Hmm interesting.  Mksysb used to copy the rootvg file systems to the 4th
tape file.
I hadn't tried disk.  Ran a test and it turns out mksysb is using backup to
just copy
files to your disk mksysb file.  Ergo to get a single file, use restore.
Check the man pages.  This was on an AIX 4.3.3. system.

Make sure you aren't at top level / when you run the command or it will
overwrite existing
/etc/hosts.  I would:
cd /tmp
restore -T -f /wherever/whatever.mksysb.file
to verify this is going to work.
restore -x -f /wherever/whatever.mksysb.file ./etc/hosts

Note on the restores, you get a prompt
Please mount volume 1 on /wherever/whatever.mksysb.file
... and press Enter to continue
 just hit enter and the program should continue.
Restored file should then be under /tmp/etc/hosts

As to your second question:  anything is possible, but who wants to learn
how to
write a program to mimic backup format.  Use mksysb to restore an operating
system.
Use TSM to restore changing files.  To do what you want, you could restore
the
entire mksysb backup file (assuming you have enough disk space), edit/modify
the host file then
back it up again.  The man pages says these file mksysb are only good for
NIM restores and are
not bootable as a tape would be.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pothula S Paparao [SMTP:9pothula AT SG.IBM DOT COM]
> Sent: Thu, September 13, 2001 11:34 AM
> To:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject:      append a file to mksysb image
> Importance:   High
>
> Hi ,
> I know that this is AIX related question , i have ray of hope that some
> body could help me in this regard. my query is.
> Its possible to restore a single file (/etc/hosts) from mksysb image that
> is stored in my hard disk (not in tape). like wise, is it possible to
> append the same file to the same image after modifying the contents of it.
> how?
>
> Help in this regards is highly appriciated.
> thanks in advance.
> regards
> sree.