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Date:      Sun, 07 May 2000 16:48:36 -0700
From:      Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org>
To:        naddy@mips.inka.de (Christian Weisgerber)
Cc:        freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Undocumented tape devices in pax(1) 
Message-ID:  <200005072348.QAA12373@mass.cdrom.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "08 May 2000 00:53:35 %2B0200." <8f4s5f$1nfa$1@bigeye.rhein-neckar.de> 

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> Mike Smith <msmith@FreeBSD.ORG> wrote:
> 
> > The 'r' prefix for tape devices is entirely unrelated to the 'r' prefix 
> > for disk devices.
> 
> I'd like to see some backup for this assertion. Historically, BSD
> (up to 4.4) used to have
> 
>     mt  block device, rewinding
>    nmt  block device, non-rewinding
>    rmt  character device, rewinding
>   nrmt  character device, non-rewinding
> 
> which leaves little room to doubt.

Interesting.  I've never encountered a tape device to which the buffer 
cache was applicable, except for the mythical SunOS swap-to-tape story, 
and the 'r' has always been "rewind" for as long as I can remember.

We haven't made non-'r' devices since MAKEDEV rev 1.5.

-- 
\\ Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. \\  Mike Smith
\\ Tell him he should learn how to fish himself,  \\  msmith@freebsd.org
\\ and he'll hate you for a lifetime.             \\  msmith@cdrom.com




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