DDSTOOL(1)

💖 DDSTOOL — ok bestie, let's talk tape management 💖

so like, this is ddstool from the General Commands Manual section of the Unix manuals (section 1, the commands girlies ✨). it's a lil shell script that manages dds tapes. that's the whole vibe.

🌸 NAME 🌸

ddstool — a simple shell script to manage dds tapes 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ddstool <command> <options>

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

ok so this manual page gives you the brief rundown on the ddstool command. heads up tho: this page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution 🐧 — other people can totally use it too, no gatekeeping — and the reason it exists at all is that the original program doesn't ship with a manual page. so we made one. you're welcome 💅

🚨 big important caveat, no cap: the version of tar that's shipping in Debian these days does not contain the patch needed to support the --record-file option. so unless you're running a locally patched version of tar, this program will do nothing useful. literally nothing. it's giving decorative. 😭 so go patch your tar or don't bother, bestie.

🎀 how to actually use it 🎀

First, label a tape:

ddstool create-label 'unique-string and more'

To archive something:

ddstool append pathnames...

To delete the old index-files and make a new label:

ddstool new-label 'unique-string and more strings'

🧚 where the indexes live 🧚

each index is stored by the pathnames:

$A/$unique-string.$file-number              (soft link)

$A/$timestamp-of-the-tapelabel.$file-number (file)

yes the first one is a soft link and the second one is a real file, keep that straight or you'll be confused later, iykyk 🫶

👑 AUTHOR 👑

this manual page was written by Christian Schwarz for the Debian GNU/Linux system. iconic behavior honestly 🌟

ok that's the whole page bestie, you're so smart for reading all of it, mwah 💜 this was DDSTOOL(1) from the General Commands Manual, dated 9 Januar 1997 — yeah she's vintage, she's a classic, she ate and left no crumbs 🍓✨ bye!!