My original posting appended below!
I had lots of quick responses, all of them pointing me to include "f".
That is
$tar cvf /dev/nrmt1h -R listPB
This complains :
tar: can't add file -R : No such file or directory
and archives the file listPB instead of all the files listed in listPB.
May be I don't understand the option -R.  
So my problem remains unsolved.
My thanks to Raja Nagaraj, Tom Webster, Ian Mortimer, Paul Tyler and
Evert Ladrak
 
bhaskaran
---------------------------
On Thu, 4 Dec 1997, Balki Bhaskaran wrote:
> 
> Managers,
> 
> I am new to this group and very new to the data archival business!
> 
> My Global Climate Model is dumping about 1GB data for everyday.  
> I need to archive once in two days using tar command on to DLT tape for 
> the next few weeks.
> 
> I tried with the following commands
> 
> $ mt -f /dev/nrmt1h rewind      # position tape from the beginning
> 
> $ tar cv /dev/nrmt1h -R listPB  # listPB contains list of the files to
>                                 # go in to the archive
> The error message is:
> 
> tar: can't open /dev/rmt0h : I/O error
> 
> Can somebody correct me or Suggest me a better way of doing this?
> 
> I don't mind dumping data by some other way on to tape, BUT I SHOULD BE 
> ABLE TO READ only selected files from a selected archive.
> 
> Please help....  My hard-disk is filling-up very fast!
> 
> The machine: AlphaServer DU4.0a 2100 5/250  
> The drive  : TZ88
> 
> Thanks in advance
> 
> bhaski
> 
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#  B. Bhaskaran Ph.D                                             #
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Received on Thu Dec 04 1997 - 07:34:26 NZDT