Nevermind, I hadn't read the other message in the thread.  I
see the rationale, playing to the least common denominator
for being sure about the position and such...but surely some
overrides would be useful.  I just thought maybe there were
some already.

Anyways, the current strategy is probably "good enough" for
me for now.  Thanks for the explanation!

Cc amanda-users AT amanda DOT org on Tue 30/12 17:47 -0500:
> Richard Bond on Tue 30/12 14:34 -0800:
> > "By Design" is the official answer, to prevent overwriting
> > data you have already saved.
> > 
> > [...]
> > 
> > 1. Reading it all in and then writing it all back out
> > again are two more opportunities for entropy (and Murphy )
> > to get at your data.
> > 
> > 2. tape heads have limited lifespans compared to the rest
> > of your computers.
> >
> > tapes are cheap compared the cost of losing data and the
> > labor to restore it.  Buy more tape, that's a better use
> > of your time and money.
> 
> Um, both of those assume I've taken the tape out of the
> drive and/or used the rewinding tape device.  Why not just
> leave it at the current filemark and if it's still there at
> same tell position on next run, just resume backup there at
> next filemark? If tape leaves drive, just fsf to the
> filemark that we left off at, no need to rewrite any data.
> Don't see how this strategy would cause undue wear and tear
> on tape device.