tar/cpio data read from pipe?

I'd like to be able to use Oracle's exp utility to export directly to either tar or cpio, to write to tape. What I'm trying to avoid is having to first export to a file-system then tar/cpio those files to the tape. (The exports, which will be run periodically, are prohibitively large to be saved to the disk.)

I've managed to write the export directly to tape by exporting to a named pipe, and then using dd from the named pipe to the tape, but that is not sufficient in this case because I want the ability to create MULTI-VOLUME ARCHIVES that tar and cpio provide: that is, they can create very large archives across multiple tapes by prompting for the loading of another tape.

Can be mapped to the use of either tar or cpio? Both of these seem to require a filenames...

Any ideas?
Please email, Thanks,
Dave

P.S. Were using tape drives with built-in compression, so I can't guess how many tapes it'll take and split up the exports appropriately, promting for the change of tape myself.

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  Dave Plonka    ARS:N9HZF   mailto:Dave.Plonka_at_mfa.com    Waukesha, Wisconsin