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-
- TAPE WORM-FS
- USER'S GUIDE
-
- INTRODUCTION
-
- Congratulations on your purchase of TapeWorm-FS for your Amiga computer!
- TapeWorm-FS is fully-functional filesystem for SCSI tape drives. By
- using TapeWorm-FS you may access your tape drive just as you would any
- other AmigaDOS volume. That means that you can get directories, add and
- delete files, copy files, and perform all file management operations
- as if you were using a floppy or hard disk drive. Note: Since through
- TapeWorm-FS your tape drive functions as a Write Once Read Many (WORM)
- drive, all data copied to the drive remains on the tape even if you
- delete files. See the section on Using TapeWorm-FS for more information.
-
- System Requirements
-
- TapeWorm-FS will work on any Amiga computer (or Video Toaster Workstation)
- operating under Workbench 2.x or above with a SCSI tape drive (DAT,
- 8mm, or QIC format). There are no minimum memory requirements. Drives
- that support the SCSI II fast search mode are recommended for superior
- performance.
-
- Installation
-
- The TapeWorm-FS disk is not copy protected in any way so you may
- make one archival copy in order to protect your investment. To install
- Tape-Worm-FS onto your hard drive, follow these steps:
-
- Step 1: Immediately make a backup copy of your TapeWorm-FS original disk,
- and store it in a safe place.
- Step 2: Insert the copy of the TapeWorm-FS disk into a floppy drive, and
- open the disk by double-clicking on its icon from Workbench.
- Step 3: Once the disk contents are displayed on your screen, you will see
- an icon named "Install TapeWorm-FS". This is the installation
- program that will place the TapeWorm-FS files into the proper
- locations. Double click on this icon to execute the installation
- program.
- Step 4: The TapeWorm-FS Installation Program window will appear on your
- screen. You must Set Installation Mode by selecting the
- Intermediate User or Expert User gadget. The Expert User mode
- will allow you to control the installation process at every step,
- letting you decide exactly where you wish each file to be
- installed. Click on the Proceed With Install gadget to continue
- or the Abort Install gadget to end the process.
-
- TapeWorm-FS is now installed on your system. You must now set your
- system-configuration. See the section on Configuring TapeWorm-FS.
-
- If you do not wish to use the installation program to install TapeWorm-FS,
- you may perform a manual installation by following these steps:
-
- Step 1a: If your system is operation under AmigaDOS 2.1 or later, copy the
- file 'Tape' from the TapeWorm-FS disk to your system's
- 'Devs:DosDrivers' directory.
- Step 1b: If your system is operating under AmigaDOS 2.0, append the
- contents of 'TW.Mountlist' file to your system's 'Devs:MountList'
- file and add the command 'Mount TAPE:' to your system's
- 'S:User-Startup' file.
- Step 2: Copy the file 'TapeWorm-FS' to your system's 'L:' directory.
-
- If a previous version of TapeWorm-FS is already installed on your system,
- and you wish to update the version you are using, perform these steps:
-
- Step 1: Copy the file 'TapeWorm-FS' from the disk to your system's 'L:'
- directory.
- Step 2: Copy the TWConfig and TWCtrl files to the directory of your
- choice.
-
- TapeWorm-FS is now installed on your system. Now you must configure your
- drive for operation on your system and set the TapeWorm-FS options.
-
- The TapeWorm-FS Utilities
- -------------------------
-
- TW Config
-
- Before you can use TapeWorm-FS, you must properly configure the TW.config
- file to reflect your system configuration. You may do so by using the
- TWConfig utility which was placed in the location on your hard drive
- that you specified during the installation procedure.
-
- Start the TWConfig program from Workbench or CLI, and the TWConfig screen
- will appear. From this screen you will be able to:
-
- Configure Drive
- Set Options
- Format
- Recover
-
- Configure Drive
-
- Click on the Configure Drive gadget to configure your drive for use
- under TapeWorm-FS.
-
- Device
-
- Under the Device requester, you will be able to select the device driver
- for your SCSI controller. (For example, if your computer is the Amiga
- 3000, you would select "scsi.device" for Commodore's SCSI controller.)
-
- Unit
-
- You must select the Unit number for the SCSI tape device you wish to
- use under TapeWorm-FS.
-
- Blocksize
-
- Specify the block size for your tape drive by clicking on this cycle
- gadget. It is recommended that you leave the blocksize at 512 bytes
- for all drives except Exabyte 8mm drives, which should have a blocksize
- of 1024 bytes.
-
- TapeSize
-
- Enter the approximate size of the tape being used in this gadget (this
- allows the TapeWorm-FS to calculate percentage of tape full when
- displaying information about the tape device).
-
- When you have configured the drive, click on Save gadget. Click on the
- Cancel gadget of you do not wish to save the current configuration.
-
- Note that most of these options only take effect when TapeWorm-FS is
- started. You must reboot or kill (see the TWControl section) and restart
- the filesystem for the changes to take effect.
-
- Set Options
-
- There are several options you may select for the operation of TapeWorm-FS.
- Click on the Set Options gadget on the TWConfig main screen.
