---
name: "dds2index"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "dds2tar"
version: "2.5.2-7+b1"
release: "Debian 11 (Bullseye)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/dds2index"
---

# dds2index(1)

tool to create an indexfile for the use of

## NAME

dds2index - tool to create an indexfile for the use of

## SYNOPSIS

**dds2index** \[options\]

## DESCRIPTION

**dds2index** creates an index file that is required by the file extraction utility **[dds2tar(1)](/dds2tar/1.md)**. It works on  **tar** archives stored on dds tape devices (DAT). Since the file structure of the tape archives is used to extract the files, the archive must be an  **uncompressed tar** archive. But compression by the transparent signal processor of the tape device is allowed.

The index created by **dds2index** is written to  *stdout* by default and should normally be stored on hard disk as  *indexfile* for later use by  **[dds2tar(1)](/dds2tar/1.md)**.

The default tape device to read from is */dev/nst0*, which may be overridden with the environment variable **TAPE**, which in turn may be overridden with the **-f** *device* option. The device must be a SCSI tape device.

## OPTIONS

- **-f** *devicefile*

  device of the tape archive. Must be a character special file.

- **-t** *indexfile*

  write the index to  *indexfile*, not to *stdout.*

- **-z**,**--compress**

  write the index in (gzip) compressed mode.

- **--help**

  print some screens of online help with examples through a pager and exit immediatley.

## OPTIONS you didn't really need

- **-b, --block-size**

  Set the maximal blocksize, dds2index can handle.

-

  - **--z, --no-compress**

  Don't filter the archive file through gzip.

- **-v**,**--verbose**

  verbose mode. Print to  *stderr* what is going on.

- **-h**,**--hash-mode**

  Print a hash sign '#' to  *stderr* for each MB read from tape.

- **-V**,**--version**

  Print the version number of **dds2index** to  *stderr* and exit immediately.

## EXAMPLES

Example of getting the index from the default tape /dev/nst0 and storing it in file archive.idx:

-

  dds2index -v -t archive.idx

## WARNING

This program can only read records (tar is calling them tape blocks) up to 32 kbytes. A bigger buffer will cause problems with the Linux device driver.

## ENVIRONMENT

The environment variable **TAPE** overrides the default tape device /dev/nst0.

## FILES

- /dev/nst0

  default tape device file. Must be a character special file.

## SEE ALSO

[dds2tar(1)](/dds2tar/1.md), [mt(1)](/mt/1.md), [mt-dds(1)](/mt-dds/1.md), [tar(1)](/tar/1.md), [gzip(1)](/gzip/1.md)

## HISTORY

This program was created as a tool for  **[dds2tar(1)](/dds2tar/1.md)**.

## AUTHOR

J"org Weule (weule@cs.uni-duesseldorf.de), Phone +49 211 751409. This software is available at ftp.uni-duesseldorf.de:/pub/unix/apollo