To copy items to backup media, type TAPE in response to the FILE NAME: prompt. A backup medium label that includes the block size, time, date, and file name is written to the backup medium, then the data from the specified attributes is dumped in the order specified by the REFORMAT or SREFORMAT statement. A backup media record is created for each item specified.
Reformatted items are not written to backup media in T-DUMP format, so they cannot be accessed by other INFO/ACCESS queries using the TAPE modifier. They may, however, be read using T-READ or by an mvBASIC program.
Nor is it possible to specify the user’s own backup medium label with the HEADER modifier as is possible when writing items to backup media using T-DUMP and S-DUMP. The user may, however, suppress the default backup medium label with the HDR-SUPP modifier.
Before writing items to backup media, use T-ATT to specify a block size for backup media records proportional to the amount of data to be written. For example, if the data to be written amounts to less than 100 characters for each item, it makes sense to specify a block size of 512 rather than a larger block size, such as 16,896.
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