Re: [Bug-tar] tar feature req.: send rmt close command

[Joerg Schilling]

>From: Bas van Sisseren <address@hidden>

>I'm working on a backup-server project and therefore I chose to use the
>tar remote-file features. While developing I noticed tar doesn't send a
>rmt_close command. Now I'd like to know whether the connection was reset
>(due to an error, segfault, whatever..) or that the file upload completed
>successfully.

Thank you for this hint, it tuned out, that star also did not close the archive 
by default since 1994 (when the FIFO did become the default).

Therefore I added a close instruction for the FIFO case to:

        ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/star/alpha/star-1.5a42.tar.gz


But how would you detect the fact of an unclosed archive?

>From my understanding, this is not possible unless you write your own rmt 
server (which I definitely not recommend) or if you edit /etc/default/rmt to 
enable debugging and use the rmt server that comes with star.

Note that I recommend rmt from star for security, speed and interoperability
issues. Interoperability is a big issue as some OS (e.g. Linux) do not follow 
unwritten laws and may cause big problems (see README.mtio). Star's rmt 
implements the rmt version 2+ protocol that that deals with these problems....

If you really like to write your own rmt server, be prepared that star closes 
and re-opens the tape in case of a multi-volume archive.


Jörg

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