>Hello all. I'm attempting to restore a couple of files using amrecover, but I 
>am confused as to what the proper behavior of amrecover should be.  I 
>successfully get the files that I've added to the extraction list. But, when 
>it finishes untarring the last file, it just sits there forever. Shouldn't it 
>eventually return to the amrecover prompt?

Depends on what you mean by "sits there" and "forever".  :-)

Because of the way tar works, it's possible for there to be multiple
copies of the same file (name) in the image.  Amanda doesn't do that,
but tar doesn't know it.  So even though you know it has reloaded the last
file you asked for, tar doesn't know that and it has to keep reading the
entire image until it gets to end of file (some versions of dump/restore
do the same thing, although usually for stupidity rather than dealing
with a feature).

Depending on how big the image is, that could take quite a while.
So if the tape drive is still spinning while you think you're done,
this might be what's going on.  Eventually it will get to end of file
and you should get your amrecover prompt back.

When I get in this state and am **absolutely certain** the "last"
file has been reloaded, I kill the amrestore process on the server.
That usually puts the drive into high speed search mode looking for the
next tape mark.  It certainly stops shipping all the data across the wire.

John R. Jackson, Technical Software Specialist, jrj AT purdue DOT edu