Small update:

I changed tape to the new one, once probe more:


hades# tar -cvf /dev/nsa0 restore/ test1/ test/
a restore
a restore/.cshrc
a restore/.mail_aliases
a restore/.login
a restore/.rhosts
a restore/.login_conf
a restore/.mailrc
a restore/.profile
a restore/.shrc
a restore/myharddisk.img
a restore/test
a restore/tarlist
a restore/test1
a restore/terlist
a restore/tapefilelist
a restore/test1/level1
a restore/test1/myharddisk.img
a restore/test1/test.img
a restore/test/level1
a restore/test/myharddisk.img
a test1
a test1/level1
a test1/myharddisk.img
a test1/test.img
a test
a test/level1
a test/myharddisk.img

As I understand all directories above have been added to tape:

hades# mt -f /dev/nsa0 status
Mode Density Blocksize bpi Compression
Current: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
---------available modes---------
0: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
1: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
2: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
3: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
---------------------------------
Current Driver State: at rest.
---------------------------------
File Number: 1 Record Number: 0 Residual Count 0



hades# tar -tvf /dev/nsa0
tar: Error opening archive: Empty input file: Inappropriate file type or format
hades# mt -f /dev/nsa0 rewind
hades# mt -f /dev/nsa0 status
Mode Density Blocksize bpi Compression
Current: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
---------available modes---------
0: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
1: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
2: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
3: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
---------------------------------
Current Driver State: at rest.
---------------------------------
File Number: 0 Record Number: 0 Residual Count 0

Here I have as last time the same situation, only first directory I am able to see. hmmm...strange...

hades# tar -tvf /dev/nsa0
drwxr-xr-x 0 root peter 0 Dec 5 19:49 restore
-rw-r--r-- 0 peter peter 767 Dec 3 21:51 restore/.cshrc
-rw------- 0 peter peter 373 Dec 3 21:51 restore/.mail_aliases
-rw-r--r-- 0 peter peter 248 Dec 3 21:51 restore/.login
-rw------- 0 peter peter 276 Dec 3 21:51 restore/.rhosts
-rw-r--r-- 0 peter peter 158 Dec 3 21:51 restore/.login_conf
-rw-r--r-- 0 peter peter 331 Dec 3 21:51 restore/.mailrc
-rw-r--r-- 0 peter peter 797 Dec 3 21:51 restore/.profile
-rw-r--r-- 0 peter peter 975 Dec 3 21:51 restore/.shrc
-rw-r--r-- 0 root peter 100000 Dec 5 18:02 restore/myharddisk.img


hades# mkdir new
hades# cd new/

Let try to restore tape...

hades# tar -xvf /dev/nsa0
hades# ls -l
total 0
hades# mt -f /dev/nsa0 status
Mode Density Blocksize bpi Compression
Current: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
---------available modes---------
0: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
1: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
2: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
3: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
---------------------------------
Current Driver State: at rest.
---------------------------------
File Number: 0 Record Number: 11 Residual Count 0
hades# mt -f /dev/nsa0 rewind
hades# mt -f /dev/nsa0 status
Mode Density Blocksize bpi Compression
Current: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
---------available modes---------
0: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
1: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
2: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
3: 0x44 variable 0 0x1
---------------------------------
Current Driver State: at rest.
---------------------------------
File Number: 0 Record Number: 0 Residual Count 0

And this is really interested:

hades# tar -xvf /dev/nsa0
x restore
x restore/.cshrc
x restore/.mail_aliases
x restore/.login
x restore/.rhosts
x restore/.login_conf
x restore/.mailrc
x restore/.profile
x restore/.shrc
x restore/myharddisk.img
x restore/test
x restore/tarlist
x restore/test1
x restore/terlist
x restore/tapefilelist
x restore/test1/level1
x restore/test1/myharddisk.img
x restore/test1/test.img
x restore/test/level1
x restore/test/myharddisk.img
x test1
x test1/level1
x test1/myharddisk.img
x test1/test.img
x test
x test/level1
x test/myharddisk.img
hades# ls -l
total 6
drwxr-xr-x 4 root peter 512 Dec 5 19:49 restore
drwxr-xr-x 3 root peter 512 Dec 5 18:05 test
drwxr-xr-x 3 root peter 512 Dec 5 19:43 test1
hades#

So it means that in reality I had on the tape all my directories, maybe on the first I had problem as I make a lot of tests on one tape drive.

So question now is: how to check using tar the all structure of tape drive if we know that it files has been recorded via tar?