Controlling Tapes and Floppy Disks

Because a tape drive or floppy disk drive cannot be shared, it is important to ensure that it is available before any sequence of processes involving the tape drive or floppy disk drive is run under PROC control. Procs cannot mount tapes or continue when the tape is inoperative. The tape and floppy disk control error message numbers (90 through 99) are located in the ERRMSG file. Certain tape or floppy disk difficulties are not amenable to PROC control because they interrupt the process and speak only to the operator of the terminal. In these cases only user intervention can correct the problem. Each time the tape drive or floppy disk drive is used, it is advisable to attach it specifically using the T-ATT command. If the tape or floppy disk is available or is already attached, the command will place 90 nnnn into the PROC secondary input buffer. Message [90] is a mark which specifies that the tape or floppy disk is attached, and nnnn is the tape or floppy disk blocksize. It is advisable to use an explicit block size with the T-ATT command, because there may be times when the prior state of the process is unacceptable.

If the tape drive or floppy disk drive is not available, the T-ATT command will input 95 nn into the PROC secondary input buffer, where 95 is a mark indicating the tape drive or floppy disk drive is not available, and the string nn is the number of the line to which the tape or floppy disk is attached.

The following example uses SP-EDIT in a Proc that spools all selected print files to tape or floppy disk automatically.

See Also

Using Procs for Printer, Tape and Floppy Disk Control

Hold File Retention

Printer Control