I've asked basically the same question before, but my dumps
this week make me raise it again.

Why is taper written such that it tries to write a dump file
clearly too large for the remaining tape?

In the past I've gotten comments back like "set your taper
algorithm".  OK, now I've upgraded to 2.4.4 and set the
algo to largest fit.  Here is what happened this week.

I have runtapes set to 2, though I seldom reach the 2nd tape.

37 of 38 DLE's went to the first of the two tapes.  The 38th
DLE dump was 9.5 GB (compressed).  Space remaining on the tape
was 2.0 GB.  Of course it hit the end of tape and happily went
on the next tape.

So there were 30 minutes of futile taping.  Had there been 7 or
8 GB of tape remaining, it would have wasted 2 - 3 hours.

Why?  Just in case it might "squeeze in"?

-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
 JG Computing
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