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amiaopensource / ltopers

Bash scripts to manage LTO cartridges with LTFS
https://github.com/amiaopensource/ltopers
MIT License
39 stars 8 forks source link

clarification for LTO naming #164

Closed privatezero closed 6 years ago

privatezero commented 6 years ago

Users at MIPoPS were following the directions for running formatlto for the first time and ran into some problems with the naming conventions. When they read the following:

The script will ask you select a deck (if you have more than one attached) and to name your tape. There are two different tape ID formats: the 6-char ID must be exactly 6 capital letters and/or numbers the 8-char ID must be exactly 6 capital letters and/or numbers, followed by 'L5', 'L6' or 'L7' specifying the LTO generation.

they interpreted this as meaning they could use either a 6 or 8 character tape ID and selected an 8 character id MIPOPSL7 which lead to an error due to the ID not being 6 characters. They have since switched to the format of A00001 ... with success.

I guess that the documentation here could be cleaned up a little bit to make this difference a little more clear for institutions transitioning to LTOpers for the first time? I would edit myself, but I have only worked with 6 character conventions and am not sure of when an 8 character tape id would work and when it will fail. Is this dependent on machine?

dericed commented 6 years ago

8 char ids were added in https://github.com/amiaopensource/ltopers/commit/0f83013ffd9edda6f0140aecf3575a1943b43397. Can you confirm what error mkltfs provides when an 8 character id is used?

privatezero commented 6 years ago

Here is their terminal output: image

note the Tape serial must be 6 characters

retokromer commented 6 years ago

It depends on which system you are running. I guess, the CUNY-style needs 6 characters [A-Z][0-9], but some racks work with the additional two characters, which facilitates the management of a mix of different generations. I did add the second format as well, in order to be able to use LTOpers in both contexts.

(On which version are you running? The current one should work with LTO-8 as well. Possibly I forgot to update this.)

dericed commented 6 years ago

I can't find source code for mkltfs that permits a tape-serial not equal to 6 characters. https://github.com/amiaopensource/ltfs/blob/e9a6b8283cfae855cacfa8026bfd5aa7e8d476cc/ltfs/messages/bin_mkltfs/root.txt#L68-L69

@retokromer could you please cite a mkltfs source that permits longer strings as the tape serial number?

retokromer commented 6 years ago

@dericed I’m afraid, not from the top of my head: I have to check the docs… I know we have used LTOpers in an 8-chars system for one (I guess) customer here in Switzerland and two (I guess) in Europe. Possibly related to https://github.com/amiaopensource/ltopers/issues/69?

privatezero commented 6 years ago

Thank you!