One: To position the tape after the end of the last valid file (so you don't overwrite things):
mt -f /dev/nst0 seod
If you want to make sure the tape head starts from a sane position but you don't want to do a full rewind before the above positioning, try this:
mt -f /dev/nst0 bsf 1 && mt -f /dev/nst0 seod
From that point on you can write the tape to your heart's content and you won't be overwriting any previous files on it.
Two: Have you ever recorded a sequence of tarballs into tape and upon reading them find out there's a "null" tarball between each one and the next? Use the "i" flag so tar skips any block of zeros at the end of file:
tar xzivf /dev/nst0
That way the next tar will read the next file the way it should be.
(Your tape device may be in a different place than /dev/nst0. If so, change accordingly)
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