Pausing and resuming applications running in a data processing system using tape location parameters and pipes

摘要

A system, method and program product for freeing tape drives so that long running jobs on a computer can be paused when other applications need the drives and restarted when the drives are available again. This is accomplished by pausing and resuming applications running on a computer including accessing a tape drive, on which is mounted a first tape, by a first application running on the computer, the accessing being through a pause/resume handler; pausing the first application responsive to an operator intervention to the pause/resume handler; storing parameters in the computer including location parameters indicating where the tape drive paused; mounting a second tape on the tape drive; and accessing the tape drive by a second application running on the computer. After the second application has completed access to the tape drive, the second tape is removed from the tape drive, and the first tape is remounted. The first application is resumed by an operator command to the pause/resume handler, and the pause/resume handler repositions the first tape to the location indicated by the stored location parameters so that the first application resumes at the same location on the first tape where it was paused by said operator intervention.