UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I AM A NEWBIE PLEASE HELP!!
IF YOU HAVE KSH YOU SHOULD USE A TAR COMMAND

HOW DO YOU VIEW A TAPE WITH JUST AN SH.

MY MIS CRASHED AND I KEEP GETTING AN ERROR MESSAGE
CANNOT FORK: TOO MANY PROCESSES

First off, don't post in all caps. It's rude.

Second, tar has nothing to do with ksh or sh. It's a seperate application.

Third, if you are getting that error message, it sounds like you process table is full - meaning you can not run any more programs, including tar.

If you are able to enter commands again (perhaps after a reboot, or killing off a LOT of processes, the command would be:
tar tf file.tar

If it has a lot of files in it, you may need to pipe it through more, like this:
tar tf file.tar | more

Hope that helps.

in HP-UX its tar tv

this shows the contents of the tape

Either use man tar
or try this command
tar -tvf tar file name
this tar file name can be a device file like your backup device file name.