-
- Buffer Reads
-
- Files are copied to your Buffer Path (see the next page for an explanation
- of the Buffer Path) when they are opened. The system then reads from
- the files that are in your Buffer Path. This feature is only really
- useful if the program you are using repeatedly seeks throughout the file.
- For example, most 'LHARC' programs seek back and forth when extracting
- files.
-
- Buffer Writes
-
- Files are written to your Buffer Path and copied to tape when the file
- is closed. This is necessary for programs that seek around in a file
- as they are writing. Most programs that write IFF files seek back to the
- beginning of the file after they are done writing, so this option is very
- useful. Also, this option allows multiple files to be written to the
- tape simultaneously, which is not normally possible, due to the inherent
- limitations of tape drives.
-
- Keep Directory on Tape
-
- If your tape drive supports partitioning, selecting this option will let
- TapeWorm-FS keep the directory of the tape on the tape itself. The
- directory will be kept in your directory path only when the tape is in
- the drive. When you have selected this option, you must use the TWControl
- program to eject the tape, since TapeWorm-FS needs to update the directory
- on the tape to reflect the temporary directory that is on the hard disk.
- TapeWorm-FS will lock the tape in the drive (on drives that support this
- feature) so that the tape may not be ejected manually. If your system
- crashes or otherwise fails before the temporary directory is written
- to the tape, the temporary directory will be updated the next time you
- insert the tape. Unlike the other available options, this option takes
- effect when you format a tape and remains in effect for that tape.
-
- Existing Files Are Read Only
-
- This is the normal mode of operation for TapeWorm-FS. Files can be read
- or overwritten, but they cannot be opened and subsequently written to.
- If both the Buffer Reads and Buffer Writes are enabled, you can turn
- off this option so that files may be updated in place.
-
- Keep '.info' Files With Directory
-
- By default, '.info' files are kept on tape just as other files.
- However, this results in slow Workbench performance as it must seek
- around the tape to load files. Selecting this option directs
- TapeWorm-FS to keep '.info' files as part of the directory file.
-
- Directory Path
-
- This is where you specify the location in which you wish TapeWorm-FS
- to store the device directories. The default path is your system's
- 'S:' directory.
-
- Buffer Path
-
- If you have selected Buffer Reads or Buffer Writes, this is the location
- in which TapeWorm-FS will maintain the buffer. The default path is in
- your system's RAM device. The buffer is used to store files for reading
- and writing (when Buffer Reads or Buffer Writes is selected) so that
- these operations will be performed more quickly than if the reads and
- writes were from the tape directly.
-
- When you have set the options you desire, click on the Save gadget.
- Click on the Cancel gadget if you do not wish to save the current
- configuration.
-
- Format
-
- Before accessing your tape drive through TapeWorm-FS, you must insert
- a tape into your drive and format the tape. Insert the tape you wish
- to format into the tape drive. To format the tape, click on the Format
- gadget on the TWConfig main screen. A requester will appear that asks
- you to Enter volume name you wish to give to the tape. Type the name
- into this requester and click on the Continue gadget. TapeWorm-FS will
- now format your tape. If you wish to exit without formatting a tape,
- click on the Abort gadget.
-
- WARNING: You must only format the tape before using it for the first
- time. If you format the tape again, any data that may have been
- previously written to the tape will be lost.
-
- Recover
-
- Should your tape directory become unavailable to you. TapeWorm-FS
- allows you to rebuild a directory file from the information on a tape.
- Insert the tape for which you wish to have a directory rebuilt, then
- click on this gadget on the TWConfig main screen.
-
- TWCtrol
-
- The TWCtrl utility has the following four options (they can also be
- invoked from the CLI using the template "TWCtrl <command>):
-
- Inhibit
- Un-Inhibit
- Kill
- Eject
-
- Inhibit
-
- Selecting this option prevents the filesystem from accessing the tape
- drive. This allows you to make use of other programs that access the
- tape drive, such as backup utilities (i.e., Ami-Back).
-
- Un-Inhibit
-
- Selecting this option allows the filesystem to access the tape drive
- after it has been inhibited.
-
- Kill
-
- This option causes the filesystem to exit. This is useful if you want
- the filesystem to be restarted in order to load a new configuration
- or if you are done using the current configuration. This will only
- take affect if there are no outstanding locks on the filesystem
- (e.g., there are no assigns to the filesystem, you aren't CD'd to it,
- and there is no volume in the drive).
-
- Eject
-
- The option causes the tape in the drive to be ejected (on drives that
- support eject). If the tape was formatted with the "Keep Directory
- on Tape" option, the directory on the tape will be updated.
-
- Using TapeWorm-FS
-
- TapeWorm-FS allows you to access files on your tape device in the same
- way as you would any other AmigaDOS device. The commands such as
- dir, copy, list, delete, etc. work transparently on a device accessed
- through TapeWorm-FS. However, since data cannot actually be deleted
- from within a tape (data can only be appended to a tape without writing
- over the existing data), TapeWorm-FS causes your tape device to
- function as a Write Once Read Many (WORM) drive. This means that every
- file ever written to the device remains on the device, even if you delete
- the file.
