VMS Magtape Utility

  MSP is a utility to position unmounted/unlabelled tapes
  Operates on tape defined by logical name $TAPE1

  Originally this was written for PDP11 under RSX11M, where such
  a utility was not available. On VMS there are the SET MAGTAPE 
  commands, which perform most of the operations.
  But some functions may still be of use on VMS.

   DCL commandline:
   MSP command [par1 [par2 ... [parN]]]

   Commands are:
   RW or REwind   rewind to BOT
   AP             position to end of last file for append
   NEW            position behind last file on volume for next file
   POS nf[:nb]    position to file nf, block nb (nf,nb=1,2,....)
   EOF            write EOF at current tape position
   SEnse          sense characteristic (return ch. in exstat)
   CB             count blocks to next EOF (return # in exstat)
   UN             rewind and unload tape
   MOVE nf[:nb]   move  files forward (nf>0) or backwards (nf<0)
     and optional nb blocks after file positioning
   DEnsity n      set density n (=800,1600,6250,833)
   RBblock n      Read n Blocks from current position

	The calling process must have the log_io privilege or the
	tape must be mounted /FOREIGN (the normal case).

Program source files:

  1. msp.for main program
  2. make_msp.com compile and link commands
  3. msp.com example how to use MSP
  4. mtsense.inc include file for mtutil
  5. mtutil.for magtape routines
  6. fparse.for subroutines
  7. getcml.for subroutines
  8. gcml$codes.inc include file for getcml

To make the command available to DCL, either
$ MSP :== $location:MSP.EXE ,or
put MSP.EXE into DCL$PATH .


Joseph Huber , huber AT mppmuDOTmpgDOTde