6.6 Setting Up the TAR Utility

Determine if the TAR utility is set up.

:LISTFILE /dev/tape,2

If the output is similar to this:

PATH= /dev/
 CODE  ---------LOGICAL RECORD----------  ----SPACE---- FILENAME
   SIZE  TYP  EOF  LIMIT R/B   SECTORS  #X   MX
   128W  BBd    0     1  1          0     0    *    tape

Then the TAR set up file already exists. Proceed to the next section on your checklist.

If the output does not show a tape file, proceed to Step 2.

Setup the TAR utility.

If you plan to use the tape archive utility (TAR) with the POSIX shell, create the default link file /dev/tape:

:MKNOD "/dev/tape c 0 n"

where:

/dev/tape is device link filename

c and 0 are two parameters c (lowercase) and 0 (zero) required to create a device link file

n is LDEV number of the tape device on the system that the device link file is linked to

Straight quotes are required around all the parameters.