The RSTS riddle.

[Paul Koning]

> On May 21, 2016, at 3:28 PM, Rod Smallwood <rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com> wrote:
>   Second point:
>          The RSTS install tape is just a bunch of files.
>         There's nothing requiring image copy to deal with funny file formats

No, that is not accurate.  An install tape (for V9 or later) is a bootable tape with a backup set on it.  Bootable tapes have DOS labels, but backupsets have ANSI labels.  The install tape is a hybrid, part DOS, part ANSI.  I'd have to dig in the machinery to find the details, but I definitely remember that it's a rather odd beast.

If you do an image copy of the TAP file to tape none of this matters.

	paul