Tony,

We use a couple of simple command-files to perform this. Not breathtakin'
elegant, but it works - and has done so for quite some years.

Our backup-stream contains this:
:
!
!setvar tape_ready true
!
!chktape1.com.sys
!
!if tape_ready = false then
!   tellop *** THERE IS NO TAPE...
!   -- perform relevant actions like logging it properly, aborting the
backup, and ....
:

chktape1 does the following:
purge temp
showdev 9 > temp
save temp
run ci.pub.sys;info='chktape2.com.sys';stdin=temp;parm=3


chktape2 does the following:
input z
input z
setvar z lft('!z',60)
setvar l len('!z')
if !l < 16 then
   comment There is not a tape mounted, ready for use
   setvar tape_ready false
endif
deletevar z
deletevar l

Something to work on...

Hans-Ole Kaae
Greenlandair Inc.
[log in to unmask]
http://www.greenland-guide.dk/gla/


----------
> Fra: Tony Knowles <[log in to unmask]>
> Til: [log in to unmask]
> Emne: Problem with devctrl online option
> Dato: 12. oktober 1997 23:52
>
> I have just been trying to programatically determine whether a DAT drive
> has a tape loaded and is online. I thought I would try the online option
of
> devctrl, as in
>
>         :devctrl.mpexl.telesup 7 nochange nochange online
>
> I figured that this would do nothing if the drive was online and would
give
> an error if it wasn't. The first part is true, the second part isn't.
> Devtool seems to hang if there is no tape loaded. Break and abort or
> abortjob fixes it but that wasn't quite what I had in mind.
>
> Any other ideas for checking the online or not state of a tape drive.
>
>
> Tony Knowles     [log in to unmask]
>                  [log in to unmask]