tar. a true collab. 🤝

👑 AUTHOR 👑

J"org Weule (weule@cs.uni-duesseldorf.de), Phone +49 211 751409.

This software is available at ftp.uni-duesseldorf.de:/pub/unix/apollo. go get it, she's iconic. 🎀

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🫶 this lil masterpiece is version 2.4, dated right there in the footer of the original dds-dd(1L) page — so go forth, read those tapes, and remember: every block gets written to stdout. periodt. 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from