Duplicating tapes

Duplicating tapes involves the block-by-block transfer of an input tape. Multifile/multivolume sets (MF/MV sets, see the manual [1] "Introductory Guide to DMS") can also be transferred.

The tapes must be assigned via their VSNs using the ASSIGN-INPUT-TAPE and ASSIGN-OUTPUT-TAPE statements.

A tape is read as far as the double tape mark which delimits the tape.

If not enough output tapes are specified for the output data when duplicating tapes, PERCON issues the message PER0084 and requests the operator to mount another output tape. Further tapes are requested until the duplication operation has been completed. If the operator ignores any of these requests, PERCON outputs the message PER0069 and aborts the conversion step, with the result that the copy will be incomplete.

Tapes or MF/MV sets with standard or nonstandard labels or without labels can be processed.

The following applies to MF/MV sets with standard labels:
If the input and output tapes have different sizes or recording densities, tape marks and labels which serve only to continue a file on the next tape are not transferred to the output set. As a result the input and output tapes do not have the same number of labels. If, on the other hand, input and output tapes have the same size and recording density, all standard labels are transferred to the MF/MV output set (including those required for continuing a file). The result is an MF/MV set with standard labels.

The following applies to MF/MV sets without standard labels:
PERCON transfers the contents of each input tape to an output tape without restructuring the data, thus creating another MF/MV set without standard labels.

Notes

• FDDRL save tape sets cannot be copied unless PERCON uses the user interface provided by FDDRL. Individual FDDRL tapes (not sets) can, however, be copied without the user interface (see example on "Copying an FDDRL save tape ").

• The copying function provided by ARCHIVE must be used instead of PERCON for copying ARCHIVE save tape sets (see manual [10] "ARCHIVE"). Since HSMS uses ARCHIVE, this also applies for tapes created using HSMS.

• In the case of physical access to tapes, i.e. when editing and duplicating, labels are also read and written like data blocks. The precondition for this is that the user has the relevant access rights (e.g. with /MODIFY-USER-ATTRIBUTES PROTECTION-ATTRIBUTE= *PAR(TAPE-ACCESS=*BYPASS-LABEL) ).