But let's say that you need files of the second tape in a multi-tape backup (or the third tape, etc.). You can only recover those files from a VMS system, as follows:
(log into your favorite old-time fnald0 or alpha node, then)
sho dev mk
(pick a tape drive, for example:)
allocate D0GS05$MKA500
mount /foreign /noauto -
/comment="please mount tape COT346 in drive D0GS05$MKA500" D0GS05$MKA500
(make sure they mounted the right tape)
WRITE SYS$OUTPUT f$getdvi("D0GS05$MKA500","volnam")
(OK, now remount it as "foreign" and specify internal name t346 for example)
dismount/nounload D0GS05$MKA500
mount /noassist /noauto -
/foreign /block=32760 D0GS05$MKA500 t346
(recover from tape, preserve directory structure)
backup D0GS05$MKA500:t346.bck/save_set -
/label=t346/list=raja1.log /select=[raja_sft...]*.*;* [...]
(This will automatically request the next tape when the first one runs out...once your files are all recovered and you get the command prompt back:)
dismount D0GS05$MKA500
That should do it. Just in case a second example would be helpful, the following one also worked. Note that this was a different tape, labeled p331 internally instead of t346.
backup D0GS04$MKA500:p331.bck /save_set /label=p331 /list=gena1.log /select=[QCD_10.IBDATA.QNT...]*.*;* USR$SCRATCH:[JKRANE.GENA...]*.*;*
Personally, I have never had any luck with "*.*" wildcards unless I also did "[...]".
Now lets say you want all these files on the UNIX system. My favorite way to accomplish this is to put the result back into a save_set. This may seem counter-intuitive, but it preserves the directory structure, lower-cases the file names, and strips off the version numbers.
(still on the fnald0 or alpha node)
backup [...]*.*;* [-]myfiles.bck /save_set /list=[-]myfiles.log
(the resulting save file is up one directory from your recovered files)
FTP this file to your UNIX directory, then log into the UNIX system and:
cd /path/to/file/location
mkdir all_my_recovered_stuff
cd all_my_recovered_stuff
setup vmsbackup
vmsbackup --help
vmsbackup -xdf ../myfiles.bck
This should unpack all files in a nice UNIX format.