-
- When you use the delete command on a file that is located on a TapeWorm-
- FS device, the directory file that is maintained for the device is
- updated so that the filename will no longer appear by using the
- standard AmigaDOS and Workbench commands. However, you can still access
- overwritten or deleted files from the CLI by using the special
- character "@" with a directory or filename.
-
- Type "file@<number>" to obtain the version <number> of file. Versions
- start at 1 and go up. The latest version of a file does not have a
- version number.
-
- Type "dir@" in order to have deleted or overwritten files show up in
- the directory listing using the "file@<number>" notation.
-
- Type "dir@<date>" in order to display only files less than or equal
- to <date> in the directory listing. This also uses the
- "file@<number>" notation.
-
- Theory of Operation
-
- TapeWorm-FS is an AmigaDOS filesystem handler. A handler acts as an
- interface which allows AmigaDOS to access a piece of hardware. For
- example, 'SER:' allows access to the Amiga's serial port. A filesystem
- handler not only allows access to a storage device, but it maintains
- information on the device about files and directories as well.
-
- Unlike a hard drive, a streaming tape drive does not allow any arbitrary
- block on the tape to be read or written. Data can only be written by
- being appended to the end of the tape. Also, the tape must be positioned
- to read an arbitrary block. Positioning the tape requires much more
- than the corresponding hard disk operation.
-
- Due to these limitations, TapeWorm-FS does not keep directory and file
- information on the tape itself as FastFileSystem or other hard disk
- filesystems would. TapeWorm-FS maintains the directory information
- in a file on your hard disk, and it uses the tape only for storing
- the actual file data (as well as recovery information).
-
- Performance
-
- Once your directory files become large you will notice a slow-down
- when performing directory operations. This is due to the way AmigaDOS
- performs seeks within large files. We recommend adding buffers (using
- the AmigaDOS command AddBuffers) to the drive on which your "Directory
- Path" is located. As a rule of thumb, add one buffer for every 36k in
- size of the largest directory file.
-
- The Buffer Reads and Buffer Writes options can greatly increase
- performance for programs that seek around in a file, or perform lots
- of little reads and writes. A RAM directory is the best place to set
- your Buffer Path except when you have files that are larger than the
- amount of free RAM available on your system.
-
- Note: The most efficient way to use a tape drive is to read files off
- in the same order they were put on. This eliminates seek time, since
- after reading a file the tape is immediately positioned to read the
- next file.
-
- Appendix I:
-
- TW.Config File Format
-
- DEVICE = <scsi device name>
- UNIT = <scsi unit number>
- BLOCKSIZE = <block size in bytes>
- TAPESIZE = <size of tape in blocks (=MB*2048 for 512 byte blocks)>
- DIRPATH = <path to keep directory files (with trailing '/')>
- FASTLOCATE = <TRUE or FALSE, to (use/not use) SCSI2 fast locate command>
- DEBUG = <optional debug file name and path>
- BUFFPATH = <path to keep temporary files (with trailing '/')>
- BUFFERREADS = <TRUE or FALSE, Copy file to BuffPath on open>
- BUFFERWRITES = <TRUE or FALSE, Write file to BuffPath, copy on close>
- DRIVE = <the manufacture and model of the drive this setup is for>
- SUPP_PARTITION = <TRUE or FALSE, Does this drive support partitioning?>
- MAXBLOCKSIZE = <Maximum blocksize of this drive>
- PARTITION = <TRUE or FALSE, Keep directories on tape>
- READONLY = <TRUE or FALSE, Existing files are read only>
- INFOWITHDIR = <TRUE or FALSE, ".info" files are kept in directory>
- USE24BITDMA =<TRUE or FALSE, Use 24 bit DMA-able memory for buffers>
-
- The following is an example TW.Config file:
-
- DEVICE = scsi.device
- UNIT = 4
- BLOCKSIZE = 512
- TAPESIZE = 1300
- DIRPATH = SYS:S/
- FASTLOCATE = TRUE
- DEBUG = SYS:debug/
- BUFFPATH = RAM:
- BUFFERREADS = TRUE
- BUFFERWRITES = TRUE
- DRIVE = ARCHIVE Python
- SUPP_PARTITION = TRUE
- MAXBLOCKSIZE = 16777215
- PARTITION = TRUE
- READONLY = FALSE
- INFOWITHDIR = TRUE
- USE24BITDMA = FALSE
-
- Appendix II:
-
- Compatible Tape Drives
-
- The following is a partial list of the drives which are compatible
- with TapeWorm-FS.
-
- Archive Python DAT drive
- Archive Sidewinder 250
- Archive Viper 2525s
- Commodore 3070
- Exabyte 8mm
- Hewlet Packard DAT drive
- Sony DAT drive
- Tandberg 3640
- Teac MT-2ST
- Wangtek 5125
- Wangtek 5150es
- Wangtek 5525es
- Wangtek 6200 DAT
- Wangtek SCSI-36
- Xybyte 8mm (2.3 gigabytes)
-
- If you are able to use TapeWorm-FS successfully with a tape drive not
- listed about, please contact us so that we may include the drive name
- in the next manual revision.
-