tar: Failed to open '/dev/sa0'

[David Christensen]

FreeBSD questions:

I use GNU tar to backup files.  Here is an example on Linux:

2017-06-18 11:46:01 dpchrist at jesse ~
$ cat /etc/debian_version
8.8

2017-06-18 11:46:31 dpchrist at jesse ~
$ uname -a
Linux jesse 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.43-2 (2017-04-30) x86_64 
GNU/Linux

2017-06-18 11:46:33 dpchrist at jesse ~
$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash

2017-06-18 11:47:33 dpchrist at jesse ~
$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.3.30(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later 
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

2017-06-18 11:49:02 dpchrist at jesse ~
$ tar --version
tar (GNU tar) 1.27.1
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later 
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by John Gilmore and Jay Fenlason.

2017-06-18 11:53:31 dpchrist at jesse ~
$ tar c .icedove > dpchrist-icedove-20170618.tar

2017-06-18 11:53:54 dpchrist at jesse ~
$ ls -l dpchrist-icedove-20170618.tar
-rw-r--r-- 1 dpchrist dpchrist 363581440 Jun 18 11:53 
dpchrist-icedove-20170618.tar


GNU tar fails on FreeBSD:

2017-06-18 11:48:23 dpchrist at freebsd ~
$ freebsd-version
11.0-RELEASE-p10

2017-06-18 11:48:28 dpchrist at freebsd ~
$ uname -a
FreeBSD freebsd 11.0-RELEASE-p9 FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE-p9 #0: Tue Apr 11 
08:42:58 UTC 2017 
root at amd64-builder.daemonology.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386

2017-06-18 11:48:29 dpchrist at freebsd ~
$ echo $SHELL
/usr/local/bin/bash

2017-06-18 11:48:53 dpchrist at freebsd ~
$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.4.5(0)-release (i386-portbld-freebsd11.0)
Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later 
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

2017-06-18 11:52:11 dpchrist at freebsd ~
$ gtar --version
tar (GNU tar) 1.29
Copyright (C) 2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later 
<http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by John Gilmore and Jay Fenlason.

2017-06-18 11:52:44 dpchrist at freebsd ~
$ gtar c .thunderbird > dpchrist-thunderbird-20170618.tar
gtar: /dev/sa0: Cannot open: Operation not supported
gtar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now


BSD tar also fails:

2017-06-18 11:52:56 dpchrist at freebsd ~
$ tar --version
bsdtar 3.2.1 - libarchive 3.2.1 zlib/1.2.8 liblzma/5.2.2 bz2lib/1.0.6

2017-06-18 11:53:14 dpchrist at freebsd ~
$ tar c .thunderbird > dpchrist-thunderbird-20170618.tar
tar: Failed to open '/dev/sa0'


What's the problem?


David