> This works fine for amdump, but fails for amrecover. I got beyond the point 
> that amrecover uses the tape changer. By inspecting various log files in 
> /tmp/amanda I found out that the tape changer indeed is called to search for 
> a specific tape, but bails out saying "Cannot open TTY".
> 
> Am I right in my perception that this is a feature rather than a bug, because 
> amrecover contacts the tape server via socket connection and the tape server 
> (possibly even residing on a different host) does not have a TTY ?

Correct.  I ran into this with chg-manual while modifying amrecover and
amidxtaped recently, and decided to ignore it for the time being.

> If my perception is right, is there any other way for the tape changer to 
> communicate with the person that called amrecover (perhaps using the socket 
> connection) ?

In the course of hacking, I ended up having my code deal with a no changer
situation by establish a control connection between the amrecover client and
server to prompt for new tapes.  It was a whole big thing.  I dunno if that
will get merged at any point, but if so then creating some way for changer
scripts to speak through that channel would probably be the way to go.

(honest question, because I have no idea) If you have to manually change tapes
anyway, what does the changer script do for you?

-- 
John Stange, Systems Administrator
National Academies Press
202-334-3514