This is version 0.21 of ntape, a free colored ncurses program to
manage tapes. ntape allows you to archive files, directories and
combinations of them on tape and lets you save some additional
informations to a database. 
If you want to extract the whole archive or parts of it from tape you
can do this in a comfortable way.
ntape was created for archiving small packages (< 100 files) and that
is what ntape is suitable for. For whole partition backups the BSD
programs dump and restore might be the better solution.
To control ntape you need only the cursor keys, tab and CR (except for
text input). This may be sometimes confusing and not intuitive. Thus
mail me your suggestions.
As this program is developed under Linux V1.x and due to my own
hardware limitations, this program is tested only with the following
hardware and software combinations:
Linux 1.1.77 or higher
GNU tar 1.11.2
ncurses 1.9.4+ (scrolling code changed with 1.9.4 and this breaks
                the watch window code. If you want to use ntape with
		an older version of ncurses, don't use the watch
		window or look in the ancient/ directory.)
Adaptec 1542B SCSI Controller
Wangtek 5525 SCSI Streamer

If you have other components please let me know how it's working
whether you have problems or not.
As I have only one kind of tape to test this program I would
appreciate if you would mail me the output of the new tape status 
report window. I am especially interested in the generic status 
hex number in the following three cases : 
no tape inserted, write protected tape inserted and writeable tape 
inserted. Please add your exact tape manufacture, e.g. what linux 
reports at bootup. Thanks in advance!

With ntape 0.21 your tape must be able to perform the following
operations: 
MTREW	rewind
MTEOM	move to end of data
MTERASE	erase tape
MTSEEK	seek by blocks
MTTELL	current tape position
MTNOP	status information (offline, write protected, blocksize,
        etc.), recommended not actually required.

If some of this operations causes problems, look at mt.c.
Patches for this section are particularly welcome.

A man page is now in the distribution but it is the first version and
may have some bugs. Some items are missing. There may be some spelling
and syntax errors (English is not my first language). Please report
them, too.

A ton of thanks to the following people for contributing code,
being my alpha testers and giving lots of criticism and suggestions:
Peter Rupp (rupp@cip.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de)
Udo Christ (uchrist@cip.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de)

I hope this program will be useful. But it is distributed WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
If you have use for this program I would like to get a postcard
from your next holiday trip. Adress is included below.

This program is considered at most as BETA. So if you want to archive
important data you should make another copy with your favourite backup
program.

Have fun with ntape,
	Matze

Email: hanisch@cip.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de
Snail: Matthias Hanisch
       Winterhaeuser Str. 129
       D-97084 Wuerzburg
       Germany
